The Australian, April 02, 2006
Reprisals ongoing in Papua: minister
By Jane Bunce
AN Australian Anglican minister says at least 10 people have disappeared in military
reprisals since a violent demonstration in Papua.
The Victorian clergyman, Reverend Peter Woods, was speaking at a Free West
Papua rally in Melbourne today.
He said he fled the demonstration against the US-owned Freeport gold mine earlier
this month soon after Indonesian police and military began exploding tear gas and
firing into the air.
Mr Woods, from St Andrews Church, Somerville, said he went to Papua to address
church meetings, and stumbled on the demonstration while visiting a lecturer at the
university in Abepura, outside capital Jayapura, on March 16.
He said local leaders told him police were killed in the ensuing riot and many other
people had since disappeared in subsequent military repression.
"In the anger and uncontrolled manner of the police and the milliary since that time,
there have been reprisals," he said.
Mr Woods said eight men from the mountains of Wamena had disappeared, along
with the head of university students in Puncak Jaya.
And, on March 28, a 28-year-old student was taken during a lecture at the University
of Technology, which was closed down in protest, he said.
On the same day, a 27-year-old man was shot at a family gathering to celebrate his
graduation and rushed to hospital where the bullet was removed, MR Woods said.
"The bullet was taken by his father, and despite the efforts of the police and the
milliary to get that bullet, that bullet was taken to Jakarta and has found to be
associated with the police and the military," he said.
"These detainments that are occurring are continuing now and we must speak up."
About 150 people attended today's midday rally in central Melbourne, while others
were held in Perth, Sydney and Brisbane.
The rally was calling for Papuan independence from Indonesia and was also held to
welcome 42 Papuans who landed at Cape York in January and were last week
granted protection visas.
The visa row has strained Australia's relationships with Indonesia, but Prime Minister
John Howard said the decision would stand.
He said Australia fully supported Indonesia's sovereignty over the province that
borders Papua New Guinea.
The area is known by Indonesia as Papua, but was formerly known as Irian Jaya, or
West Papua.
Greens Senator Bob Brown today repeated his position that Australia's failure to
intervene in Papua was tantamount to racism.
"As with East Timor, it will be the Australian people that will change the Australian
Government and the Opposition out of their turning of backs on the West Papuan
people," he said.
© The Australian
|
