>>> ---------- >>> From: "Michael Albert" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >>> Date: Thu, 30 Nov 2000 13:25:39 -0800 >>> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >>> Subject: ZNet Commentary / George Monbiot / Massacre Starts Tomorrow / Dec 1 >>> >>> >>> The Massacre Starts Tomorrow >>> And Britain will share the blame for what's about to happen in West Papua >>> By George Monbiot >>> Also Published in the Guardian 30th November 2000 >>> >>> There's an odd component of globalisation, which I find myself at a loss to >>> explain. We are, we're assured, living in a global village, whose people are >>> daily brought closer together. Yet we hear ever less about what is happening >>> in distant parts of the world. There is less foreign news in the papers than >>> there has been for sixty years. Foreign documentaries are almost extinct. >>> Parliamentary debate about overseas issues has all but dried up. In the >>> midst of the communications revolution, we are becoming strangers to each >>> other. >>> >>> So the massacres due to begin tomorrow will take almost everyone by >>> surprise. Indeed, there is hardly a news editor who has even heard of the >>> land in which they are scheduled to take place. >>> >>> West Papua is the western half of the island of New Guinea, which has been >>> occupied since 1963 by Indonesia. Tomorrow, local people expect the >>> Indonesian army to launch a one-sided war, bloodier even than the carnage in >>> East Timor last year. The troops and militias have been armed and trained >>> and are awaiting orders. Only the international community can stop them. >>> But, though Western nations such as Britain are up to their necks in it, >>> they haven't the faintest intention of seeking to prevent the Indonesian >>> plan from going ahead. >>> >>> In 1961, the 800,000 Melanesian people of West Papua were promised >>> independence. Holland, the colonial power, began to transfer the >>> administration to local people. In 1962, Indonesia invaded. The attack >>> failed, but John Kennedy, with Britain's backing, coerced the Dutch into >>> surrendering West Papua to the United Nations, on the grounds that if the >>> Indonesian government were not appeased it might succumb to communism. The >>> UN, as planned, promptly gave West Papua to Indonesia, but on condition that >>> within five years its people would be granted "the right of >>> self-determination". In the event, 1000 Papuan men were rounded up and >>> forced to vote on pain of death for Indonesian sovereignty. >>> >>> Since then, tens, possibly hundreds of thousands of Papuans have been >>> tortured, mutilated and killed by Indonesian soldiers. The government >>> launched a eugenics programme whose purpose, according to the former >>> governor, was to give "birth to a new generation of people without curly >>> hair, sowing the seeds for greater beauty". The Papuans have been pushed out >>> of their lands and replaced by people from the central islands of Indonesia, >>> brought in by the government to pacify the province. Its forests have been >>> sold to logging companies, its mountains to western mining firms. When >>> villagers have sought to defend their lands, they have been bombed and >>> strafed. Now the whole place is about to explode. >>> >>> Tomorrow, the indigenous people will make a formal declaration of >>> independence. The Indonesian army has been waiting for months for just such >>> a moment. Since August, thousands of commandos and paratroops have been >>> flown into West Papua. British-made Hawk jets have been overflying the >>> province's central highlands. Their deployment there was, according to the >>> Financial Times, sanctioned by Britain's Foreign Office. Militias are >>> currently being trained by the army outside the town of Wamena, one of the >>> centres of Papuan resistance. Some 12,000 firearms have been flown in, >>> presumably for distribution to Indonesian volunteers. Local people, by >>> contrast, are armed with spears and bows and arrows. >>> >>> The Indonesian army has been encouraging the Papuans to rise, planting >>> agents provocateurs and issuing public statements suggesting that >>> independence ceremonies will be tolerated (all previous rituals have been >>> ruthlessly crushed). Here, as in East Timor, the army will seek to unleash >>> sufficient force to persuade the indigenous people to abandon their hopes of >>> self-determination. >>> >>> Papuan leaders have repeatedly sought to reach a peaceful independence >>> settlement with the Indonesian government. But while President Wahid seems >>> vaguely sympathetic to their cause, vice-president Megawati, who has, in >>> effect, ultimate control over the province, appears interested only in >>> delivering lucrative logging and development concessions to the army in >>> order to secure its support. The Papuans have approached the British >>> government for help. It has ignored them. And still it continues to sell >>> arms to Indonesia. >>> >>> When the massacre begins, our officials will doubtless wring their hands and >>> lament the failure of Indonesia's people to resolve their differences by >>> peaceful means. Having seen what happened in East Timor and having failed to >>> do anything to prevent its repetition, the blood this time will be on our >>> hands. We helped to start all this. Now we must stop it. >>>
