Campaign For West Papua - Auckland Action

International Campaign For West Papua -Auckland Action

A campaign to convince the United Nations to undertake a review of its actions over the 1969 "Act of Free Choice" in West Papua is about to be launched. The Indonesia Human Rights Committee will deliver a letter to the Prime Minister on Saturday 23 March at her electorate office in Sandringham. A deputation of Committee members and other supporters, holding the West Papua 'Morning Star' flag will present the letter at 10 a.m. The letter appeals to Helen Clark as she prepares to leave for the United States, to back the campaign.

The international review campaign will be launched at the United Nations Secretariat in New York on March 26. NGOs representing at least 10 countries, will plead for West Papua to be given the same consideration as Rwanda which gained a review of the the UN's actions there in the 1990s.

The 1969 "Act of Free Choice" in West Papua is now condemned by West Papuans as an "Act of No Choice". The UN's mission in West Papua was an abysmal failure since it allowed the Indonesian Government to conduct a phony vote participated in by only a little over 1000 handpicked individuals. Now dubbed the "The Act of No Choice" this event has condemned the West Papuan people to more than three decades of repression, massacres and violation of their rights, a situation which continues to this day: For example, in November 2001, nonviolent West Papuan leader Theys Eluay was assassinated, almost certainly by Indonesian special forces.

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