BY KATHY FAIRFAX
SYDNEY Rex Rumakiek, a long-standing OPM (Organisasi Papua Merdeka) representative in Australia, denied that the West Papua independence group was involved in the August 31 attack on the giant US-owned Freeport gold and copper mine, which left three workers dead and several more injured.
Speaking at the monthly ASAP (Action in Solidarity with Asia and the Pacific) forum on September 12, Rumakiek called for an independent international inquiry into the killings, which the Indonesian government is attempting to blame on independence activists. The FBI is conducting its own inquiries into the incident and is preventing media contact with the survivors recovering in a Townsville hospital.
Rumakiek says this, together with the Indonesian request to list the OPM as a terrorist organisation and to freeze any assets it has in Australia, is all part of the Indonesian government's harassment of independence activists.
This harassment has also spread to Australia, with Indonesia's National Intelligence Agency investigating a seminar last month at Sydney University, organised by the West Papua Project in the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies. This was attended by eight Papuans.
Centre director Professor Stuart Rees said the Papuan visit had been endorsed by the Australian and Indonesian governments and the investigation is an attempt to divert responsibility from the Indonesian military.
Rumakiek was part of a panel reporting back to ASAP activists from the 33rd Pacific Islands Forum, where the West Papuan attempt to have the PIF recognise their independence claim was, once again, derailed by Australia.
Tim Anderson, a well-known civil rights activist and researcher, reported to the forum from the Regional Workshop on Democracy and Security of the People in the Asian Region, held at Nakhon Nayok, Thailand.
Iggy Kim, from ASAP Sydney, reported back from the Asia-Pacific Social Movements Conference and the International Council of the World Social Forum held in Bangkok, August 13-15, which discussed plans for an Asian Social Forum in India in January 2-7.<|> From Green Left Weekly, September 18, 2002.
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