The Militant (logo)  
   Vol. 70/No. 7           February 20, 2006  
 
 
Australia: protesters demand
asylum for Papuan patriots
 
BY RON POULSEN  
SYDNEY, Australia—A boatload of 43 prominent independence fighters and their families landed in northern Australia January 18 seeking asylum from Indonesian repression in West Papua. They were rapidly detained by Australian authorities. At an emergency picket two days later, 80 protesters outside offices of the Australian immigration department here chanted, “Free West Papua! Let them stay!” Similar actions took place in other cities over the following days. Some 150 protesters turned out in Melbourne.

The 30 men, six women, and seven children had crossed the Torres Strait in five days in a traditional outrigger canoe, landing on isolated Cape York. A banner on their boat charged genocide against the Indonesian occupiers of their land.

In response to increasing resistance to the occupation of West Papua, the Indonesian regime has announced plans to deploy up to 15,000 additional troops there. On January 20 soldiers fired on a crowd in Wegete, Paniai, killing 14-year-old Moses Douw, a relative of one of the asylum-seekers. Three days later protesters stormed the Papua legislative council building, demanding the Indonesian military be withdrawn.

Australian immigration authorities have flown the 43 asylum-seekers 2,500 miles to a remote detention center on Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean. In 2001, the conservative coalition government headed by Prime Minister John Howard passed measures that include the use of this distant Australian possession as an “offshore” prison for refugees and immigrants without papers.

In recent months tensions have escalated. In one of the largest demonstrations there ever, 10,000 protesters in August 2005 stormed the Papuan provincial offices in Jayapura, rejecting the Indonesian government’s “special autonomy” plan. On December 1 hundreds of protesters defeated cop attempts to block the marking of West Papuan Independence Day and marched between university campuses in the provincial capital.

Jakarta has demanded the return of the 43 asylum seekers. The Indonesian government, with imperialist backing, tries to cover up the brutality of its rule in West Papua. According to Amnesty International, over 100,000 Papuans have died since the Indonesian takeover of the former Dutch colony in the 1960s. Australian imperialism, seeking to protect lucrative mining interests in the region, is currently negotiating a new treaty with the Indonesian regime that will bring closer military and intelligence cooperation in the “war on terrorism.” The pact is expected to include a guarantee by the Australian government to not “interfere” in Indonesia’s occupation of Papua.
 
 
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