ABC AUSTRALIA, 05/04/2005, 00:00:00
Papuan separatists unfazed by Australian declaration
Separatist leaders from the Indonesian province of West Papua say they are not
troubled by Australian Prime Minister John Howard's latest statement that Australia
will recognise the territorial integrity of Indonesia. Mr Howard reiterated the policy on
Monday as part of a joint declaration on partnership with the visiting Indonesian
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
 Listen
Presenter/Interviewer: Paul Allen
Speakers: John Howard, Australian Prime Minister; Andy Ayamiseda, West Papua
People's Representative; Richard Chauvel, Head of Australia Asia Pacific Institute
ALLEN: Australian Prime Ministers have said this before, and on Monday, current
Prime Minister John Howard said it again. Australia supports the territorial integrity of
Indonesia, and won't back any separatist movements.
HOWARD: I made it very clear to the President that Australia fully respects the
territorial integrity of the Indonesian republic, that is a given our relationship. t has long
been the position of the Australian Government that in relation to such issues as the
Papua secession movement and also in Aceh we respect Indonesia's integrity, and
that is something that is mentioned in the over arching agreement.
ALLEN: Andy Ayamiseda, of the West Papua people's representative office in
Vanuatu, is neither surprised nor disappointed by this official lack of support for the
independence movement in the Indonesian province.
AYAMISEDA: It doesn't bother us. We have been struggling for the last four decades
without any assistance of anybody, so it doesn't really bother us whether he (Howard)
recognise or not.
ALLEN: Mr Ayamiseda has every reason to be relaxed about Prime Minister Howard's
approach. Australian Governments have made these statements before, and then later
done the complete opposite. Here's Richard Chauvel, head of the Australian Asia
Pacific Institute.
CHAUVEL: I think the difficulty from the Australian Government's point of view is that
the frequency of the statement has been inversely related to the degree to which it's
been believed. That relates very much to our role in 1999 with respect to East Timor.
Prior to '99 it had been the oft stated and formally stated position of the Australian
Government and successive Australian Government's that we supported Indonesian
sovereignty in East Timor, and in Indonesian eyes, until it came to the crunch that
support evaporated.
ALLEN: Chauvel doubts many of West Papua's more realistic independence leaders
will be very surprised by Prime Minister Howard's latest restatement of Australia's
respect for the territorial integrity of Indonesia. But he believes a similar reversal of
policy to what happened with East Timor will be much tougher in West Papua.
CHAUVEL: In this case west Papua is another ballgame. West Papua in Indonesian
eyes is a much more integral and important part of Indonesia than East Timor ever
was. not only much more important economically, more resource rich than East
Timor, but Indonesia fought the Dutch for some 12 or 13 years in the 1950s and early
60s in their eyes to regain of control of West Papua.
ALLEN: But the determination of West Papua's independence leaders does not seem
to have lost any momentum. West Papua people's representative Andy Ayamiseda
expects his movement to win the day, regardless of what the Australian Government
says.
AYAMISEDA: We believe that all the Australian people's heart are with us despite
government's position. Australian people are fairly fair in their judgement, and any
violation that occurred in East Timor us happening in West Papua, and eventually
things will go that way. Our international diplomacy is very advanced. There is no way
Indonesia is going to stop this diplomacy.
©2005 ABC
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