Seven regional executives representing all the customary regions of West Papua have declared their support for the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) gaining full membership of the Melanesian Spearhead Group.
The executives are of the ULMWP ‘provisional government’ in the Indonesian-ruled Melanesian region.
ULMWP’s executive, legislative and judicial councils had earlier made a declaration in support of full membership in Jayapura on 4 June 2023.
ULMWP president Benny Wenda had separately announced his support for MSG full membership, saying “our agenda is now totally focused on consolidating support for full membership”.
According to the statement, the whole of the West Papuan liberation movement stood united behind the shared goal of MSG full membership.
The seven customary regions of West Papua and the executives representing them are: Anim-Ha Region – Mathias Tambai; Bomberay Region – Erik Fimbay; Domberay Region – Markus Yenu; Lapago Region – Herman Kossay; Mamta/Tabi Region – Beny Yantewo; Meepago Region – Habel Nawipa; Saireri Region – Edison Kendi.
While MSG membership comprises the Melanesian states of Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, there is a long-established precedent in a political grouping, the Kanak and Soclalist National Liberation Front (FLNKS), representing New Caledonia as a full member.
19 arrested
Meanwhile, the human rights watchdog Tapol reports that the Indonesian government “continues to tread on the right to peaceful free expression in West Papua”.
“This can be seen from arrests and treason charges against three members of the peaceful independence campaign group, the National Committee for West Papua (Komite Nasional Papua Barat, KNPB), in Tambrauw Regency, Southwest Papua province,” the agency said in a statement.
The arrests took place on 9 June 2023, in Sarwom village, where 19 people were taken into custody.
Those arrested were a mixture of members of the coordinating body for the KNPB from neighbouring Maybrat regency, as well as local members.
The head of West Papua area police claimed that those arrested had been proclaiming the founding of the KNPB in Tambrauw, and calling for the independence of West Papua from Indonesia.
Police also claimed that the group put up a fight, being arrested with TNI support.
However, activist groups stated that they were actually only eating food and drinking coffee together without disturbing anybody in the local area, when the police arrived with weapons.
Activist groups also fiercely denied the “police insinuation” that the KNPB had links to the West Papua National Liberation Army – Free Papua Movement (Tentara Pembebasan Nasional Papua Barat – Organisasi Papua Merdeka (TPNPB-OPM)).
West Papua’s seven customary regions . . . united behind Papuan full membership of the MSG. Image: Tabloid Jubi
New Zealand pilot Phillip Mehrtens has now been held hostage in West Papua for four months. Stalled attempts to negotiate his release, and an unsuccessful Indonesian military rescue attempt, suggest a confused picture behind the scenes.
Members of the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) kidnapped Mehrtens on February 7, demanding Indonesia recognise West Papua’s independence.
The Nduga regency, where Mehrtens was taken and his plane burnt, is known for pro-independence attacks and military reprisals.
New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade has said: “We’re doing everything we can to secure a peaceful resolution and Mr Mehrtens’ safe release, including working closely with the Indonesian authorities and deploying New Zealand consular staff.”
Meanwhile, the Indonesian military (TNI) has continued its military operation to hunt down the TPNPB — including by bombing from aircraft, according to Mehrtens in one of several “proof of life” videos released by the TPNPB.
Early negotiations From late February, I was authorised by the TPNPB to act as an intermediary with the New Zealand government. This was based on having previously worked with pro-independence West Papuan groups and was confirmed in a video from the TPNPB to the New Zealand government.
In this capacity, I communicated regularly with a New Zealand Police hostage negotiator, including when the TPNPB changed its demands.
The TPNPB had initially said it would kill Mehrtens unless Indonesia recognised West Papua’s independence. But, after agreeing to negotiate, the TPNPB said it would save Mehrtens’ life while seeking to extract concessions from the New Zealand government.
Its current position is that New Zealand stop its citizens from working in or travelling to West Papua, and also cease military support for Indonesia.
In late May, however, frustrated by the lack of response, the TPNPB again said it would kill Mehrtens if talks were not forthcoming.
My involvement with the New Zealand government ended when I was told the government had decided to use another channel of communication with the group. As events have unfolded, my understanding is that the TPNPB did not accept this change of communication channels.
West Papua rebels threaten to shoot New Zealand pilot if independence talks denied https://t.co/03CakUChHu
Latest in a long struggle
The TPNPB is led by Egianus Kogeya, son of Daniel Yudas Kogeya, who was killed by Indonesian soldiers in an operation to rescue hostages taken in 1996. The TPNPB is one of a small number of armed pro-independence groups in West Papua, each aligned with a faction of the Free West Papua movement.
The West Papua independence movement grew out of Dutch plans to give West Papua independence. Indonesia argued that Indonesia should be the successor to the Dutch East Indies in its entirety, and in 1963 assumed administration of West Papua with US backing. It formally incorporated West Papua in 1969, after 1035 village leaders were forced at gunpoint to vote for inclusion in Indonesia.
As a result of Indonesians moving to this “frontier”, more than 40 percent of West Papua’s population is now non-Melanesian. West Papuans, meanwhile, are second-class citizens in their own land.
Despite the territory having Indonesia’s richest economic output, West Papuans have among the worst infant mortality, average life expectancy, nutrition, literacy and income in Indonesia.
Critically, freedom of speech is also limited, human rights violations continue unabated, and the political process is riven by corruption, vote buying and violence. As a consequence, West Papua’s independence movement continues.
There have been a number of mostly small military actions and kidnappings highlighting West Papua’s claim for independence.
“Flag-raising” ceremonies and street protests have been used to encourage a sense of unity around the independence struggle.
These have resulted in attacks by the Indonesian military (TNI) and police, leading to killings, disappearances, torture and imprisonment. Human rights advocates suggest hundreds of thousands have died as a result of West Papua’s incorporation into Indonesia.
Illustrating the escalating conflict, in 2018 the TPNPB kidnapped and killed more than 20 Indonesian workers building a road through the Nduga regency. It has also killed a number of Indonesian soldiers, including some of those hunting for Mehrtens.
Negotiations stalled TPNPB spokesperson Sebby Sambom has said foreigners were legitimate targets because their governments support Indonesia. Despite Kogeya’s initial claim that Mehrtens would be killed if demands were not met, Sambom and TPNPB diplomatic officer Akouboo Amadus Douw had responded positively to the idea of negotiation for his release.
Since talks broke down, however, the TPNPB has said there would be no further proof-of-life videos of Mehrtens. With the TPNPB’s late May statement that Mehrtens would be killed if New Zealand did not negotiate, his kidnapping seems to have reached a stalemate.
The TPNPB has told me it is concerned that New Zealand may be prioritising its relationship with Indonesia over Mehrtens and has been stalling while the TNI resolves the situation militarily.
At this stage, however, Mehrtens can still be safely released. But it will likely require the New Zealand government to make some concessions in response to the TPNPB’s demands.
Meanwhile, the drivers of the conflict remain. Indonesia continues to use military force to try to crush what is essentially a political problem.
And, while the TPNPB and other pro-independence groups still hope to remove Indonesia from West Papua, they feel they have run out of options other than to fight and to take hostages.
New Caledonia’s Kanak national liberation movement has told the UN Decolonisation Committee that France has “robbed” the indigenous people of their independence and has appealed for help.
Magalie Tingal-Lémé, the permanent representative of the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS) at the UN, told a session of the Committee of 24 (C24) — as the special decolonisation body is known — that the French authorities had failed to honour the 1998 Noumea Accord self-determination aspirations, especially by pressing ahead with the third independence referendum in December 2021 in defiance of Kanak opposition.
More than half the eligible voting population boycotted the third ballot after the previous two referendums in 2018 and 2020 recorded narrowing defeats for independence.
The pro-independence Kanak groups wanted the referendum delayed due to the devastating impact that the covid-19 pandemic had had on the indigenous population.
Tingal-Lémé told the UN session that speaking as an indigenous Kanak woman, she represented the FLNKS and “every time we speak before your institution, we carry the voice of the colonised people”.
“When we speak of colonisation, we are necessarily speaking of the people who have suffered the damage, the stigma and the consequences,” she said in her passionate speech.
“On September 24, my country will have been under colonial rule for 170 years.”
Accords brought peace
Tingal-Lémé said two political accords with France had brought peace to New Caledonia after the turbulent 1980s, “the second of which — the Nouméa Accord — [was taking] the country on the way for full emancipation”.
“And it is in a spirit of dialogue and consensus that the indépendentistes have kept their word, despite, and in the name, of spilled blood.”
In 2018, the first of three scheduled votes on sovereignty, 56.4 percent rejected independence with an 81 percent turnout of the 174,995 voters eligible to vote.
Two years later, independence was again rejected, but this time with an increased support to almost 47 percent. Turnout also slightly grew to 85.69 percent.
However, in December 2021 the turnout dropped by about half with most Kanaks boycotting the referendum due to the pandemic. Unsurprisingly, this time the “yes” vote dropped to a mere 3.5 percent.
“Since December 12, 2021, when France maintained the third and final referendum — even though we had requested its postponement due to the human trauma of covid-19 — we have never ceased to contest its holding and its results,” Tingal-Lémé said.
Nearly 57 percent of voters had not turned out on the day due to the covid boycott.
‘We’ll never accept this outcome’
“We believe that through this illegitimate referendum, the French state has robbed us of our independence. We will never accept this outcome!
“And so, unable to contest the results under French internal law, we are turning to the international community for an impartial institution to indicate how to resume a process that complies with international rules on decolonisation.
“Through the Nouméa Accord, France has committed itself and the populations concerned to an original decolonisation process, which should lead to the full emancipation of Kanaky.
“Today, the FLNKS believes that the administering power has not fulfilled its obligations.”
Tingal-Lémé said the “latest evidence” of this failure was a New Caledonian decolonisation audit, whose report had just been made public.
She said this audit report had been requested by the FLNKS for the past five years so that it would be available — along with the assessment of the Nouméa Accord — before the three referendums to “enlighten voters”.
“The pro-independence movement found itself alone in raising public awareness of the positive stakes of self-determination, and had to campaign against a state that sided with the anti-independence groups.”
Magalie Tingal-Lémé’s speech to the UN Decolonisation Committee. Video: MTL
Entrusted to a ‘market’ firm
Also, the French government had “entrusted” this work to a firm specialising in market analysis strategies, she said.
“This shows how much consideration the administering power has given to this exercise and to its international obligations regarding the decolonisation.
“Frankly, who can believe in the objectivity of an audit commissioned by a government to which the leader of New Caledonia’s non-independence movement belongs?” Tingal-Lémé asked.
“It is already clear that, once again, France does not wish to achieve a decolonisation in the Pacific.
“The objectives of this initiative is to request the ICJ to rule on our [indigenous] rights, those of the colonised people of New Caledonia, which we believe were violated on December 12, 2021.”
Advisory opinion
The FLNKS wanted the ICJ to make an advisory opinion on the way France “has conducted the decolonisation process, in particular by holding a referendum without the participation of the Kanak people.”
Tingal-Lémé pleaded: “We sincerely hope that you will heed our call.”
According to New Caledonia’s 2019 census, the indigenous Kanaks comprise a 41 percent share of the 271,000 multiethnic population. Europeans make up 24 percent, Wallisians and Futunans 8 percent, and a mix of Indonesians, ni-Vanuatu, Tahitians and Vietnamese are among the rest.
Earlier today, RNZ Pacific reported that a New Caledonian politician had claimed at the UN that the territory was “no longer a colony” and should be withdrawn from the UN decolonisation list.
The anti-independence member of the Territorial Congress and Vice-President of the Southern Province, Gil Brial, said he was a descendant of French people deported to New Caledonia 160 years ago, who had been “blended with others, including the indigenous Kanaks”.
He said the only colonisation left today was the “colonisation of the minds of young people by a few separatist leaders who mixed racism, hatred and threats”, reports RNZ Pacific.
The West Papuan Council of Churches says New Zealand hostage pilot Phillip Mehrtens’ life is in danger if negotiations do not take place with the West Papua Liberation Army (TPNPB).
The council is calling on Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to cease military operations in West Papua and seek dialogue with TPNPB.
Chief moderator Reverend Benny Giay said they are sending a letter to President Widodo.
Since the kidnapping of 37-year-old pilot Phillip Mehrtens on February 7 by TPNPB local commander Egianus Kogoya, violence has escalated between the Indonesian Army and the guerrilla TPNPB, with both sides reporting military and civilian casualties as a result.
“Egianus Kogoya could shoot the pilot,” Reverend Giay said.
Reverend Benny Giay . . . the Indonesian government has to take a peaceful approach . . . “We are asking the Indonesian president to withdraw the military.” Image: Sastra Papua
“In order to stop that, the Indonesian government has to take a peaceful approach,” he said.
“We are asking the Indonesian president to withdraw the military and to allow the church to go in and to dialogue with the TPNPB for the release of the pilot.”
Peaceful talk plan ‘ignored’
“We know that the TPNPB leader has proposed a kind of peaceful talk, but the government has not responded, and we are asking this through our letter, the TPNPB have proposed a peaceful talk…so why can’t you [President Widodo] take it?” Rev Giay said.
But Indonesian authorities say they are pursuing a “peaceful dialogue” to the crisis.
Commander of the Indonesian National Armed Forces Admiral Yudo Margono told local reporters in Sulawesi last week that they were being cautious.
Indonesia news agency Detikcom reported Admiral Margono saying on June 7: “We still prioritise [negotiations] carried out by religious leaders, community leaders and PJ regents there,” he said.
“If we prioritise operations with the military, of course, there will be many negative impacts on public safety,” he added.
It was a message repeated late last month by Papua Police chief Mathius Fakhiri.
“I talked to various parties about this negotiation process including the Church, which includes the Church Council and the Bishop who will do as much as possible to negotiate with the Egianus Kogoya group to be able to release the pilot,” Fakhiri told Detikcom on May 25.
“I opened myself to all parties, from the beginning, namely the Nduga government in collaboration with the Chief of Police and then there were also parties from Komnas HAM who offered themselves and we accepted,” Fakhiri added.
Church leader claims Indonesia ‘not taking us seriously’ However, Reverend Giay said the church could not mediate a dialogue unless the Indonesia military ceased its operations.
