Free West Papua!

The third annual national gathering of the Australian Coalition of West Papua Support Groups on September 16-17 affirmed the right of the people of West Papua to self-determination and decolonisation.

The gathering called on the Australian government to suspend security treaty talks and military training with Indonesia, and to request the United Nations' special envoy on the prevention of genocide to undertake its own investigation of West Papua.

It also called on the Pacific Islands Forum leaders to grant forum observer status to West Papua, as they have to other Pacific colonies and East Timor, and to seek support from the Indonesian government for a PIF fact-finding mission. The gathering demanded that Indonesia halt the military build-up in West Papua and remove all non-organic troops from the territory; release all West Papuan political prisoners; halt all migration to West Papua; and assist the creation of a "zone of peace".

From GLW issue 686