Page 28 - Islands Business February 2023

West Papua West Papua

TIDE TURNS FOR WEST PAPUA

FREEDOM FIGHTERS MEET FIJI’S PM

By Netani Rika ereignty several times
a year.
The recent visit to The incursions are
Fiji by West Papuan made to hunt animals
freedom fighter, Benny or intimidate refugees
Wenda, signals a shift living along the border.
which may just end in The PNG Defence
a new member of the Force (PNGDF) has
Melanesian Spearhead long viewed such TNI
Group. actions as part of
Since 2011, Fiji has a campaign of psy-
been Indonesia’s clos- chological warfare
est ally in the South designed to remind
Pacific, blocking every Papuans just how
attempt by the United vulnerable they are to
Liberation Movement Indonesia’s military.
of West Papua to join Given Fiji’s global
regional discussions ambitions under Baini-
and gather support for marama, PNG’s fears
an end to Jakarta’s of a huge military
rule. machine on its west-
When Frank Baini- ern border and the
marama seized power Solomon Islands’ need
in December 2006, for economic support,
Indonesia and China West Papua’s attempts
offered his interim Benny Wenda (L) meets Fiji Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka. at recognition were
government legitimacy severely hampered.
which Fiji’s traditional allies withheld in the hope that he Only Vanuatu dared speak on their behalf in the MSG family
would return the country to democracy. and the late Tongan Prime Minister, ‘Akilisi Pohiva, spoke for
At the United Nations, Indonesia supported Fiji’s nomina- them at the United Nations.
tions to key appointments within the UN system, allowing the But in a matter of three weeks, two West Papuan delega-
Bainimarama regime to trumpet - through a controlled media tions have visited Fiji to press their case.
- its recognition on the international stage. One group, under Wenda’s leadership, met Prime Minister
In return, Fiji ensured that human rights abuse - includ- Sitiveni Rabuka and two of his three deputies - National Fed-
ing torture and arbitrary killings of Papuans at the hand of eration Party leader, Dr Biman Prasad, and Manoa Kamikamica
Indonesian security forces - were treated in regional fora as of the People’s Alliance Party.
“internal matters of a sovereign nation’’. Rabuka has pledged support for the ULMWP’s application to
While Vanuatu and Kanaky (New Caledonia) pushed for the join the MSG, an issue outstanding since 2015.
West Papuan opposition to have a seat at the MSG table as full “We had the FLNKS (Front de Liberation National Kanak et
members, Fiji and Papua New Guinea refused to budge. Socialiste) before New Caledonia became part of the MSG,”
PNG shares a porous 824-kilometer border with Indonesia Rabuka told the Fiji media.
from Wutung in the north to Wando in the south. The Indo- He said this provided precedent for West Papua’s full mem-
nesian army has 300,000 troops with two regional commands bership of the Melanesian bloc.
based in Papua while across the border, the PNG Defence “Yes, we will support them because they are Melanesians.’’
Force can muster only 3600 troops. But his PNG counterpart, James Marape, ran out the well-
Should Indonesia decide to push east - as it did to annex rehearsed line used in the past by his predecessors: “We do
Papua from its Dutch rulers in 1963 - PNG will be powerless to not want to offset the balance and tempo.”
stop a military advance. Already, Indonesian troops cross the While Marape remains hesitant, Indonesian troops continue
border at will. to carry out atrocities, most recently killing and mutilating
Research shows that for decades, Papua New Guinean four Papuans at Timika, a mining town in south central West
troops have watched as Indonesian forces violated PNG sov- Papua in October 2022.

28 Islands Business, February 2023