“The Papuan police chief has agreed that church [negotiators] should go in and talk with Egianus . . . but that means the military has to be withdrawn from the area [and] that has not been done yet,” Reverend Giay said.
“As of now, I cannot guarantee anything about church involvement because as of now the government is not taking us seriously,” he claimed.
Both Indonesia’s military and TPNPB have confirmed shootouts in the Nduga Regency of the remote highlands of Papua.
Indonesian authorities have confirmed the deaths of four Indonesian soldiers as a result of the fighting.
Reuters reported two weeks ago that the TPNPB released a video of Merhtens saying he would be shot in two months if the group’s demands were not met.
“If they [Indonesia] do not allow the church to go in and mediate, we will conclude that they are involved in the possible death of the pilot,” Reverend Giay said.
“From our discussions here, we think the conditions of the pilot may be worsening.
“We want to see the pilot . . . for Egianus to show us that he is okay…that is our first priority.”
Mehrtens’ welfare ‘top priority’ for MFAT According to New Zealand’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs, everything is being done to try and seek Mehrtens’ release, but the details of this have been limited.
The TPNPB maintains that New Zealand has not approached them for negotiation.
“The welfare of the New Zealander at the heart of this situation is our top priority,” MFAT told RNZ Pacific in a statement in March.
“We are doing everything we can to secure a peaceful resolution and the safe release of the hostage, including working closely with the Indonesian authorities and deploying New Zealand consular staff.”
Reverend Giay said Wellington needed to pressure Jakarta into ceasing its military operations.
“New Zealand government and the international community has to pressure the Indonesia government and military to seek a peaceful dialogue.”
“That is only possible if the Indonesian military withdraw,” he added.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
The West Papuan Council of Churches says New Zealand hostage pilot Phillip Mehrtens’ life is in danger if negotiations do not take place with the West Papua Liberation Army (TPNPB).
The council is calling on Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to cease military operations in West Papua and seek dialogue with TPNPB.
Chief moderator Reverend Benny Giay said they are sending a letter to President Widodo.
Since the kidnapping of 37-year-old pilot Phillip Mehrtens on February 7 by TPNPB local commander Egianus Kogoya, violence has escalated between the Indonesian Army and the guerrilla TPNPB, with both sides reporting military and civilian casualties as a result.
“Egianus Kogoya could shoot the pilot,” Reverend Giay said.
Reverend Benny Giay . . . the Indonesian government has to take a peaceful approach . . . “We are asking the Indonesian president to withdraw the military.” Image: Sastra Papua
“In order to stop that, the Indonesian government has to take a peaceful approach,” he said.
“We are asking the Indonesian president to withdraw the military and to allow the church to go in and to dialogue with the TPNPB for the release of the pilot.”
Peaceful talk plan ‘ignored’
“We know that the TPNPB leader has proposed a kind of peaceful talk, but the government has not responded, and we are asking this through our letter, the TPNPB have proposed a peaceful talk…so why can’t you [President Widodo] take it?” Rev Giay said.
But Indonesian authorities say they are pursuing a “peaceful dialogue” to the crisis.
Commander of the Indonesian National Armed Forces Admiral Yudo Margono told local reporters in Sulawesi last week that they were being cautious.
Indonesia news agency Detikcom reported Admiral Margono saying on June 7: “We still prioritise [negotiations] carried out by religious leaders, community leaders and PJ regents there,” he said.
“If we prioritise operations with the military, of course, there will be many negative impacts on public safety,” he added.
It was a message repeated late last month by Papua Police chief Mathius Fakhiri.
“I talked to various parties about this negotiation process including the Church, which includes the Church Council and the Bishop who will do as much as possible to negotiate with the Egianus Kogoya group to be able to release the pilot,” Fakhiri told Detikcom on May 25.
“I opened myself to all parties, from the beginning, namely the Nduga government in collaboration with the Chief of Police and then there were also parties from Komnas HAM who offered themselves and we accepted,” Fakhiri added.
Church leader claims Indonesia ‘not taking us seriously’ However, Reverend Giay said the church could not mediate a dialogue unless the Indonesia military ceased its operations.
“The Papuan police chief has agreed that church [negotiators] should go in and talk with Egianus . . . but that means the military has to be withdrawn from the area [and] that has not been done yet,” Reverend Giay said.
“As of now, I cannot guarantee anything about church involvement because as of now the government is not taking us seriously,” he claimed.
Both Indonesia’s military and TPNPB have confirmed shootouts in the Nduga Regency of the remote highlands of Papua.
Indonesian authorities have confirmed the deaths of four Indonesian soldiers as a result of the fighting.
Reuters reported two weeks ago that the TPNPB released a video of Merhtens saying he would be shot in two months if the group’s demands were not met.
“If they [Indonesia] do not allow the church to go in and mediate, we will conclude that they are involved in the possible death of the pilot,” Reverend Giay said.
“From our discussions here, we think the conditions of the pilot may be worsening.
“We want to see the pilot . . . for Egianus to show us that he is okay…that is our first priority.”
Mehrtens’ welfare ‘top priority’ for MFAT According to New Zealand’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs, everything is being done to try and seek Mehrtens’ release, but the details of this have been limited.
The TPNPB maintains that New Zealand has not approached them for negotiation.
“The welfare of the New Zealander at the heart of this situation is our top priority,” MFAT told RNZ Pacific in a statement in March.
“We are doing everything we can to secure a peaceful resolution and the safe release of the hostage, including working closely with the Indonesian authorities and deploying New Zealand consular staff.”
Reverend Giay said Wellington needed to pressure Jakarta into ceasing its military operations.
“New Zealand government and the international community has to pressure the Indonesia government and military to seek a peaceful dialogue.”
“That is only possible if the Indonesian military withdraw,” he added.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
A new production called Coolie: The Story of the Girmityas is shedding light on the lesser-known history of the Indian indentured labourers.
Poet and music producer Nadia Freeman’s latest work gives life to the hidden voice of her Indo-Fijian ancestors through electronic music and theatre.
“I just felt like I was losing more of my ancestry and my ethnicity, and I wanted to look more into it to understand,” Freeman says.
Nadia Freeman . . . “I just felt like I was losing more of my ancestry and my ethnicity.” Image: RNZ
The show opened on Thursday at the Kia Mau contemporary Māori, Pasifika and indigenous arts festival.
“Coolie”, which is used in the production’s title, was a derogatory term used by British colonial supervisors when addressing the workers in Fiji.
“I want people who are outside that community to know what happened, to know more about,” she said.
Who were the Girmityas? The Indian workers were called the Girmityas, which in Hindi means “agreement”. The agreement was initially for five years, but it was extendable.
On finishing five years abroad, they were permitted to return to India at their own expense or serve 10 more years and return at the expense of the British colonial government.
Some workers returned home, but many could not afford the return journey and were stuck in Fiji.
M.N. Naidu (sitting second from the left) with his family . . . “We are still quite an angry community … angry because we haven’t healed.” Image: Nik Naidu/RNZ
“We are still quite an angry community … angry because we haven’t healed,” says businessman and community advocate Nik Naidu.
His grandfather, M.N. Naidu, was an indentured labourer who was on a ship to Fiji in the early 1900s.
Like many Indians who were sent to Fiji, Naidu’s grandfather was also looking for a better life.
“They were living in dire poverty and were looking for money to support their families, so that’s how my grandfather got on the ship,” Naidu says.
Challenging life
Life in Fiji was challenging.
The journey took months, and many did not even make it to Fiji. That was not the end of their struggles.
“There was hardship and there were difficulties,” Naidu says.
“In the beginning, it was the harshness of plantation life, poor living conditions, you know, resettlement, displacement, realisation of not being able to return, inability to participate in their religion properly, and, you know, the caste system that existed, the difficulties and, of course, lack of women.”
Finding a companion was a challenge for many young Girmits. The disproportionate sex ratio meant there were only 40 women for every 100 men.
Journalist Sri Krishnamurthi has also heard many stories about the Girmityas from his grandparents.
Journalist Sri Krishnamurthi . . . “It was basically slavery in all but name.” Image: RNZ
Working sugar canefields
“My grandmother, Bonamma, came from India with my grandfather and came to work in the sugar canefields under the indentured system,” Krishnamurthi says.
“They lived in ‘lines’ — a row of one-room houses. They worked the cane fields from 6am to 6pm largely without a break. It was basically slavery in all but name.”
Krishnamurthi remembers the story about his grandfather, who was sent back to India, “because he thumped a coolumbar sahib” (a white man on horseback who made sure the work was done) who was whipping the workers.
Naidu says: “I wasn’t fortunate enough to meet my grandfather. I was 2 years old when he passed away and he went back to India and passed away in India.”
His family is now running the organisations that his father started, including schools.
“The colonial administration at the time did not want to educate the Fijian Indians,” he says.
“They wanted them to stay in servitude, as small farmers who were always dependent on the sugar cane plantations and uneducated.”
Addressing new challenges A few weeks ago, the community celebrated the 144th Girmit Remembrance Day in New Zealand.
“We remembered our forefathers, who had contributed towards this development of the Fiji Indian community,” says Krish Naidu, president of the Fiji Girmit Foundation.
“It is a day where we honour and remember their struggles and sacrifices, but we also celebrate their resilience.
“It’s important our young people in particular actually understand who we are, where we come from.”
In 2023, a new challenge emerged for the Indo-Fijian community in New Zealand. The government’s decision to classify them as Asians rather than Pacific Islanders is stirring criticism within the community.
“Because we, as people with Indian biological traits, are not considered by the Ministry of Pacific,” Naidu says.
Naidu thinks that the government’s move is “unfair”.
“We get emails and messages from students because they miss out on specific scholarships,” he says.
However, he was delighted for the newly announced Girmit Day, a national holiday in Fiji.
“We were the actual architects of it because we’ve been pushing for the holiday since 2015 in Fiji,” he says.
“We are absolutely overjoyed.”
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
The trial of three Papuan “free speech” students accused of treason has resumed at the Jayapura District Court this week.
The defendants — Yoseph Ernesto Matuan, Devio Tekege, and Ambrosius Fransiskus Elopere — have been charged with treason for organising a free speech rally where they were accused of raising the banned Morning Star flags of West Papuan independence at the Jayapura University of Science and Technology (USTJ) on November 10, 2022.
During the hearing on Thursday, linguist Dr Robert Masreng testified as an expert witness presented by the public prosecutor.
He said the Morning Star flags displayed in the event were “merely an expression”.
The students organised a protest to voice opposition against the Papua dialogue plan initiated by the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM).
However, the event was broken up by police and several participants were arrested.
Dr Masreng, a faculty member at Cenderawasih University’s Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, clarified the definitions of treason, independence, Morning Star, conspiracy, and the meanings of writings displayed during the free speech rally.
Treason ‘definitions’
He said that according to the Indonesian Thesaurus dictionary, “treason” referred to engaging in deceitful actions or manipulating others to achieve personal objectives.
It could also denote rebellion, expressing a desire to prevent something from happening.
Additionally, Dr Masreng noted that treason could signify an intention to commit murder.
In court, Dr Masreng explained that treason involved deceptive actions, rebellion, and an intention to commit murder.
He emphasised that the Morning Star flag was a symbol that gained meaning when it was used for a specific purpose. Without a clear intention behind its use, the flag lost its importance.
Dr Masreng said that the Morning Star flag was often used as a symbol to express ideas.
He said that the meaning of the flag could be understood based on how it was used in different situations, and different people might interpret it in their own unique ways.
‘Independence’ clarified
Dr Masreng clarified the term “independence” by explaining that it represented a perspective of freedom that had a wide-ranging and abstract significance when it was used.
The understanding of the word relied on the specific situation and how different people perceived it, especially in relation to the core concept of freedom.
Dr Masreng said this meant that when someone expressed themself, it implied being free from criticism and oppression.
He also provided an interpretation of the chant “referendum yes, dialogue no.”
He said the chant conveyed a decision to the general public without involving Parliament.
Rejecting dialogue was an expression of the speaker’s unwillingness to engage in a dialogue.
Regarding the statement requesting intervention of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Papua, Dr Masreng said this signified that the problems in Papua were not limited to domestic concerns, but were matters that should be acknowledged by the international community.
“It means an expression of asking the government to be open to the international community, allowing them to enter Papua and observe the dire human rights situations in the region,” he said.
Republished from Jubi with permission.
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.
French Polynesia’s new President Moetai Brotherson is in Paris for wide-ranging talks with the French government and the organisers of the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics.
His visit involves meetings with a range of ministers and officials to continue cooperation arrangements initiated by his predecessor.
“I’m not here to come begging,” Brotherson said, adding that he wanted to ensure that France was helping to decrease dependence on French financial transfers by developing French Polynesia as a country with its own resources.
He told the news site Outremers360 that he wants any process of self-determination to be arbitrated by the United Nations.
Restating a timeframe of up to 15 years until a referendum on independence, Brotherson said that it was not utopian.
“[French] Polynesia is as big as Europe, and in terms of population, it is [the size of] Montpellier”, he said, referring to the southern French city with its 300,000 inhabitants.
He said time needed to be taken to prepare, and by seeking independence “we will be able to take decisions with full responsibility”.
By contrast, he said the preceding pro-autonomy governments had the reflex to say that in the end, if they did not make the right decisions, they would turn to “mother” France.
Support for seabed mining ban
Brotherson met the State Secretary for the Sea Herve Berville who reconfirmed the French government’s support for a seabed mining ban.
Berville also reconfirmed that such a ban would also apply to French Polynesian waters.
Brotherson again expressed his unwavering support for next year’s Olympic surfing competition to be held in Tahiti.
After flooding in the area last month, French Polynesian Sports Minister Nahema Temarii cast doubt on Tahiti being able to go ahead with the competition.
However, the site manager of the Paris Olympics organising committee, as well as Brotherson, said the event would go ahead as planned.
After becoming President last month, Brotherson will this week officially relinquish his seat in the French National Assembly, to which he was re-elected last year when his pro-independence Tavini Huira’atira for the first time won all three available Paris seats.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
French gendarmes in Paris during Tahiti President Moetai Brotherson’s official visit this week. Image: Polynésie 1ère screenshot APR
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.
