JAYAPURA (Tabloid Jubi / RNZI / Pacific Media Watch): The leader of the National Committee for West Papua (Komite Nasional Papua Barat-KNPB) has called on the international community to protect him from assassination by Indonesia.
The Tabloid Jubi newspaper reported yesterday that Buchtar Tabuni sent the message through his party from the West Papuan jungle, where he has been in hiding for the past five months.
"He has become the most wanted person by the police and Indonesian military for leading a peaceful demonstration [on 26 November 2013] to declare a referendum for West Papua. He has been hiding in the jungle of Papua for five months” KNPB general secretary Victor Yeimo told the newspaper.
He said Tabuni was constantly on the move in his bid to evade assassination by the Indonesian occupying army and "had difficulties in getting food and medicines".
Yeimo texted the newspaper from the Abepura prison, where he is currently serving time after being arrested on 13 May 2013 during a peaceful march by West Papuans who were demanding that government be held accountable for killing several protestors during another demonstration two weeks earlier.
It is unclear how long Yeimo himself will be in prison, as the Indonesian authorities claim that he escaped from prison earlier and so still needs to serve a three year sentence. But Yeimo's lawyers have pointed out that Yeimo was only ever sentenced to one year, which he served before being allowed out of prison to go to hospital.
Tabuni has been imprisoned and tortured frequently by the Indonesian authorities over the years and was only released from prison in January 2013, after serving a sentence for organising a demonstration.
Meanwhile, Solomon Islands Prime Minister Gordon Darcy Lilo has attempted to block West Papuans from joining the Melanesian Spearhead Group.
The group is made up of state representatives from Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and the FLNKS of New Caledonia.
Lilo said on the weekend that Indonesian rule over West Papua was "unquestionable", Radio New Zealand International reported.
His views are sharply at odd with those of Vanuatu's Prime Minister Moana Carcasses, who supports the admission of West Papua to the Melanesian Spearhead Group. Earlier this month, Carcasses petitioned the United Nations Committee for Human Rights Abuse to free West Papua from Indonesian rule.
Carcasses called for a UN investigation into the human rights situation in West Papua, "as well as full access for human rights NGOs, international journalists and UN Human rights monitors", the Pacific Islands Report said.
Speaking to the Vanuatu Daily Post last weekend, founder of Free West Papua Global Campaign Benny Wenda said every West Papuan organisation had signed a statement endorsing Carcasses' calls to the UN, and his support for their application to join the Melanesian Spearhead Group.
"Although many other Melanesian states have submitted to Indonesia’s false image of West Papua and even accepted money, we are so delighted to see our brave brother Vanuatu once again perceiving the true suffering of our people and accordingly, refusing to go to Indonesia and West Papua with the recent MSG delegation" Wenda said.
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Pacific Media Watch
