REUTERS, Tue 27 Mar 2007 3:19 AM ET
Australia risks Papua conflict role -- activists
By Rob Taylor
CANBERRA, March 27 (Reuters) - Australia risks being dragged into an undeclared
separatist war in Indonesia's restive Papua province by a "dirty deal" done with
Jakarta on a new security pact, rights activists and minor party lawmakers said on
Tuesday.
A treaty between the two neighbours, signed on the Indonesian island of Lombok in
November, cast Canberra as a de facto Indonesian ally in the long-running conflict, a
report by Sydney University's Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies said.
"It's a very dirty deal indeed. We have Australia undertaking a deliberate, crude act of
appeasement," report author Peter King said, accusing Canberra of caving in to
Indonesian anger over refugee visas given last year to 43 Papuan separatists.
The treaty aims to smooth prickly ties between the two countries and underline
Australian support for Jakarta's sovereignty over separatist-leaning provinces including
mineral-rich Papua, Maluku and Aceh.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said last year the pact would lead to stronger
anti-terrorism cooperation and joint naval border patrols, as well as joint civilian
nuclear research and Australian sales of uranium to Indonesia.
But rights groups said the pact, which clears the way for joint counter-terrorism
training between special forces, would give Indonesia's Kopassus commandos new
skills to be used against Papuan separatists.
King said Australia's government was "blundering in" to the Papua conflict to make up
for embarrassing Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on his human
rights record in Papua.
Independent lawmaker Peter Andren said that if Australia had adopted a similar treaty
ahead of East Timor's independence, East Timorese leaders like Prime Minister Jose
Ramos Horta might never have won their long independence struggle.
"The West Papuan situation is the forgotten human rights tragedy of our region,"
Andren said.
Upper House Australian Democrats senator Natasha Stott Despoja said the treaty,
which replaces a defence pact torn up by Jakarta in 1999 after Australia's military
intervention in East Timor, should be "re-drafted, re-thought and re-written".
Paula Makabory, from the Indonesian rights group Elsham, said Canberra should
insist on access to tightly controlled Papua for Australian lawmakers before ratifying
the treaty.
Indonesia has been angered by pro-Papuan independence groups based in Australia
and demanded Canberra curtail their actions.
The treaty was agreed following militant bomb attacks in Bali in 2002 and 2005, as
well as on Australia's Jakarta embassy in 2003, which together killed 92 Australians
and scores of Indonesian and foreign bystanders.
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