French Polynesia’s new President Moetai Brotherson is in Paris for wide-ranging talks with the French government and the organisers of the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics.
His visit involves meetings with a range of ministers and officials to continue cooperation arrangements initiated by his predecessor.
“I’m not here to come begging,” Brotherson said, adding that he wanted to ensure that France was helping to decrease dependence on French financial transfers by developing French Polynesia as a country with its own resources.
He told the news site Outremers360 that he wants any process of self-determination to be arbitrated by the United Nations.
Restating a timeframe of up to 15 years until a referendum on independence, Brotherson said that it was not utopian.
“[French] Polynesia is as big as Europe, and in terms of population, it is [the size of] Montpellier”, he said, referring to the southern French city with its 300,000 inhabitants.
He said time needed to be taken to prepare, and by seeking independence “we will be able to take decisions with full responsibility”.
By contrast, he said the preceding pro-autonomy governments had the reflex to say that in the end, if they did not make the right decisions, they would turn to “mother” France.
Support for seabed mining ban
Brotherson met the State Secretary for the Sea Herve Berville who reconfirmed the French government’s support for a seabed mining ban.
Berville also reconfirmed that such a ban would also apply to French Polynesian waters.
Brotherson again expressed his unwavering support for next year’s Olympic surfing competition to be held in Tahiti.
After flooding in the area last month, French Polynesian Sports Minister Nahema Temarii cast doubt on Tahiti being able to go ahead with the competition.
However, the site manager of the Paris Olympics organising committee, as well as Brotherson, said the event would go ahead as planned.
After becoming President last month, Brotherson will this week officially relinquish his seat in the French National Assembly, to which he was re-elected last year when his pro-independence Tavini Huira’atira for the first time won all three available Paris seats.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
French gendarmes in Paris during Tahiti President Moetai Brotherson’s official visit this week. Image: Polynésie 1ère screenshot APR
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.
Guam has long faced tensions due to the heavy United States military presence on the island.
But as Washington moves to counter China’s presence in the region it is sending more soldiers and missiles to the US territory and updating naval facilities.
There are an estimated 22,000 American troops on Guam currently and that figure is expected to increase up to 27,000.
Director of the Pacific Islands Development Programme at the Hawai’i-based East West Center, Dr Mary Therese Hattori, told RNZ Pacific the military build-up makes Guam a target and puts the safety of its indigenous Chamorro people at risk.
Dr Hattori, who is a Chamorro herself, said the reaction from the locals to the US military presence varies.
“We are seeing all of this tension in the region and it may mean that more of a military build-up and greater defence capabilities on Guam will actually make us a target,” she said.
“The current administration will highlight positives; the employment opportunities for locals, the investment for local infrastructure.”
Chamorro people feeling ‘unsafe’
But she said the people were feeling less safe.
“So, while the country may feel that it is better defended, the safety of the Chamorro people is not part of the equation.”
“We are seeing all of this [military] tensions in the region and it may mean that more of a military build-up and greater defence capabilities on Guam will actually make us a target.
“We feel less safe because Guam is now part of the target . . . you know, the tip of the spear is going to break first in a battle,” she added.
Guam, which has a population of just under 170,000, is still one of the few places where the indigenous people are denied a right to self-determination so that is still an issue.
East-West Centre’s Dr Mary Therese Hattori . . . “The US really needs to take a look at its track record and its relationships and meaningful engagement with Pacific Islands.” Image: EWC
US presenting as ‘Pacific nation’
Dr Hattori said the US is putting itself forward as a Pacific nation and claiming to have commitment and a deep desire for meaningful engagement with the region in response to China’s engagement in the Pacific.
“But as a Chamorro woman, who lives in the state of Hawai’i, I would argue that US really needs to take a look at its track record and its relationships and meaningful engagement with Pacific Islands with which it has historic relations [such as] American Samoa, Guam, the COFA [Compact of Free Association] nations, and native Hawai’ians.”
“So, look at the track record; look at Red Hill [Hawai’i], the contamination of the water, lack of self-determination on Guam, military build-up, environmental degradation.”
“If this is how US treats Pacific nations with whom it has historic ties, how can other Pacific islanders really believe that the US wants to be a true partner and a Pacific nation,” she added.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
The self-styled provisional government of the United Liberation Movement of West Papua
“with the people” of the Melanesian region have declared political support for full West Papuan membership of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG).
In a statement issued in the Vanuatu capital of Port Vila after a meeting of thew ULMWP executive in Jayapura last Sunday, West Papua Council chair Buchtar Tabuni said full membership of the MSG would be a “sign of victory” for the Papuan nation seeking to become independent from Indonesia.
“[West Papua] membership in the MSG is our safety [net]. The MSG is one of the UN [recognised] agencies in the Melanesian sub-region, as well as the PIF [Pacific Islands Forum] and others,” he said.
“For this reason, West Papua’s full membership in the MSG will later be a sign of
safety for the Papuan people to become independent”.
The declaration of support was attended by executive, legislative and judiciary leaders who expressed their backing for full MSG membership status for the ULMWP in the MSG by signing the text.
Representing the executive, Reverend Edison K. Waromi declared in a speech: “Our agenda today [is] how to consolidate totality for full membership [ULMWP at MSG].
“Let’s work hand in hand to follow up on President Benny Wenda’s instructions to focus on lobbying and consolidating totality towards full membership of the MSG.”
‘Bargaining position’
This was how he ULMWP could “raise our bargaining political position” through sub-regional, regional and international diplomacy to gain self-determination.
Judicial chair Diaz Gwijangge said that many struggle leaders had died on this land and wherever they were.
“Today the struggle is not sporadic . . . the struggle is now being led by educated people who are supported by the people of West Papua, and now it is already at a high level, where we also have relations with other officially independent countries and can sit with them,” he said.
“This is extraordinary progress. As Melanesians, the owners of this country, who know our Papuan customs and culture that when we want to go to war, we have to go to the wim haus [war house].
“Today, Mr Benny Wenda, together with other diplomats, have entered the Melanesian and African, Caribbean and Pacific countries, and more states [are] running.”
Gwijangge added that now “we don’t just scream in the forest, shout only outside, or only on social media”.
“Today we are able to sit down and meet with the presidents of independent countries . . .”
Legal basis for support
The events of today’s declaration were the legal basis for political support from the leadership of the provisional government of the ULMWP, he said.
“For this reason, to all the people of West Papua in the mountains, coasts and islands that we carry out prayers, all peaceful action in the context of the success of full membership in the MSG.
“As chairman of the judicial council, I enthusiastically support this activity.”
In February, Barak Sope, a former prime minister of Vanuatu, called for Indonesia’s removal from the MSG.
Former Vanuatu PM Barak Sope . . . opposed to Indonesian membership of the MSG. Image: Hilaire Bule/Vanuatu Daily Post
Despite being an associate member, Indonesia should not be a part of the Melanesian organisation, Sope said.
His statement came in response to the MSG’s revent decision to hire Indonesian consultants.
Sope first brought West Papuan refugees to Vanuatu in 1980.
New Caledonia’s pro-independence parties are prepared to negotiate changes to the provincial electoral rolls, according to French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin.
On his second visit to Noumea in less than four months, the minister announced the apparent change in the stance of the pro-independence FLNKS movement, which until now has ruled out any willingness to open the roll.
As yet, there has been no official statement from the FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front), which is still demanding comprehensive discussions with Paris on a timetable to restore the sovereignty lost in 1853.
It insists on a dialogue between the “coloniser and the colonised”.
The restricted roll is a key feature of the 1998 Noumea Accord, which was devised as the roadmap to the territory’s decolonisation after New Caledonia was reinscribed on the United Nations’ list of non-self-governing territories in 1986.
Under the terms of the accord, voters in the provincial elections must have been enrolled by 1998.
In 2007, the French constitution was changed accordingly, accommodating a push by the Kanaks to ensure the indigenous population was not at risk of being further marginalised by waves of migrants.
‘Enormous progress’
However, anti-independence parties have in recent years campaigned for an opening of the roll to the more than 40,000 people who have settled since 1998.
Darmanin hailed the FLNKS’ willingness to negotiate on the issue as “enormous progress”, saying the issue surrounding the rolls had been blocked for a long time.
He said after his meetings with local leaders the FLNKS considered 10 years’ residence as sufficient to get enrolled.
The minister said he had proposed seven years, while anti-independence politicians talked about three to five years.
In March, Darmanin said the next elections, which are due in 2024, would not go ahead with the old rolls.
However, a senior member of the pro-independence Caledonian Union, Roch Wamytan, who is President of the Territorial Assembly, said “they had started discussions but that they had not given a definite approval”.
For Wamytan, an agreement on the rolls was still far off.
Impact of the Noumea Accord Darmanin tabled a report on the outcomes achieved by the Noumea Accord, whose objectives included forming a community with a common destiny following the unrest of the 1980s.
It found that “the objective of political rebalancing, through the accession of Kanaks to responsibilities, can be considered as achieved”.
However, the report concluded that the accord “paradoxically contributed to maintain the political divide that the common destiny was supposed to transcend”.
It noted that the three referendums on independence from France between 2018 and 2021 “confirmed the antagonisms and revealed the difficulty of bringing together a majority of qualified voters” around a common cause.
Darmanin also presented a report about the decolonisation process under the auspices of the United Nations.
It noted that “with the adoption of the first plan of actions aimed at the elimination of colonialism in 1991, the [French] state endeavoured to collaborate closely with the UN and the C24 in order to accompany in the greatest transparency the process of decolonisation of New Caledonia”.
It said that France hosted and accompanied two UN visits to New Caledonia before the referendums, facilitated the visit of UN electoral experts when electoral lists were prepared as well as at each of the three referendums between 2018 and 2021.
Kanaks reject legitimacy
From a technical point of view, the three votes provided under the Noumea Accord were valid.
However, the FLNKS refuses to recognise the result of the third referendum as the legitimate outcome of the decolonisation process after the indigenous Kanaks boycotted the vote and only a small fraction cast their ballots.
As French courts recognise the vote as constitutional despite the low turnout, the FLNKS has sought input from the International Court of Justice in a bid to have the outcome annulled.
The FLNKS still insists on having more bilateral talks with the French government on a timetable to restore the territory’s sovereignty.
Since the controversial 2021 referendum, the FLNKS has refused to engage in tripartite talks on a future statute, and Darmanin has again failed to get an assurance from the FLNKS that it would join anti-independence politicians for such talks.
Last month, Darmanin evoked at the UN the possibility of self-determination for New Caledonia being attained in about 50 years — a proposition being scoffed at by the pro-independence camp.
In Noumea, he said he was against a further vote with the option of “yes” or “no”, and rather wanted to work towards a vote on a new status.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
The president of a West Papuan advocacy group has appealed to the militants holding New Zealand pilot Philip Mehrtens hostage to free him unconditionally and unharmed, describing him as an “innocent pawn”.
United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) president Benny Wenda said he held “deepest concern” for the life of Mehrtens, captured on February 7 by guerillas fighting for the independence of Papua.
Fighters of the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB), armed wing of the rebel West Papua Organisation (OPM), have demanded third party negotiations for independence and have recently called for Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape as a “mediator”.
West Papuan leader Benny Wenda . . . condemns the “brutal martial law” imposed by Indonesian security forces. Image: ULMWP
“Currently, the priority of all parties involved in this tragic ordeal is to help and assist the pilot to return home safely and rejoin his family and friends,” said Wenda in a statement.
He condemned the impact of the “brutal martial law” imposed by Indonesian security forces in the West Papua region.
“Philip Mehrtens’ condition is being made significantly more precarious by the Indonesian government’s refusal of outside aid and determination to use military means,” he said.
Jakarta’s aggressive stance went hand-in-hand with its increased militarisation of the region.
Mehrtens ‘innocent human being’
“Mehrtens is an innocent human being who has been unwittingly made into a pawn in a decades-old conflict between the colonial power of Indonesia and the indigenous resistance of West Papua.
“Therefore, securing Mehrtens’ safe return must be the top priority for all parties involved, as his life has been thrown into chaos through no fault of his own.”
Wenda said he was aware of a threat made by the TPNPB last week to shoot the pilot.
“It is indeed tragic that the life of the pilot is at risk, and I understand where the Liberation Army is coming from; however, I cannot comprehend why the blood of an innocent family man should be shed on our ancestral land.
“For more than 60 years, the blood of hundreds of thousands of innocent Papuans has been shed on this sacred land as a result of Indonesian military operations.
“We do not need to shed the blood of another innocent.
“As Papuans, we do not take innocent lives; nor do we have a tradition of genocide, killings, massacres, or land theft.
Peaceful resolution
“This is not a teaching handed down from our ancestors. We have dignity and tradition and as our ancestors always taught us, the killing of an innocent person is strictly prohibited.
“We believe in this, and every Papuan knows it.
Wenda said the ULMWP sought a peaceful resolution to “reclaim our stolen sovereignty”.
“This does not imply that we are weak or ineffective, nor does it indicate that the international community has turned a blind eye to the crimes committed by the Indonesian security forces.
“The world is currently watching Indonesia closely due to their inhumane treatment, barbaric behaviours, genocidal policies, ecocide, and acts of terror against our people.
In a message to the TPNPB, he warned the rebels to “reconsider the threat” made against and what the pilot’s death would “mean to his grieving family, as well as to our national liberation cause”.
“All West Papuans know that international law is on our side: Indonesia’s military occupation and initial claim on West Papua being clearly wrong under international law.
“But so too is taking the life of an innocent person who is not involved in the conflict.
Wenda said it should never be forgotten that “truth is on our side and Jakarta knows it”.
“One day we will win. Light will always overcome darkness.”
Mourning for Beanal
Papuan leader Tom Beanal . . . mourned over his death. Image: ULMWP
Meanwhile, West Papuans have mourned the death of Tom Beanal, a freedom fighter, head of the Papua Presidium Council, and leader of the Amungme Tribal Council.
Wenda said that on behalf of the ULMWP and the West Papuan people, he expressed sympathy and condolences to Beanal’s family, friends, and “everyone he inspired to join the struggle”.
