27 January 2015

Papua New Guinea provincial governor supports West Papua independence



 PNG FM/PACNEWS


The Governor of Papua New Guinea’s Oro province, Garry Juffa has announced his stand in fight for a free West Papua.

The governor said the dilemma that the West Papuans are facing is a long time issue that the government of Papua New Guinea and other Pacific Island nations need to look into to help them achieve their quest for political independence from Indonesia.

Governor Juffa said West Papuans have been suffering brutal acts of the Indonesian government through its coercive state apparatus (police and army) who killed more than seven hundred thousand West Papuans since 1965 when the Dutch rulers handed them to be part of Indonesia upon advice from the Unite Nations based on a referendum which he said was not representative of the majority of the West Papuans.

He partly blamed the United Nations for not properly conducting that referendum and said that he has prepared a petition to the Secretary General for the UN to look into West Papuan Political Independence from Indonesia.

He says that West Papuans are part of the Melanesian family who deserve to be free and given their political freedom back and not to be suppressed.

He clarified his stance is not a gesture of aggression towards the Indonesian governments but a politically neutral move aimed at emancipating the West Papuan people from their dilemma inflicted upon them by the Indonesian army and to give the needed support to help them achieve their long sought desire to be an independent state.

Meanwhile, when asked for existing diplomatic talks between the PNG and Indonesia government on the issue, the governor said that as far is he is aware, there is no talks between the two governments on the West Papua issue.