West Papuan Refugee Reprisals

One of the great under-reported political debacles of the South Pacific region is the issue of West Papua (aka Irian Jaya).

It came sceaming into the Australian headlines this week when a boatload of asylum seekers showed up on Australian shores and were immediately flown by the government to Christmas Island for "processing."

Well, now it looks like the reprisals are starting and the Indonesians are turning up the heat.

Most of the asylum applicants are from the Paniai region and its surrounds, which is part of the heartland of the West Papuan independence movement. This week, four school children, one a close relative of one of the asylum seekers, were shot dead, with a fifth badly injured, by the Indonesian military.

The military has defended the shootings, claiming that the soldiers were only defending themselves from an angry mob.

It is however, pretty easy to see why some people are calling it a reprisal against the families and friends of those who are bringing the focus of the Australian media onto a region where the Indonesians really don't want it.

At the same time, the Indonesian government has stated that if the asylum seekers are granted refugee status in Australia, that it will "strain relations" between the two countries and spark a flood of asylum seekers from West Papua.

To confuse the situation further, Australia mining company Rio Tinto, is one of the principal owners of the mine at Freeport which is one of the largest copper mines and gold mines in the world - and the real reason that Indonesia is showing such a heavy hand in West Papua.

So now the Australian government is forced to make a choice.

Will they continue to sell out the human rights of the native inhabitants of West Papua or will they continue to turn a bling eye to the excesses of the Indonesian mililtary and government as well as powerful Australian mining interests?

The problem is that by granting the asylum seekers refugee status, the Australian government does indeed risk opening a Pandora's box of further asylum applications, not to mention giving semi-official legitimacy to the claim that the Indoesians are violating human rights in West Papua - partly at the behest of Australian mining interests. In turn they risk having to accept criticism that they have been selling out to those interests at the expense of human rights for the last several years.

So what will they do?


Technorati Tags: refugees, asylum seekers, West Papua