Tom Beanal was a member of the Amungme tribe. Along with the Kamoro people, the Amungme have been the primary victims of the struggle over the Grasberg Mine, the world’s largest gold and second largest copper mine. It is opened and operated by the US mining company Freeport McMoran.
“Amungme and Kamoro people are the indigenous landowners – tribes who have tended and protected their forest for thousands of years. But they have been forced to watch as their lands have been destroyed, physically and spiritually, by an alliance of big corporations and the Indonesian government,” Wenda said.
There are parallels between Indonesia’s Aceh where an Australian surfer faced a flogging, and West Papua where a New Zealand pilot may be facing death. Both provinces have fought brutal guerrilla wars for independence. One has been settled through foreign peacekeepers. The other still rages as outsiders fear intervention.
By Duncan Graham in Malang, East Java
There were ten stories in a Google Alert media feed last week for “Indonesia-Australia”.
One covered illegal fishing in the Indo-Pacific claiming economic losses of more than US$6 billion a year — important indeed.
Another was an update on the plight of New Zealand pilot Philip Mehrtens, held hostage since February 7 by the Tentara Pembebasan Nasional Papua Barat (TPNPB-West Papua National Liberation Army).
There have been unverified reports of bombs dropped from helicopters on jungle camps where the pilot may have been held with uninvolved civilians.
The other eight stories were about Queenslander Bodhi Mani Risby-Jones who had been arrested in April for allegedly going on a nude drunken rampage and bashing a local in Indonesian Aceh.
Stupidities commonplace
Had the 23-year-old surfer been a fool in his home country the yarn would have been a yawn. Such stupidities are commonplace.
But because he chose to be a slob in the strictly Muslim province of Aceh and facing up to five years jail plus a public flogging, his plight opened the issue of cultural differences and tourist arrogance. Small news, but legitimate.
He has now reportedly done a $25,000 deal to buy his way out of charges and pay restitution to his victim. This shows a flexible social and legal system displaying tolerance — which is how Christians are supposed to behave.
All noteworthy, easy to grasp. But more important than the threatened execution of an innocent victim of circumstances caught in a complex dispute that needs detailed explanations to understand?
Mehrtens landed a commercial company’s plane as part of his job for Susi Air flying people and goods into isolated airstrips when he was grabbed by armed men desperate to get Jakarta to pay attention to their grievances.
Ironically, Aceh where Risby-Jones got himself into strife, had also fought for independence and won. Like West Papua, it’s resource-rich so essential for the central government’s economy.
A vicious on-off war between the Gerakan Aceh Merdeka, (GAM-Free Aceh Movement) and the Indonesian military started in 1976 and reportedly took up to 30,000 lives across the following three decades.
Tsunami revived peace talks
It only ended when the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami killed 160,000 people and former general Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was elected president and revived peace talks. Other countries became involved, including the European Union and Finland where the Helsinki Agreement was signed.
Both sides bowed to a compromise. GAM leaders abandoned their demands for independence, settling for “self-government” within the Indonesian state, while soldiers were withdrawn. The bombings have stopped but at the cost of personal freedoms and angering human rights advocates.
Freed from Jakarta’s control, the province passed strict Shariah laws. These include public floggings for homosexual acts, drinking booze and being close to an opposite sex person who is not a relative. Morality Police patrols prowl shady spots, alert to any signs of affection.
Australian academic and former journalist Dr Damien Kingsbury was also instrumental in getting GAM and Jakarta to talk. He was involved with the West Papua standoff earlier this year but New Zealand is now using its own to negotiate.
Dr Kingsbury told the ABC the situation in West Papua is at a stalemate with neither Wellington nor Jakarta willing to make concessions. The Indonesian electorate has no truck for “separatists” so wants a bang-bang fix. NZ urges a softly-slowly approach.
A TPNPB spokesperson told the BBC: “The Indonesian government has to be bold and sit with us at a negotiation table and not [deploy] military and police to search for the pilot.”
The 2005 Aceh resolution means the Papua fighters have a strong model of what is possible when other countries intervene. So far it seems none have dared, fearing the wrath of nationalists who believe Western states, and particularly Australia, are trying to “Balkanise” the “unitary state” and plunder its riches.
Theory given energy
This theory was given energy when Australia supported the 1999 East Timor referendum which led to the province splitting from Indonesia and becoming a separate nation.
Should Australia try to act as a go-between in the Papua conflict, we would be dragged into the upcoming Presidential election campaign with outraged candidates thumping lecterns claiming outside interference. That is something no one wants but sitting on hands won’t help Mehrtens.
In the meantime, Risby-Jones, whose boorish behaviour has confirmed Indonesian prejudices about Australian oafs, is expected to be deported.
Mehrtens will only get to tell his tale if the Indonesian government shows the forbearance displayed by the family of Edi Ron. The Aceh fisherman needed 50 stitches and copped broken bones and an infected foot from his Aussie encounter, but he still shook hands.
If the Kiwi pilot does get out alive, he deserves the media attention lavished on the Australian. This might shift international interest from a zonked twit to the issue of West Papua’s independence and remind diplomats that if Jakarta could bend in the far west of the archipelago, why not in the far east?
Lest Indonesians forget: Around 100,000 revolutionaries died during the four-year war against the returning colonial Dutch after Soekarno proclaimed independence in 1975. The Dutch only retreated after external pressure from the US and Australia.
Duncan Graham has been a journalist for more than 40 years in print, radio and TV. He is the author of People Next Door (UWA Press) and winner of the Walkley Award and Human Rights awards. He is now writing for the English language media in Indonesia from within Indonesia. This article was first published in Pearls & Irritations on 30 May 2023 and is republished with permission.
New Caledonia’s pro-independence FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front) says the advice of the International Court of Justice is being sought over the contested 2021 referendum on independence from France.
The movement — represented by Roch Wamytan, who is President of New Caledonia’s Congress — told a UN Decolonisation Committee meeting in Bali, Indonesia, that it considered holding the vote violated the Kanaks’ right in their quest for self-determination.
New Caledonia has been on the UN decolonisation list since 1986, and under the terms of the Noumea Accord three referendums on restoring New Caledonia’s full sovereignty were held between 2018 and 2021.
The date for the last one was set by Paris but because of the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on the Kanak population, the pro-independence parties asked for the vote to be postponed.
The French government refused to agree to the plea and as a consequence, the pro-independence parties boycotted the poll in protest.
The FLNKS told the Bali meeting that the final referendum went ahead “under pressure from the French state with more than 2000 soldiers deployed and under a hateful and degrading campaign against the Kanaks”.
A total of 57 percent of registered voters stayed away, almost halving the turnout over the preceding referendum in 2020.
Among those who voted, more than 96 percent rejected independence, up from 56 percent the year before.
In view of the low turnout, the FLNKS stated “it is inconceivable that one can consider that a minority determines the future of New Caledonia”.
‘Legal and binding’, says France However, the French government insists that the vote was legal and binding, being backed by a French court decision which last year threw out a complaint by the customary Kanak Senate, calling for the result to be annulled.
The court found that neither constitutional provisions nor the organic law made the validity of the vote conditional on a minimum turnout.
It added that the year-long mourning declared by the Kanak customary Senate in September 2021 was not such as to affect the sincerity of the vote.
The court also noted that by the time of the referendum on December 12, more than 77 percent of the population was vaccinated.
The anti-independence parties in New Caledonia also consider the referendum outcome as the legitimate outcome despite only a tiny minority of the indigenous Kanak population having voted.
The FLNKS has been pleading for international support to uphold the rights of the indigenous people and in its campaign to have the last referendum annulled.
The Melanesian Spearhead Group said in 2021 that the referendum should not be recognised but the chair of the Pacific Islands Forum Mark Brown, of Cook Islands, did not back the move when asked about it this month, saying the Forum would not “intrude into the domestic matters of countries”.
‘French law has failed the Kanaks’ The statement by the FLNKS to the Bali meeting said that “international bodies are our last resort to safeguard our rights as a colonised people”, adding that French domestic law has failed to give the Kanaks such protection.
It pleaded for the UN Decolonisation Committee to support the FLNKS in its case at the International Court of Justice.
The FLNKS said the ICJ was established with one of the principal purposes of the United Nations, which is to maintain, by peaceful means and in accordance with international law, peace and security.
It also said he would like to get support for an official request so that the FLNKS can get observer status at the United Nations.
A Kanak leader, Julien Boanemoi, told the gathering the decolonisation process in New Caledonia was at risk of “backtracking”, alleging that France was engaged in a modern version of colonisation.
He said with the French proclamation of the “Indo-Pacific axis”, the Kanak people felt a repeat of the French behaviour of 1946 and 1963 when Paris withdrew the territory from the decolonisation list and stifled the pro-independence Caledonian Union.
Boanemoi said with the lack of neutrality of the administering power France, he wanted to warn the Decolonisation Committee of “the risks of jeopardising stability and peace in New Caledonia”.
Darmanin back in Noumea On Wednesday, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin is due in New Caledonia for talks on a new statute for the territory.
Central to his talks with the FLNKS on Friday will be discussions about the roll used for provincial elections.
Darmanin signalled in March that the restricted roll would be opened to more voters, which the FLNKS regards as unacceptable.
When New Zealand’s opposition National Party’s transport spokesperson, Simeon Brown, questioned the logic of bilingual traffic signs, he seemed to echo his leader Christopher Luxon’s earlier misgivings about the now prevalent use of te reo Māori in government departments.
Genuine concern or political signalling in an election year? After all, Luxon himself has expressed interest in learning te reo, and also encouraged its use when he was CEO of Air New Zealand.
He even sought to trademark “Kia Ora” as the title of the airline’s in-flight magazine.
And for his part, Brown has no problem with Māori place names on road signs. His concern is that important messaging about safety or directions should be readily understood. “Signs need to be clear,” he said.
“We all speak English, and they should be in English.” Adding more words, he believes, is simply confusing.
It’s important to take Brown at his word, then, with a new selection of proposed bilingual signs now out for public consultation. Given the National Party’s enthusiastic embrace of AI to generate pre-election advertising imagery, one obvious place to start is with ChatGPT, which tells us:
Bilingual traffic signs, which display information in two or more languages, are generally not considered a driver hazard. In fact, bilingual signage is often implemented to improve safety and ensure that drivers of different language backgrounds can understand and follow the traffic regulations.
ChatGPT also suggests that by providing information about speed limits, directions and warnings, bilingual traffic signs “accommodate diverse communities and promote road safety for all drivers”.
‘They should be in English’: National to ditch te reo Māori traffic signs https://t.co/7FGYyQDrPu
Safety and culture With mounting concern over AI’s potential existential threat to human survival, however, it’s probably best we don’t take the bot’s word for it.
Fortunately, government transport agency Waka Kotahi has already examined the use of bilingual traffic signs in 19 countries across the Americas, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. Its 2021 report states:
The use of bilingual traffic signage is common around the world and considered “standard” in the European Union. Culture, safety and commerce appear to be the primary impetuses behind bilingual signage.
Given Brown’s explicit preference for the use of English, it’s instructive that in the UK itself, the Welsh, Ulster Scots and Scots Gaelic languages appear alongside English on road signs in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland.
More to the point, on the basis of the evidence it reviewed, Waka Kotahi concluded that — providing other important design considerations are attended to — bilingual traffic signs can both improve safety and respond to cultural aspirations:
In regions of Aotearoa New Zealand where people of Māori descent are over-represented in vehicle crash statistics, or where they represent a large proportion of the local population, bilingual traffic signage may impart benefits in terms of reducing harm on our road network.
A bilingual road sign in Calgary, Canada. Image: The Conversation/Getty Images
‘One people’
Politically, however, the problem with a debate over bilingual road signs is that it quickly becomes another skirmish in the culture wars — echoing the common catchcry of those opposed to greater biculturalism in Aotearoa New Zealand: “We are one people”.
It’s a loaded phrase, originally attributed to the Crown’s representative Lieutenant Governor William Hobson, who supposedly said “he iwi tahi tātou” (we are one people) at the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840.
Whether or not he said any such thing is up for debate. William Colenso, who was at Waitangi on the day and who reported Hobson’s words, thought he had.
But Colenso’s account was published 50 years after the events in question (and just nine years before he died aged 89).
Either way, the assertion has since come to be favoured by those to whom the notion of cultural homogeneity appeals. It’s a common response to the increasing public visibility of te ao Māori (the Māori world).
But being “one people” means other things become singular too: one law, one science, one language, one system. In other words, a non-Māori system, the one many of us take for granted as simply the way things are.
Any suggestion that system might incorporate or coexist with aspects of other systems — indeed might benefit from them — tends to come up against the kind of resistance we see to such things as bilingual road signs.
Fretful sleepers The discomfort many New Zealanders still feel with the use of te reo Māori in public settings brings to mind Bill Pearson’s famous 1952 essay, Fretful Sleepers.
In it, Pearson reflects on the anxiety that can seep unbidden into the lives of those who would like to live in a “wishfully untroubled world”, but who nonetheless sense things are not quite right out here on the margins of the globe.
Pearson lived in a very different New Zealand. But he had his finger on the same fear and defensiveness that can cause people to fret about the little things (like bilingual signs) when there are so many more consequential things to disrupt our sleep.
Anyway, Simeon Brown and his fellow fretful sleepers appear to be on the wrong side of history. Evidence suggests most New Zealanders would like to see more te reo Māori in their lives, not less.
Two-thirds would like te reo taught as a core subject in primary schools, and 56 percent think “signage should be in both te reo Māori and English”.
If the experience in other parts of the world is anything to go by, bilingual signage will be just another milestone on the road a majority seem happy to be on.
The signing of the memorandum of understanding between the University of the South Pacific’s vice-chancellor and president, Professor Pal Ahluwalia, and the Indian government’s National Centre for Coastal Research, Ministry of Earth Sciences, in March for the setting up of a Sustainable Coastal and Ocean Research Institute (SCORI) has raised serious questions about leadership at USP.
Critics have been asking how this project poses significant risk to the credibility of the institution as well as the security of ocean resources and knowledge sovereignty of the region.
