Subject: NZ Herald Article

Whilst I agree with AWPA-Melb that the new escalation of the armed struggle in Papua is a bad move because it will bring 'anti terrorist' reprisals, I feel I have to take issue with some implications and assertions made in their letter to NZ Herald, in which they criticise OPM's move to arm themselves and fight back.

Obviously nobody from "Papua Presidium Council, the churches, the women's groups, the indigenous NGOs, and the all-important student organizations" or indeed anyone other than a fool would openly admit to a foreign journalist that they support armed struggle against Indonesia. Foreign journalists (most foreigners in fact) are regarded with suspicion by most Papuans, based on previous experience.

Most ordinary people in Papua have no access to communication with the outside world at all. the views of a few 'leaders' selected by westerners or Indonesians is not representative. 

The western NGO's and others have stood by for decades while the Papuan people have been slaughtered with impunity. Their tactics have failed dismally. How can Papuans be expected to listen when we have no new ideas, no initiatives other than the usual pleas for 'dialogue' and petitions to the UN? As Wenda says:

"This year is the time to act. For many years Papuan people talk, talk, talk. We have delegations travelling everywhere and we do not win. Now we must fight and maybe die or win. The UN people don't talk about this, that is why we are very sad, we have to go to war again with Indonesia."

As long as western 'activists' continue to support those around the world who condemn people willing to fight for their freedom, they will continue to legitimize the 'war against terrorism'. If these NGO's in their cosy western offices had taken just a small amount of risk and taken a hard line against the oppressors, both in Indonesia and (more to the point) within their own governments and institutions, the situation unfolding now could have been averted. Rather than burying their heads
in the sand they should be giving whole-hearted support to the likes of the Papuan Army, by fulfilling their previously empty promises of action.

The kind of activity that attracts government and UN grant funding is ineffective, as has been proven abundantly during the last 40 years, and those who depend upon it should be finding ways to wean themselves off it, or concentrate on organizing art festivals. Rather than just saying that those taking up the armed struggle are making things difficult for them, they should be thinking up new and effective tactics for themselves to implement, so that armed struggle is unnecessary. It
is easy to condemn the armed struggle when you yourself are not faced daily by armed nut cases roaming your community.

Indonesia is all to often used as a scapegoat. Responsibility for the current situation lies with the weak and self-serving human rights advocates who have spent the last 40 years ignoring reality and pursuing policies based on a puerile view of power, whilst remaining dependent for their existence on the very power structure that is sucking the life-blood from those who most need their solidarity. If Papuans are willing to risk their lives for freedom, then the careers and kudos of the big human rights mouths in the west should not be an obstacle.

Forty years of continuing genocide should be enough, its time to start listening to the people we are supposed to be 'helping', and not just the select few who are saying what we tell them to say. Polite lobbying has failed, petitions and letters have failed, legal action has failed. We have failed. Why should the Papuan people have any time for those who continue to advocate these things? Without any new tactics we have no right to an opinion on the tactics decided on by Papuan people, and not even any right to interfere in their internal arguments about tactics. If we can't help we are irrelevant to them. 
HA