SYDNEY - Green Left Weekly hosted Joe Collins (pictured), secretary of the Australia West Papua Association, and Max Lane, chairperson of Action in Solidarity with Asia and the Pacific, at a forum on West Papua on February 15. Both agreed that the arrival in Australia of West Papuan asylum seekers has sparked new interest in the history of West Papua and its struggle for independence. Lane and Collins said that the granting of autonomy status to the province by Indonesia has not enriched the lives of West Papuans, who are missing out on a share in West Papua’s huge mineral wealth. While demanding independence is still a treasonous act in West Papua, as is raising the West Papua flag, a majority of West Papuans support independence, Collins said.

Photo by Alex Bainbridge.

From Green Left Weekly, February 22, 2006.
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