The partnership was formally launched last week by India’s High Commissioner to Fiji, Palaniswamy Subramanyan Karthigeyan, but the questions remain.
Regional resource security threat
Article 8 of the MOU regarding the issue of intellectual property and commercialisation
states:
“In case research is carried out solely and separately by the Party or the research results are obtained through sole and separate efforts of either Party, The Party concerned alone will apply for grant of Intellectual Property Right (IPR) and once granted, the IPR will be solely owned by the concerned Party.”
This is a red flag provision which gives the Indian government unlimited access to scientific data, coastal indigenous knowledge and other forms of marine biodiversity within the 200 exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and territorial waters of sovereign countries in the Pacific.
More than that, through the granting of IPR, it will claim ownership of all the data and indigenous knowledge generated. This has potential for biopiracy, especially the theft of
local knowledge for commercial purposes by a foreign power.
No doubt this will be a serious breach of the sovereignty of Pacific Island States whose
ocean resources have been subjected to predatory practices by external powers over the
years.
The coastal indigenous knowledge of Pacific communities have been passed down
over generations and the UN’s World Intellectual Property Organisations (WIPO) has developed protocols to protect indigenous knowledge to ensure sustainability and survival
of vulnerable groups.
The MOU not only undermines the spirit of WIPO, it also threatens the knowledge sovereignty of Pacific people and this directly contravenes the UN Convention of Biodiversity which attempts to protect the knowledge of biodiversity of indigenous
communities.
In this regard, it also goes against the protective intent of the UN Convention on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples which protects resources of marginalised groups.
This threat is heightened by the fact that the Access Benefit and Sharing protocol under the Nagoya Convention has not been developed in most of the Pacific Island Countries. Fiji has developed a draft but it still needs to be refined and finalised and key government departments are made aware of it.
Traditional knowledge of coastal eco-systems of Pacific people are critical in mitigation and adaptation to the increasing threat of climate change as well as a means of collective survival.
For Indian government scientists (who will run the institute), masquerading as USP
academics, claiming ownership of data generated from these knowledge systems will pose
serious issues of being unethical, culturally insensitive, predatory and outright illegal in
relation to the laws of the sovereign states of the Pacific as well as in terms of international
conventions noted above.
Furthermore, India, which is a growing economic power, would be interested in Pacific
Ocean resources such as seabed mining of rare metals for its electrification projects as well
as reef marine life for medicinal or cosmetic use and deep sea fishing.
The setting up of SCORI will enable the Indian government to facilitate these interests using USP’s regional status as a Trojan horse to carry out its agenda in accessing our sea resources across the vast Pacific Ocean.
India is also part of the QUAD Indo-Pacific strategic alliance which also includes the US, Australia and Japan.
There is a danger that SCORI will, in implicit ways, act as India’s strategic maritime connection in the Pacific thus contributing to the already escalating regional geo-political contestation between China and the “Western” powers.
This is an affront to the Pacific people who have been crying out for a peaceful and harmonious region.
The 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent, signed by the leaders of the Pacific, tries to guard against all these. Just a few months after the strategy was signed, USP, a regional
institution, has allowed a foreign power to access the resources of the Blue Pacific Continent without the consent and even knowledge of the Pacific people.
So in short, USP’s VCP, Professor Pal Ahluwalia, has endorsed the potential capture of the sovereign ownership of our oceanic heritage and opening the window for unrestricted exploitation of oceanic data and coastal indigenous knowledge of the Pacific.
This latest saga puts Professor Ahluwalia squarely in the category of security risk to the region and regional governments should quickly do something about it before it is too late, especially when the MOU had already been signed and the plan is now a reality.
Together with Professor Sushil Kumar (Director of Research) and Professor Surendra Prasad (Head of the School of Agriculture, Geography, Ocean and Natural Sciences), both of whom are Indian nationals, he has to be answerable to the leaders and people of the region.
Usurpation of state protocol
The second major issue relates to why the Fiji government was not part of the agreement,
especially because a foreign government is setting up an institute on Fiji’s territory.
This is different from the regular aid from Australia, New Zealand and even China where state donors maintain a “hands-off” approach out of respect for the sovereignty of Fiji as well as the independence of USP as a regional institution.
In this case a foreign power is actually setting up an entity in Fiji’s national realm in a regional institution.
As a matter of protocol, was the Fiji government aware of the MOU? Why was there no
relevant provision relating to the participation of the Fiji government in the process?
This is a serious breach of political protocol which Professor Ahluwalia has to be accountable for.
Transparency and consultation
For such a major undertaking which deals with Pacific Ocean resources, coastal people’s
livelihood and coastal environment and their potential exploitation, there should have been
a more transparent, honest and extensive consultation involving governments, regional
organisations, civil society and communities who are going to be directly affected.
This was never done and as a result the project lacks credibility and legitimacy. The MOU itself provided nothing on participation of and benefits to the regional governments, regional organisations and communities.
In addition, the MOU was signed on the basis of a concept note rather than a detailed plan
of SCORI. At that point no one really knew what the detailed aims, rationale, structure,
functions, outputs and operational details of the institute was going to be.
There is a lot of secrecy and manoeuvrings by Professor Ahluwalia and academics from mainland India who are part of a patronage system which excludes regional Pacific and Indo-Fijian scholars.
Undermining of regional expertise
Regional experts on ocean, sustainability and climate at USP were never consulted, although some may have heard of rumours swirling around the coconut wireless. Worse still, USP’s leading ocean expert, an award-winning regional scholar of note, was sidelined and had to resign from USP out of frustration.
The MOU is very clear about SCORI being run by “experts” from India, which sounds more like a takeover of an important regional area of research by foreign researchers.
These India-based researchers have no understanding of the Pacific islands, cultures, maritime and coastal environment and work being done in the area of marine studies in the Pacific. The sidelining of regional staff has worsened under the current VCP’s term.
Another critical question is why the Indian government did not provide funding for the
existing Institute of Marine Resources (IMR) which has been serving the region well for
many years. Not only will SCORI duplicate the work of IMR, it will also overshadow its operation and undermine regional expertise and the interests of regional countries.
Wake up to resources capture
The people of the Pacific must wake up to this attempt at resources capture by a big foreign power under the guise of academic research.
Our ocean and intellectual resources have been unscrupulously extracted, exploited and stolen by corporations and big powers in the past. SCORI is just another attempt to continue this predatory and neo-colonial practice.
The lack of consultation and near secrecy in which this was carried out speaks volume about a conspiratorial intent which is being cunningly concealed from us.
SCORI poses a serious threat to our resource sovereignty, undermines Fiji’s political protocol, lacks transparency and good governance and undermines regional expertise. This
is a very serious abuse of power with unimaginable consequences to USP and indeed the
resources, people and governments of our beloved Pacific region.
This has never been done by a USP VC and has never been done in the history of the Pacific.
The lack of consultation in this case is reflective of a much deeper problem. It also manifests ethical corruption in the form of lack of transparency, denial of support for regional staff, egoistic paranoia and authoritarian management as USP staff will testify.
This has led to unprecedented toxicity in the work environment, irretrievable breakdown of basic university services and record low morale of staff. All these have rendered the university dysfunctional while progressively imploding at the core.
If we are not careful, our guardianship of “Our Sea of Islands,” a term coined by the
intellectually immortal Professor Epeli Hau’ofa, will continue to be threatened. No doubt Professor Hau’ofa will be wriggling around restlessly in his Wainadoi grave if he hears about this latest saga.
This article has been contributed to Asia Pacific Report by researchers seeking to widen debate about the issues at stake with the new SCORI initiative.
Free Papua Organisation (OPM) leader Jeffrey Bomanak has appealed for Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape to become a “neutral intermediary” to negotiate between the Indonesian government and the West Papuan rebels holding a New Zealand pilot hostage for his release.
He has called in a statement today for the safe transfer of 37-year-old Philip Mehrtens, a flight captain working for Indonesia’s Susi Air who was seized at a remote airstrip in the central highlands on February 7, to a “secure location in Papua New Guinea”.
If Prime Minister Marape could not “come to the assistance of Captain Mehrtens”, Bomanak requested another PNG politician instead “because we are both Melanesian people”.
The OPM statement today on the demand for West Papuan independence talks and “safe passage” for the hostage NZ pilot. Image: OPM
“We would be very comfortable with [MPs] Belden Namah, Lhuter Wengge, Gary Juffa, or Powes Parkop. We trust them.”
In February, the PNG government successfully resolved a hostage crisis by negotiating freedom for three captives, including a NZ professor living in Australia.
This was one of three points cited in the OPM statement needed to “end the hostage crisis peacefully”.
“However, more miracles will be required for Indonesia to cease the genocide of my people, the destruction of our land and homes, and the plunder of our spectacular natural resources,” Bomanak added.
Two other conditions
The other two OPM conditions for a peaceful resolution are:
The Indonesian government must “open up” and talk to the OPM as the official political body of the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB); and
Cease air and ground bombing and combat operations, and withdraw all Indonesian defence and security forces from all conflict areas.
Clarifying a TPNPB video released yesterday that purported to show Mehrtens saying that if negotiations on independence for West Papua did not start within two months he was at risk of being shot by the rebels seeking independence for the Melanesian region, Bomanak blamed the Indonesian authorities over the impasse.
“If the Indonesian government continues to carry out military operations and the New Zealand government does not take persuasive steps, the OPM will not be held responsible when something happens to the life of Captain pilot Philip Mehrtens as a result of the ongoing air and ground combat operations by Indonesia’s defence forces.”
Bomanak called on the Jakarta government to have compassion, adding: “Unfortunately, when there are six decades of Indonesia’s crimes against my people, to think Jakarta can act in any way compassionate is almost [an] impossible expectation. It would be a miracle!”
The OPM fighters have been struggling in a low-level insurgency for independence from Indonesia since 1969.
However, the struggle has gained a new intensity in the past five years with more sophisticated weapons and strategies. This has coincided with mounting peaceful civil resistance to Indonesian rule.
New Zealand’s Māori Party co-leader says the opposition National Party should go back to school if it thinks including te reo Māori on road signs is confusing.
If successful, the programme would include te reo Māori in motorway and expressway signs, destination signs, public and active transport signs, walking and cycling signs, general advisory and warning signs.
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said having the language included on road signs will help those in the process of learning te reo.
“This is an environment where there’s more non-Māori learning reo than we ever had in the history of Aotearoa. It’s important that we embrace our nation hood, including our indigenous people and our language.”
“We spent a long time trying to make sure we don’t lose our language, so having our culture in our roads is not just about helping those who are fluent Māori speakers, but so those who are in our education system learning reo can see it reflected around our environment.”
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer . . . “It’s never too hard to understand the official languages of Aotearoa.” Image: RNZ
‘Make an effort’
She said Brown should go back to school if he thought te reo Māori on road signs was confusing.
“It’s never too hard to understand the official languages of Aotearoa. Whether it will be making an effort to understand te reo or sign language, for example.
“These are all a critical part of our nation and if he [Simeon Brown] needs to go back to school or take some time off Parliament to be able to understand our language so be it.”
There had been Māori traffic signs, Māori names, in this nation for a very long time, Ngarewa-Packer said.
“I’m not so sure why he [Simeon Brown] is so confused now.”
The Te Pāti Māori co-leader said Brown’s comments were separatist.
“I think it’s a real ignorant alarmist way to be politicking.”
“Twenty percent of our population is Māori. If we see a large [political] party basically trying to ignore 20 percent of this population, then can we expect them to do that to the rest of our multiculture, diversity and languages that we see coming forward in Aotearoa?”
She said most New Zealanders would enjoy seeing multilingual road signs.
“I think we are a mature and sophisticated country and generally, most of us, actually really enjoy not only seeing our indigenous language but also other languages.
“[Not having bilingual signs] It’s an attempt to take us backwards that I don’t think many are going to tolerate.”
‘They should be filling pot holes’ – National National’s transport spokesman Simeon Brown said Waka Kotahi should be filling pot holes instead of looking into including te reo Māori in road signage around the country.
“NZTA should be focusing primarally in fixing the pot holes on our roads and they shouldn’t be distracted by changing signage up and down our country.”
“Most New Zealanders want to see our roads fixed, it’s their number one priority.”
Brown said the National Party was open to bilingual information, but only when it came to place names signage.
“When it comes to critically important safety information the signage needs to be clear and understandable for people in our road, most of whom who speak English.”
“It’s important to keep the balance right between place names, which we are very open for bilingual signage, and critical safety signs where is really important people understand what the sign is saying,” he said.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
An Australian author-poet and advocate for West Papuan independence has condemned a reported threat against the life of a New Zealand hostage pilot, Philip Mehrtens, held by Papuan liberation fighters and appealed to them to “keep Philip safe”.
Jim Aubrey, a human rights activist who has campaigned globally on freedom struggles in East Timor, West Papua and Tibet, declared such a threat was “not in his name”.
In a statement in English and Bahasa today, Aubrey said he would never support a “senseless and stupid act” such as killing pilot Mehrtens, who has been held captive in the remote Papuan highlands for more than three months since February 7.
A plea to keep the NZ hostage pilot safe. Pictured is a rebel leader, Egianus Kogoya. Image: jimaubrey.com
“Any acts of braggadocio and careless support by any West Papuan group and/or solidarity members of this current threat, in thinking that international governments are going to suddenly act with governance of care and respect are baseless and profoundly naive,” he said.
“The list of criminal accessories to Indonesia’s six decades of crimes against humanity is very long . . . long enough for anyone to know that they do not care.”
Aubrey said he believed that a third party, “such as an appropriate minister from Papua New Guinea who has previous and ongoing affiliation with OPM, should act as the intermediary on the ground to resolve the crisis”.
He called for immediate withdrawal of the more than 21,000 Indonesian security forces from the Melanesian region that shares an 820 km-long land border with Papua New Guinea.
“Included in this approach is the immediate cessation of all Indonesian air and ground combat operations and the immediate exit of Indonesian defence and security forces from all conflict regions in West Papua,” he said.
Other West Papuan activists and advocates have also criticised the reported threat.
According to Reuters news agency and reports carried by the ABC in Australia and RNZ today, the West Papuan rebels had threatened to shoot 37-year-old Mehrtens if countries did not comply with their demand to start independence talks within two months.
