West Papua Activist Calls On Pacific Leaders To Pressure Indonesia Over UN Visit

Susana
Suisuiki Pacific Waves presenter

For 20 years,
West Papuan activist Paula Makabory has not set foot in her
ancestral homeland. Her family still lives in West Papua,
but she has not seen them since she left in
2006.

Speaking to Pacific Waves from Melbourne,
Makabory said she does not know what would happen if she
attempted to return.

As Pacific leaders push Jakarta
to allow a long-awaited United Nations human right
commissioner visit to West Papua, Makabory, who is an
executive member of the United Liberation Movement for West
Papua (ULMWP), said the leaders needed to apply more
pressure on Indonesia.

In 2019, Pacific leaders
requested that Indonesia allow
a team from the UN human rights office to visit West
Papua to conduct an independent investigation into the
alleged human rights abuses in the region.

Seven years
later, the request for the visit has been
unfruitful.

But this year during the Pacific Islands
Forum leaders meeting in Palau, the Melanesian Spearhead
Group (MSG) stated that if Indonesia does not allow the
visit to happen, they would review its associate membership
status in
their 2027 summit.

In a statement sent to RNZ
Pacific, a spokesperson for the Indonesian embassy in
New Zealand said there had been no discussion of a review on
its membership within the MSG. They also stated that the UN
visit was on track.

Makabory said she would believe
the visit was happening when Indonesia made good on its
commitment.

“I think it’s going to be great news if it
comes to action for real, because it has been a couple of
years that Indonesia is still not talking or even inviting
the United Nations human rights commissioner, or her office
to visit West Papua to conduct an independent
investigation,” she said.

Makabory said the prime
ministers of Fiji and Papua New Guinea need to negotiate a
firm timeline with Indonesia for the visit, otherwise
Indonesia will “never open the door”.

Melanesians
‘need to stand up strong’

Makabory said the situation
in West Papua is worsening, with humanitarian and
environmental concerns at a crisis point.

According to
Makabory, there are over 125,000 Indigenous Papuans who are
internally displaced across multiple regencies, including
Nduga, Intan Jaya, Puncak, Yahukimo, Pegunungan Bintang,
Jayawijaya, Maybrat, Teluk Bintuni, Yapen Islands and
Tambrauw. The displacements, she said, was
the result of military operations, aerial bombings and
armed conflicts.

There are over 80,000 Indonesian
security forces operating in West Papua who Makabory alleges
are responsible for extrajudicial executions, civilian
shootings and disrupting peaceful protests.

Makabory
also raised concerns about the expansion of the Merauke food
estate and mining operations, saying they are destroying
Indigenous land and contributing to deforestation and
environmental damage.

In addition to the UN human
rights office, Indonesia needs to allow other international
groups, such as humanitarians and foreign journalists, to
enter, Makabory said.

She added that this can only
happen if the MSG uses its influence with Indonesia rather
than signing deals.

“I think the MSG countries or
leaders as guardians of our region, they need to stand up
strong. They need to see that West Papua belongs to
Melanesia, and they need to protect their own kind.”

A
review of Indonesia’s associate membership in 2027 on the
condition that no visit will happen isn’t strong enough,
according to Makabory. She said the MSG should take it a
step further and suspend Indonesia.

Despite being
barred from returning to West Papua, Makabory told
Pacific Waves it is her homeland and nothing compares
to it. She said she believes that the spirit of the
Melanesian brotherhood and Pacific islanders will lead to a
path that will “save West
Papua”.

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