Citing a new video released yesterday by the West Papua National Liberation Army-OPM (TPNPB-OPM) yesterday, the news reports said the fighters, who want to free Papua from Indonesian rule, kidnapped Mehrtens after he landed a commercial plane in the mountainous area of Nduga. The guerillas set the aircraft ablaze.
In the new video, a Mehrtens holds the banned Morning Star flag, a symbol of West Papuan independence, and is surrounded by Papuan fighters brandishing what one analyst said were assault rifles manufactured in Indonesia.
New Zealand pilot Philip Mehrtens, flying for Susi Air, has been held hostage by the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) since February 7. Image: Jubi TV screenshot APR
Mehrtens is seen talking to the camera, saying the pro-independence rebels want countries other than Indonesia to engage in dialogue on Papuan independence.
“If it does not happen within two months then they say they will shoot me,” Mehrtens said in the video, which was shared by West Papuan rebel spokesperson Sebby Sambom.
The video was verified by Deka Anwar, an analyst at the Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC), according to the news agency reports.
A spokesperson for New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in an e-mail to Reuters today that they were aware of the photos and videos circulating.
“We’re doing everything we can to secure a peaceful resolution and Mr Mehrtens’ safe release,” the spokesperson added.
Indonesia’s military spokesperson Julius Widjojono said today that the military would continue to carry out “measureable actions” in accordance with standard operating procedure.
The Indonesian Foreign Ministry did not respond to requests for comment.
Prioritising ‘peaceful negotiations’
Indonesian authorities have previously said they were prioritising peaceful negotiations to secure the release of the Susi Air pilot, but have struggled to access the isolated and rugged highland terrain.
A low-level but increasingly deadly battle for independence has been waged in the resource-rich Papua region — now split into five provinces — ever since it was controversially brought under Indonesian control in a vote overseen by the United Nations in 1969.
The conflict has escalated significantly since 2018, with pro-independence fighters mounting deadlier and more frequent attacks, largely because they have managed to procure more sophisticated weapons.
Rumianus Wandikbo of the TPNPB — the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement — called on countries such as New Zealand, Australia and Western nations to kickstart talks with Indonesia and the pro-independence fighters, reports Reuters.
“We do not ask for money…We really demand our rights for sovereignty,” he said in a separate video.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
In a significant step toward preserving and commemorating Fiji’s rich history, efforts are underway to establish the country’s first living museum.
This unique institution will focus on capturing the era of the British colonial government’s indentured system in Fiji, shedding light on the arrival of Fijians of Indian descent to the Pacific Ocean.
The initiative aims to honour the contributions and struggles of the indentured labourers, known as Girmitiyas, who played a pivotal role in shaping Fiji’s economy.
Behind the vision is the Global Girmit Institute, whose board of trustees chair Dr Ganesh Chand told RNZ Pacific the museum had great significance for Fiji.
Dr Chand said that many Fijians were unaware of their country’s history and the way of life under British rule in Fiji, noting that Fiji-Indians were even unaware of their origins — the Girmitiyas.
Fijian-Indians make up about 37 percent of the country’s population.
“For Girmitiyas, there has been a total silence of material in our curriculum all the way up to now,” Dr Chand lamented.
“There is nothing in the texts, and students don’t learn their history.”
He said that if schools fail to teach local history, it could be detrimental to that nation as a whole.
“If they don’t learn in these in schools, then they grow up thinking that their house and day-to-day life is their entirety in the country.
Girmitiyas working in a banana plantation in Fiji. Image: INL Archives
“But that is not a very good state for nation-building. For nation-building, people need to know the history,” Dr Chand said.
The museum aims to rectify this by providing a “comprehensive and immersive experience” that educates visitors about the Girmit era.
The Global Girmit Institute living museum will be co-located within the GGI Library at its headquarters in Saweni, Lautoka, on the country’s main island.
Work has already begun, with the collection of artefacts intensifying in preparation for the anticipated opening of phase one next year.
Travellers who crossed two oceans The gallery will feature a range of artefacts and recordings of the oral history of people from different linguistic backgrounds and cultures.
Objects relating to farming and the sugar industry, lifestyle, music, food, clothing and religious events will also be displayed, along with objects that record the impact of colonialism on the islands.
Dr Chand said visitors will have the opportunity to witness and understand first hand the living conditions and lifestyle of the Girmitiyas.
“The living museum will feature a fully furnished residence from the era, and our workers will live there and depict how life was in those days under British rule,” he said.
So, how did a group of South Asian people — the Girmitiyas — arrive in the Pacific Ocean?
It was the abolition of slave labour in the early 19th century that gave rise to the Indian indenture system.
Linguist Dr Farzana Gounder . . . “They [Girmitya] worked long hours in difficult and often dangerous conditions on the sugar plantations.” Image: Dr Farzana Gounder/RNZ Pacific
This saw an influx of labourers transported from India to various European colonies, including Fiji, to work in plantations.
The system was established to address the labour shortage that followed, explained academic and linguist Dr Farzana Gounder, a direct Girmitiya descendant and a representative of Fiji on the UNESCO International Indentured Labour Route Project.
“The term ‘Girmit’ is derived from the word ‘agreement’ and was used to refer to the system of indentured labour that brought Indians to Fiji between 1879 and 1916,” she said.
“Under this system, Indian labourers were recruited from British India to work on sugar plantations in Fiji, which was then a British colony. During this period, more than 60,000 Indians were brought to Fiji under indenture and became known as Girmitiyas.”
The indenture was seen as an agreement between the workers and the British government, and over the next three decades Girmitiyas were shipped across two oceans to work the lands in Fiji, where a jarring reality awaited them, explained Dr Gounder.
“The Girmitiyas faced many challenges when they arrived in Fiji, including harsh working conditions, cultural and linguistic barriers, and discrimination from both European and indigenous Fijian populations.
“They worked long hours in difficult and often dangerous conditions on the sugar plantations and were paid very low wages.”
The Girmitiyas were instrumental in the development of Fiji’s sugar industry, and this museum aims to tell these stories.
Fiji’s Peace Village to host historical stories The government of Fiji is also commissioning a living museum in the central province of Navilaca village in Rewa.
Assistant Women’s Minister Sashi Kiran announced that this gallery would pay homage to the relationship between the Girmitiyas and iTaukei people.
“Navilaca village is significant to the history of both the indigenous people and the Indo-Fijians,” she said.
Assistant Women’s Minister Sashi Kiran . . . recounts the heroic efforts of indigenous Fiji villagers rescuing many lives off the wrecked Syria in 1884. Image: Fiji govt/RNZ Pacific
Kiran recounts the heroic efforts of the indigenous people in 1884 who, in the absence of immediate assistance from the colonial authorities, led the rescue operations, saving many lives when a ship named Syria, carrying around 500 Girmitiyas, became wrecked on the Nasilai Reef.
This village thus served as an apt location for the museum, paying homage to the resilience and humanity displayed during that challenging time, she said.
“The village of Navilaca had done the rescue when the Syria was wrecked, and villages there had not only rescued the people but buried the dead in their chiefly ground. They had also looked after all the injured until they healed.
“The fisherfolk had been rescuing people, and the archives also say that there were only about 100 out of almost 500 passengers left by the time the colonials came, so most of the rescue was actually done by the indigenous people.”
The village has since been declared a place of peace with an offer extended to host teaching of each other’s rituals, ceremonies, and customs.
“It will be a space where both cultures can be taught through artefacts and storytelling,” she added.
It will also be open to tourists and the diaspora.
Both living museums promise to be vital cultural institutions, providing a platform to remember and honour Fiji’s history.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Girmit relatives of the article author, Rachael Nath. Image: Rachael Nath/RNZ Pacific
Fiji’s Great Council of Chiefs has endorsed the reinstatement of a lease distribution policy with the iTaukei Land Trust Board.
The decision was reached by interim council members who met on Bau Island yesterday shortly after the historic re-establishment of the council, which was abolished in 2007 by then prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama.
The lease distribution policy outlines the payment scheme for revenue generated through Fiji’s complicated system of native land leases which can be tens of millions of dollars a year or even more than that for the wealthier tribes.
The former FijiFirst government removed the policy and introduced Equal Rent Distribution in 2011.
This meant every member of the mataqali, or landowning unit, received the same amount from lease payments, regardless of their status.
The Minister for iTaukei Affairs, Ifereimi Vasu, said the chiefs endorsed the reinstatement of the original policy at a reduced percentage.
This means after the iTaukei Land Trust Board (TLTB), which oversees all native leases takes its 10 percent poundage fee, the remaining funds are to be distributed as follows:
5 percent for the Turaga iTaukei (Village Chiefs)
10 percent for the Turaga Qali (Village Elders)
15 percent for the Turaga ni Mataqali (Clan Leader)
70 percent to be shared equally among remaining members
Vasu said concerns had been raised with them that some mataqali members around Fiji take their lease money and do not contribute to the vanua or the village’s development.
“Most of our visits to the province, most stated that the equal distribution is not helping, it really is not helping those that are leading the vanua, they are really struggling.
“In a sense, now that we are having equal distribution, people don’t bother about what is happening on the vanua, they have taken their share, they have gone, and all the responsibilities are handled by the chiefs.”
Ifereimi Vasu said it was also decided that a development fund be set up to cater for future iTaukei development needs.
“As an outcome of the discussion, the meeting endorsed the setting up of a special fund for the future, iTaukei Development Funding, which will be sourced from the percentage of the TLTB poundage and the percent of the lease money,” he said.
Chiefs to hear from review committee Apart from the lease distribution policy, the chiefs also agreed to hear back from a committee conducting a review of the Great Council of Chiefs which will guide the form and function of the new council.
The review team, led by Ratu Jone Baledrokadroka, has until the end of July to complete their work.
A final report will be presented to the council upon its completion.
Ratu Baledrokadroka said the council — which was accused of being a racist organisation in the past — has indicated a willingness to open up as a body for all Fijians, which is a positive endorsement of the work his team is carrying out.
He said, in reinventing itself, it is important for the council to keep out of politics.
“The GCC is willing to open up the institution making it more apolitical. We are trying to make sure that, into the future, it doesn’t commit the mistakes of the past,” Ratu Baledrokadroka said.
“That has been the biggest mistake for the GCC that it had delved into politics which had seen it disestablished by the previous government.”
Speaking after the presentation to the meeting yesterday, Ratu Baledrokadroka said their brief presentation on what they had been able to gather so far was well received.
“We have done nine provinces. What they are wanting is inclusiveness, that the GCC represents all ethnicities and all sections of society, the youth, the women.
“We give our recommendations on what people say. What we will produce is what the people have said.
“What has come out very strongly today is that the GCC and the chiefs are for all, not just for iTaukeis; they are willing to take on that responsibility for all.”
Ratu Baledrokadroka said the traditional ceremonies of apologies and forgiveness that took place at the opening ceremony augured well for the way Fiji was moving.
Future membership Minister of iTaukei Affairs Vasu confirmed yesterday that the current membership of the GCC was temporary.
He said the re-establishment of the GCC was scheduled for May.
“Its actual make up will come from what the Review Team finalises. The people and the chiefs will decide how the GCC will move forward,” Vasu added.
Vasu said calls made for the inclusion of other races and groupings in the GCC membership would have to be decided when the review team “come back and give us their final analysis of what the people and the chiefs are saying”.
The meeting of the interim council members continued today on Bau Island and was expected to conclude this afternoon.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
The Fiji Great Council of Chiefs . . . interim members at the re-establishment of the body on Bau Island yesterday after 16 years. Image: Fiji govt/RNZ Pacific
New Caledonia’s largest pro-independence party says the latest French pronouncement on self-determination is an insult to the decolonisation process.
Amid a dispute over the validity of the referendum process under the Noumea Accord, French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin told the United Nations last week that self-determination might take “one or two generations”.
The Caledonian Union said the statement contradicted the 1998 Noumea Accord which was to conclude after 20 years with New Caledonia’s full emancipation.
However, three referendums on independence from France between 2018 and 2021 to complete the Accord resulted in the rejection of full sovereignty.
But the Caledonian Union says the trajectory set out in the Noumea Accord has not changed and the process must conclude with New Caledonia attaining full sovereignty.
In a statement, the party has accused France of being contradictory by defending peoples’ right to self-determination at the UN while not respecting the colonised Kanak people’s request and imposing the 2021 referendum.
The date was set by Paris but because of the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on the indigenous Kanak population, the pro-independence parties asked for the vote to be postponed.
The French government refused to accede to the plea and as a consequence the pro-independence parties stayed away from the poll in protest.
Although more than 96 percent voted against full sovereignty, the turnout was 43 percent, with record abstention among Kanaks at the centre of the decolonisation issue.
Pro-independence parties therefore refuse to recognise the result as a legitimate outcome of the decolonisation process.
They insist that the vote is not valid despite France’s highest administrative court finding the referendum was legal and binding.
Darmanin due back in Noumea The latest meeting of the Caledonian Union’s leadership this week was to prepare for next week’s talks with Darmanin, who is due in Noumea for a second time in three months.
In its statement, the Caledonian Union said it wanted France to specify what its policies for New Caledonia would be, adding that for the party, they had to be in line with the provisions of the Noumea Accord.
The party said fresh talk of self-determination should not be a pretext of France to divert from the commitments in the Accord.
It also said it would not yet enter into formal discussions with the anti-independence parties about the way forward although they also were Noumea Accord signatories.
The party also said it would not discuss the make-up of New Caledonia’s electoral rolls until after a path to full sovereignty had been drawn up in bilateral talks with the French government.
On La Premiere television on Sunday night, Congress President Roch Wamytan, who is a Noumea Accord signatory and a Caledonian Union member, said his side had a different timetable than Paris.
While the French government was focused on next year’s provincial elections, Wamytan said it was not possible to discuss in the space of a month or two the future of a country or of a people that had been colonised.
He also wondered if Darmanin was serious when he said it could take two generations, or 50 years, for self-determination.
Wamytan said after the failed 2021 referendum, the two sides had diametrically opposed positions.
However, he hoped at some point a common platform could be found so that in the coming months a way would be found as a “win-win for New Caledonia”.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin seated next to pro-independence New Caledonian Congress President Roch Wamytan in Noumea . . . upset pro-independence parties with his “two generations” comment. Image: RNZ Pacific/Delphine Mayeur/AFP
An Australian advocacy group has called for West Papua to be reinscribed on the United Nations list of “non self-governing territories”, citing the “sham” vote in 1969 and the worsening human rights violations in the Indonesian-ruled Melanesian region.
Tomorrow the annual International Week of Solidarity with the Peoples of Non-Self-Governing Territories is due to begin tomorrow and will end on May 31.
“It’s 60 years since UNTEA transferred West Papua to Indonesian administration, which then unceremoniously removed it from the list.
“As for the so-called Act of Free Choice held in 1969, it was a sham and is referred to by West Papuans as the ‘act of no choice’.”
‘Seriously deteriorating’
Collins said in a statement today that the situation in West Papua was “seriously deteriorating” with ongoing human rights abuses in the territory.
“There are regular armed clashes between the Free Papua Movement [OPM] and the Indonesian security forces,” he said.
“West Papuans continue to be arrested at peaceful demonstrations and Papuans risk being charged with treason for taking part in the rallies.
“The military operations in the highlands have created up to 60,000 internally displaced people (IDPs), many facing starvation because they fear returning to their food gardens because of the Indonesian security forces.
“Recent armed clashes have also created new IDPs.
Collins cited New Zealand pilot Philip Mehrtens, who has been held hostage by the West Papuan National Liberation Army (TPNPB) for more than three months.
According to Mehrtens as quoted by ABC News on April 26, the Indonesian military had been “dropping bombs” in the area where he was being held, making it “dangerous for me and everybody here”.
‘French’ Polynesia an example
“We cannot expect the [UN Decolonisation Committee] to review the situation of West Papua at this stage as it would only bring to attention the complete failure by the UN to protect the people of West Papua.
However, territories had been reinscribed in the past as in the case of “French” Polynesia in 2013, Collins said.
But Collins said it was hoped that the UN committee could take some action.
“As they meet in Bali, it is hoped that the C24 members — who would be well aware of the ongoing human rights abuses in West Papua committed by the Indonesian security forces — will urge Jakarta to allow the High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit West Papua on a fact-finding mission to report on the deteriorating human rights situation in the territory.”
“It’s the least they could do.”
The work of the UN Special Committee on Decolonisation . . . Current Pacific members include Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Timor-Leste – and Indonesia is also a sitting member. Graphic: UN C24
French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin has invited the United Nations Decolonisation Committee members to visit New Caledonia.
Controlled by France since 1853, New Caledonia was returned to the UN decolonisation list as prolonged political violence threatened in 1986 — 39 years after France had withdrawn it and its other major Pacific colony from the 19th century, French Polynesia, from the list.
France says it has complied with the UN decolonisation process and regularly exchanged with the UN about New Caledonia.
During a visit to the United States last week, Darmanin stopped at the UN in New York to discuss the aftermath of the three referendums on independence which France organised in New Caledonia between 2018 and 2021.
Darmanin, who as Interior Minister is also responsible for France’s overseas possessions, said he had a constructive exchange, without elaborating.
He said, however, he wondered how “to trigger this right to self-determination on the scale of one or two generations”.
Darmanin also told the committee that after the referendums, France was trying to negotiate with both the pro- and anti-independence camps to formulate a future status for New Caledonia.
What next for New Caledonia? The outcome of the referendum process as outlined in the 1998 Noumea Accord is in dispute, with the pro-independence parties claiming the rejection of independence is illegitimate because of the low turn-out of the colonised Kanak people in the last vote.
French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin (left) in Noumea . . . asking how to “trigger this right to self-determination on the scale of one or two generations”. Image: RNZ Pacific/AFP
France had gone ahead with the third referendum despite a plea by pro-independence parties to postpone it because of the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on the Kanak population.
The pro-independence side refuses to recognise the result, saying that the referendum was not in the spirit of the 1998 Noumea Accord and the UN resolutions on the territory’s decolonisation.
It said the path of dialogue had been broken by the stubbornness of the French government, which was unable to reconcile its geostrategic interests in the Pacific with its obligation to decolonise New Caledonia.
The pro-independence camp has been lobbying for support to get the referendum outcome annulled.
However, a legal challenge in Paris last year by the customary Kanak Senate was unsuccessful while a further challenge of the referendum result filed with the International Court of Justice is pending.
PIF leaders meet in Nadi, Fiji, for a retreat in February 2023. Image: PIF
New PIF chair taking ‘neutral’ position This month, the Pacific Islands Forum said it would “not intrude” into New Caledonia’s affairs although a subgroup, the Melanesian Spearhead Group, had earlier backed calls for the UN to declare the result null and void.
Asked for the Forum’s view, its chair, Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown, said the “Forum respects the due process of each country”.
“It is not the Forum’s role to intrude into the domestic matters of countries as they determine their independence or their dependence on other countries,” Brown said.
The pro-independence side has refused to engage with the anti-independence side in discussions about any new statute. Instead, it has insisted on having bilateral talks with only the French government on a timetable to conclude the decolonisation process and restore New Caledonia’s sovereignty.
In March, Darmanin visited New Caledonia for talks with a cross-section of society, and last month New Caledonia’s political leaders were in Paris for more discussions.
None of these meetings have yielded a consensus on a way forward.
Audition cet après-midi à l’@ONU_fr par le C24, comité des Nations Unies en charge des sujets de décolonisation, afin de faire le point sur la Nouvelle-Calédonie.
Merci à la présidente du comité et aux pays membres pour cet échange riche et constructif. Au nom du Gouvernement,… pic.twitter.com/Ya5BY1k9Kc
Next week, Darmanin is due back in Noumea in a renewed effort to advance discussions on New Caledonia’s future status.
The anti-independence parties want Paris to honour the referendum result and move towards reintegration of New Caledonia into France by abolishing the restricted rolls created with the Noumea Accord.
The push received support last week from the deputy leader of France’s Republicans François Xavier Bellamy who visited Noumea.
He said his side would support changes to the French constitution to allow for the rolls to be opened up — a move firmly resisted by the pro-independence side.
French Polynesia marks 10th reinscription anniversary
Pro-independence leader and former president of French Polynesia Oscar Temaru (in facemask) celebrates the pro-independence Tavini Huira’atira party’s victory following the second round of the territorial elections. Image: RNZ Pacific/Suliane Favennec/AFP
The ruling pro-independence Tavini Huira’atira party in French Polynesia marked the 10th anniversary of the territory’s reinscription in Faa’a where the party founder and leader Oscar Temaru is mayor.
His decades-long campaign succeeded in 2013 when the UN General Assembly approved a resolution — sponsored by Solomon Islands — and re-inscribed French Polynesia on the world body’s decolonisation list.
The decision, which came in the dying days of the last government led by Temaru, was vehemently criticised by the Tahitian government, which succeeded his, as well as France, which labelled the UN decision an “interference”.
While France has refused to attend any UN discussion on French Polynesia, the pro-autonomy government of the past decade regularly sent delegates to the annual gathering in New York.
Marking the anniversary this year, Tavini’s youngest assembly member Tematai Le Gayic told Tahiti Nui TV he was disappointed that the “French state agrees to negotiate when there is bloodshed”, referring to New Caledonia’s unrest of the 1980s.
“But when it’s with respect of law and democracy, France denies the process,” he added.
The opposition Tapura’s Tepuaraurii Teriitahi said that it would be good “if France accepted once and for all, to avoid any controversy, that UN observers could come to French Polynesia”.
While viewing independence as a long-term goal, the newly elected President Moetai Brotherson has been critical of France shunning the UN process, having described it as a “bad look”.
At the event in Faa’a, Brotherson said they went to ask the UN “to give us the possibility of choice, with a neutral arbiter”.
He said it was then up to his party to awaken consciences so that an overwhelming majority would vote for independence, which he said was not an end in itself but an essential step to building a nation.
“We don’t want a 50 percent-plus-one-vote victory,” he said.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
The last fortnight has seen a series of brutal, deliberately provocative Israeli attacks on Palestinian worshippers at Al Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Needless to say, Israel had no business interfering in Muslim worship at Al Aqsa, the third holiest shrine for Muslims after Mecca and Medina, and an area which is not under their authority or control.
Despite this, Israeli attacks on Al Aqsa have intensified in recent years as the apartheid state strives to undermine all aspects of Palestinian life in Jerusalem. It is applying ethnic cleansing in slow motion.
Inevitably missile attacks on Israel from Gaza and Southern Lebanon followed and Israel has reveled in once again trying to portray itself to the world as the victim.
There is an excellent 10-minute video in which former Palestinian spokesperson Hanan Ashrawi more than held her own against a hostile BBC interviewer here.
WATCH | A masterclass by @DrHananAshrawi illuminating the everyday violence & aggression Palestinians endure at the hands of Israel’s occupation, the inevitable local resistance to it & Israel’s ongoing impunity while also fending off @BBCWorld‘s spurious line of questioning. pic.twitter.com/eTpvXV7QbI
There is also an excellent podcast produced by Al Jazeera which backgrounds the increase in violence in the Middle East.
Inside Story: What triggered the spike in violence? Video: Al Jazeera
Nour Odeh – Political analyst and former spokeswoman for the Palestinian National Authority.
Uri Dromi – Founder and president of the Jerusalem Press Club and a former spokesman for the Israel government.
Francesca Albanese – United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Further background on the politics around Al Aqsa is covered in this Al Jazeera podcast.
I strongly condemn Israel’s excessive use of force against Palestinian Muslims praying at #AlAqsaMosque during Ramadan, & its breaches of the #StatusQuo. This recklessness risks bringing further devastation to both sides of the Green Line.
Full statement: https://t.co/ys58j0bIzthttps://t.co/mWfJiHSVaT
— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) April 6, 2023
Initially reporting here in New Zealand was reasonable and clearly identified Israel as the brutal racist aggressors attacking Palestinian civilians at worship. However, within a couple of days media reporting deteriorated dramatically with the “normal” appalling reporting taking over — painting Palestinians as terrorists and Israel as simply enforcing “law and order”.
At the heart of appalling reporting for a long time has been the BBC which slavishly and consistently screws the scrum in Israel’s favour. The BBC does not report on the Middle East – it propagandises for Israel.
Journalist Jonathan Cook describes how the BBC coverage is enabling Israeli violence and UN Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese, called out the BBC’s awful reporting in a tweet.
Renewed violence against Palestinian worshippers at #AlAqsaMosque on yet another Ramadan turned into suffering,must be condemned,investigated & accounted for.
Misleading media coverage contributes to enabling Israel’s unchecked occupation & must also be condemned/accounted for https://t.co/JI6YzNgCju
— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) April 5, 2023
It’s not just the BBC of course. For example The New York Times has been called out for deliberately distorting the news to blame Palestinians for Al Aqsa mosque crisis.
It’s not reporting — it’s propaganda!
Why is BBC important for Aotearoa New Zealand? Unfortunately, here in Aotearoa New Zealand our media frequently and uncritically uses BBC reports to inform New Zealanders on the Middle East.
Radio New Zealand and Television New Zealand, our state broadcasters, are the worst offenders.
For example here are two BBC stories carried by RNZ this past week here and here. They cover the deaths of three Jewish women in a terrorist attack in the occupied West Bank.
The media should report such killings but there is no context given for the illegal Jewish-only settlements at the heart in the occupied West Bank, Israel’s military occupation across all Palestine, the daily ritual humiliation and debasement of Palestinians or its racist apartheid policies towards Palestinians — or as Israeli human rights groups B’Tselem describes it “A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is apartheid”.
Neither are there Palestinian voices in the above reports — they are typically absent from most Middle East reporting, or at best muted, compared to extensive quoting from racist Israeli leaders.
The BBC is happy to report the “what?” but not the “why?”
Needless to say neither Radio New Zealand, nor TVNZ, has provided any such sympathetic coverage for the many dozens of Palestinians killed by Israel this year — including at least 16 Palestinian children. To the BBC, RNZ and TVNZ, murdered Palestinian children are simply statistics.
RNZ and TVNZ say they cannot ensure to cover all the complexities of the Middle East in every story and that people get a balanced view over time from their regular reporting.
This is not true. Their reliance on so much systematically-biased BBC reporting, and other sources which are often not much better, tells a different story.
For example, references to Israel as an apartheid state — something attested to by every credible human rights groups, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch — are always absent from any RNZ or TVNZ reporting and yet this is critical to help people understand what is going on in Palestine.
Neither are there significant references to international law or United Nations resolutions — the tools which provide for a Middle East peace based on justice — the only peace possible.
Unlike their reporting on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, RNZ and TVNZ reporting on the Middle East leaves people confused and ready to blame both sides equally for the murder and mayhem unleashed by Israel on Palestinians and Palestinian resistance to the Israeli military occupation and all that entails.
John Minto is a political activist and commentator, and spokesperson for Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa. This article is republished from the PSNA newsletter with the author’s permission.
“Divide and Dominate” . . . how Israel’s apartheid policies and repression impact on Palestinians. Image: Visualising Palestine
The authorities in Indonesia’s Papua region say the search for a New Zealand pilot taken hostage by West Papua Liberation Movement freedom fighters more than two months ago has been extended.
Commissioner Rahmadani said several efforts have been carried out to rescue the pilot, including involving a negotiating team comprising community leaders, the publication reported.
However, the negotiation has not yielded any results.
The search now covers about 36,000 sq km.
Commissioner Rahmadani said the safety of Captain Merthens was the priority for his team.
In the video, which was sent to RNZ Pacific, Mehrtens was instructed to read a statement saying “no foreign pilots are to work and fly” into Highlands Papua until Papua was independent.
He made another demand for West Papua independence from Indonesia later in the statement.
Mehrtens was surrounded by more than a dozen people, some of them armed with weapons.
Previously, a TPNPB spokesperson said they were waiting for a response from the New Zealand government to negotiate the release of Mehrtens.
In February, United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) leader Benny Wenda called for the rebels to release Mehrtens.
He said he sympathised with the New Zealand people and Merhtens’ family but insisted the situation was a result of Indonesia’s refusal to allow the UN Human Rights Commissioner to visit Papua.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
The West Papua Liberation Army says they would drop the key demand that Jakarta recognise the independence of the Papua region #WestPapua#nzpolhttps://t.co/I2Vd13w66G
The late Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a Nobel laureate and tireless campaigner against South African apartheid, once observed: “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”
For decades, the BBC’s editorial policy in reporting on Israel and Palestine has consistently chosen the side of the oppressor — and all too often, not even by adopting the impartiality the corporation claims as the bedrock of its journalism.
Instead, the British state broadcaster regularly chooses language and terminology whose effect is to deceive its audience. And it compounds such journalistic malpractice by omitting vital pieces of context when that extra information would present Israel in a bad light.
BBC bias — which entails knee-jerk echoing of the British establishment’s support for Israel as a highly militarised ally projecting Western interests into the oil-rich Middle East – was starkly on show once again this week as the broadcaster reported on the violence at Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Social media was full of videos showing heavily armed Israeli police storming the mosque complex during the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
Police could be seen pushing peaceful Muslim worshippers, including elderly men, off their prayer mats and forcing them to leave the site. In other scenes, police were filmed beating worshippers inside a darkened Al-Aqsa, while women could be heard screaming in protest.
What is wrong with the British state broadcaster’s approach — and much of the rest of the Western media’s — is distilled in one short BBC headline: “Clashes erupt at contested holy site.”
Into a sentence of just six words, the BBC manages to cram three bogusly “neutral” words, whose function is not to illuminate or even to report, but to trick the audience, as Tutu warned, into siding with the oppressor.
Furious backlash Though video of the beatings was later included on the BBC’s website and the headline changed after a furious online backlash, none of the sense of unprovoked, brutal Israeli state violence, or its malevolent rationale, was captured by the BBC’s reporting.
To call al-Aqsa a ‘contested holy site’, as the BBC does, is simply to repeat a propaganda talking point from Israel, the oppressor state, and dress it up as neutral reporting
The “clashes” at al-Aqsa, in the BBC’s telling, presume a violent encounter between two groups: Palestinians, described by Israel and echoed by the BBC as “agitators”, on one side; and Israeli forces of law and order on the other.
That is the context, according to the BBC, for why unarmed Palestinians at worship need to be beaten. And that message is reinforced by the broadcaster’s description of the seizure of hundreds of Palestinians at worship as “arrests” — as though an unwelcome, occupying, belligerent security force present on another people’s land is neutrally and equitably upholding the law.
“Erupt” continues the theme. It suggests the “clashes” are a natural force, like an earthquake or volcano, over which Israeli police presumably have little, if any, control. They must simply deal with the eruption to bring it to an end.
And the reference to the “contested” holy site of Al-Aqsa provides a spurious context legitimising Israeli state violence: police need to be at Al-Aqsa because their job is to restore calm by keeping the two sides “contesting” the site from harming each other or damaging the holy site itself.
The BBC buttresses this idea by uncritically citing an Israeli police statement accusing Palestinians of being at Al-Aqsa to “disrupt public order and desecrate the mosque”.
Palestinians are thus accused of desecrating their own holy site simply by worshipping there — rather than the desecration committed by Israeli police in storming al-Aqsa and violently disrupting worship.
The History of Al-Aqsa Mosque. Video: Middle East Eye
Israeli provocateurs The BBC’s framing should be obviously preposterous to any rookie journalist in Jerusalem. It assumes that Israeli police are arbiters or mediators at Al-Aqsa, dispassionately enforcing law and order at a Muslim place of worship, rather than the truth: that for decades, the job of Israeli police has been to act as provocateurs, dispatched by a self-declared Jewish state, to undermine the long-established status quo of Muslim control over Al-Aqsa.
Events were repeated for a second night this week when police again raided Al-Aqsa, firing rubber bullets and tear gas as thousands of Palestinians were at prayer. US statements calling for “calm” and “de-escalation” adopted the same bogus evenhandedness as the BBC.
The mosque site is not “contested”, except in the imagination of Jewish religious extremists, some of them in the Israeli government, and the most craven kind of journalists.
True, there are believed to be the remains of two long-destroyed Jewish temples somewhere underneath the raised mount where al-Aqsa is built. According to Jewish religious tradition, the Western Wall — credited with being a retaining wall for one of the disappeared temples – is a place of worship for Jews.
But under that same Jewish rabbinical tradition, the plaza where Al-Aqsa is sited is strictly off-limits to Jews. The idea of Al-Aqsa complex as being “contested” is purely an invention of the Israeli state — now backed by a few extremist settler rabbis — that exploits this supposed “dispute” as the pretext to assert Jewish sovereignty over a critically important piece of occupied Palestinian territory.
Israel’s goal — not Judaism’s — is to strip Palestinians of their most cherished national symbol, the foundation of their religious and emotional attachment to the land of their ancestors, and transfer that symbol to a state claiming to exclusively represent the Jewish people.
To call Al-Aqsa a “contested holy site”, as the BBC does, is simply to repeat a propaganda talking point from Israel, the oppressor state, and dress it up as neutral reporting.
‘Equal rights’ at Al-Aqsa The reality is that there would have been no “clashes”, no “eruption” and no “contest” had Israeli police not chosen to storm Al-Aqsa while Palestinians were worshipping there during the holiest time of the year.
This is not a ‘clash’. It is not a ‘conflict’. Those supposedly ‘neutral’ terms conceal what is really happening: apartheid and ethnic cleansing
There would have been no “clashes” were Israeli police not aggressively enforcing a permanent occupation of Palestinian land in Jerusalem, which has encroached ever more firmly on Muslim access to, and control over, the mosque complex.
There would have been no “clashes” were Israeli police not taking orders from the latest – and most extreme – of a series of police ministers, Itamar Ben Gvir, who does not even bother to hide his view that Al-Aqsa must be under absolute Jewish sovereignty.
There would have been no “clashes” had Israeli police not been actively assisting Jewish religious settlers and bigots to create facts on the ground over many years — facts to bolster an evolving Israeli political agenda that seeks “equal rights” at Al-Aqsa for Jewish extremists, modelled on a similar takeover by settlers of the historic Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron.
And there would have been no “clashes” if Palestinians were not fully aware that, over many years, a tiny, fringe Jewish settler movement plotting to blow up Al-Aqsa Mosque to build a Third Temple in its place has steadily grown, flourishing under the sponsorship of Israeli politicians and ever more sympathetic Israeli media coverage.
Cover story for violence Along with the Israeli army, the paramilitary Israeli police are the main vehicle for the violent subjugation of Palestinians, as the Israeli state and its settler emissaries dispossess Palestinians, driving them into ever smaller enclaves.
This is not a “clash”. It is not a “conflict”. Those supposedly “neutral” terms conceal what is really happening: apartheid andethnic cleansing.
Just as there is a consistent, discernible pattern to Israel’s crimes against Palestinians, there is a parallel, discernible pattern in the Western media’s misleading reporting on Israel and Palestine.
Palestinians in the occupied West Bank are being systematically dispossessed by Israel of their homes and farmlands so they can be herded into overcrowded, resource-starved cities.
Palestinians in Gaza have been dispossessed of their access to the outside world, and even to other Palestinians, by an Israeli siege that encages them in an overcrowded, resourced-starved coastal enclave.
And in the Old City of Jerusalem, Palestinians are being progressively dispossessed by Israel of access to, and control over, their central religious resource: Al-Aqsa Mosque. Their strongest source of religious and emotional attachment to Jerusalem is being actively stolen from them.
To describe as “clashes” any of these violent state processes — carefully calibrated by Israel so they can be rationalised to outsiders as a “security response” — is to commit the very journalistic sin Tutu warned of. In fact, it is not just to side with the oppressor, but to intensify the oppression; to help provide the cover story for it.
That point was made this week by Francesca Albanese, the UN expert on Israel’s occupation. She noted in a tweet about the BBC’s reporting of the Al-Aqsa violence: “Misleading media coverage contributes to enabling Israel’s unchecked occupation & must also be condemned/accounted for.”
Bad journalism There can be reasons for bad journalism. Reporters are human and make mistakes, and they can use language unthinkingly, especially when they are under pressure or events are unexpected.
It is an editorial choice that keeps the BBC skewing its reporting in the same direction: making Israel look like a judicious actor pursuing lawful, rational goals
But that is not the problem faced by those covering Israel and Palestine. Events can be fast-moving, but they are rarely new or unpredictable. The reporter’s task should be to explain and clarify the changing forms of the same, endlessly repeating central story: of Israel’s ongoing dispossession and oppression of Palestinians, and of Palestinian resistance.
The challenge is to make sense of Israel’s variations on a theme, whether it is dispossessing Palestinians through illegal settlement-building and expansion; army-backed settler attacks; building walls and cages for Palestinians; arbitrary arrests and night raids; the murder of Palestinians, including children and prominent figures; house demolitions; resource theft; humiliation; fostering a sense of hopelessness; or desecrating holy sites.
No one, least of all BBC reporters, should have been taken by surprise by this week’s events at Al-Aqsa.
The Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, when Al-Aqsa is at the heart of Islamic observance for Palestinians, coincided this year with the Jewish Passover holiday, as it did last year.
Passover is when Jewish religious extremists hope to storm Al-Aqsa Mosque complex to make animal sacrifices, recreating some imagined golden age in Judaism. Those extremists tried again this year, as they do every year — except this year, they had a police minister in Ben Gvir, leader of the fascist Jewish Power party, who is privately sympathetic to their cause.
Violent settler and army attacks on Palestinian farmers in the occupied West Bank, especially during the autumn olive harvest, are a staple of news reporting from the region, as is the intermittent bombing of Gaza or snipers shooting Palestinians protesting their mass incarceration by Israel.
It is an endless series of repetitions that the BBC has had decades to make sense of and find better ways to report.
It is not journalistic error or failure that is the problem. It is an editorial choice that keeps the British state broadcaster skewing its reporting in the same direction: making Israel look like a judicious actor pursuing lawful, rational goals, while Palestinian resistance is presented as tantrum-like behaviour, driven by uncontrollable, unintelligible urges that reflect hostility towards Jews rather than towards an oppressor Israeli state.
Tail of a mouse Archbishop Tutu expanded on his point about siding with the oppressor. He added: “If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse, and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.”
This week, a conversation between Ben Gvir, the far-right, virulently anti-Arab police minister, and his police chief, Kobi Shabtai, was leaked to Israel’s Channel 12 News. Shabtai reportedly told Ben Gvir about his theory of the “Arab mind”, noting: “They murder each other. It’s in their nature. That’s the mentality of the Arabs.”
This conclusion — convenient for a police force that has abjectly failed to solve crimes within Palestinian communities — implies that the Arab mind is so deranged, so bloodthirsty, that brutal repression of the kind seen at Al-Aqsa is all police can do to keep a bare minimum of control.
Ben Gvir, meanwhile, believes a new “national guard” — a private militia he was recently promised by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — can help him to crush Palestinian resistance. Settler street thugs, his political allies, will finally be able to put on uniforms and have official licence for their anti-Arab violence.
This is the real context — the one that cannot be acknowledged by the BBC or other Western outlets — for the police storming of Al-Aqsa complex this week. It is the same context underpinning settlement expansion, night raids, checkpoints, the siege of Gaza, the murder of Palestinian journalists, and much, much more.
Jewish supremacism undergirds every Israeli state action towards Palestinians, tacitly approved by Western states and their media in the service of advancing Western colonialism in the oil-rich Middle East.
The BBC’s coverage this week, as in previous months and years, was not neutral, or even accurate. It was, as Tutu warned, a confidence trick — one meant to lull audiences into accepting Israeli violence as always justified, and Palestinian resistance as always abhorrent.
Jonathan Cook is the author of three books on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and a winner of the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism. His website and blog can be found at www.jonathan-cook.net. This article was first published at Middle East Eye and is republished with the permission of the author.
The Australia West Papua Association has condemned an Indonesian crackdown on a peaceful Papua self-determination rally in Bali at the weekend after a militant nationalist group targeted the Papuan students.
The Papuan Student Alliance (AMP) in Bali City held the rally on Saturday calling on the Indonesian government to hold a referendum for self-determination for the Papuan people.
The theme of the rally was “Democracy and human rights die, Papuan people suffocate” but security forces broke up protest when militants clashed with the students.
“Yet again a simple peaceful rally by West Papuans was forced to be disbanded by police because of the attack on the demonstrators by an Indonesian nationalist group,” said Joe Collins of the AWPA.
“And Jakarta wonders why West Papuans want their freedom.”
A spokesperson for the student group AMP said there was a lack of freedom of expression in West Papua and the human rights situation was getting worse.
As the rally started, it was blocked by members of the Indonesian nationalist group Patriot Garuda Nusantara (PGN).
Intelligence officers
The AMP action coordinator, Herry Meaga, said in a statement that a number of intelligence officers had also been monitoring the clashes.
Meaga said the students had tried to negotiate with a number of the PGN coordinators but the situation deteriorated.
Clashes broke out between the two groups when the PGN crowd started to push the AMP group, and tried to seize their banners.
The PGN threw stones and bottles. There were injuries on both sides as the groups clashed.
According to an article in the Bali Express, about six people from the nationalist PGN were injured and more than a dozen from the student AMP.
Police on standby near the location broke up the demonstration.
New Caledonia’s Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS) say they will tell the French Prime Minister of the Kanak people’s “sense of humiliation” over the last independence referendum.
The pro-independence alliance is set to talk to the French state from April 7-15.
The secretary-general of the Caledonian Union, Pascal Sawa, told La Premiere television they need to discuss what happened in the referendum vote in 2021, which was boycotted by the indigenous Kanak people due to the effects of the covid-19 pandemic.
“The first thing to discuss is the conflict in relation to December 12, 2021,” he said.
“We cannot ignore what happened then. The state says there is a right for independence and that the accord is now past.
“We don’t believe it has finished because we feel still feel a sense of humiliation.”
In Paris, the alliance is set to meet French Prime Minister Elizabeth Borne.
In a statement, the FLNKS said they would discuss crucial topics such as the restricted electoral roll based on the Noumea Accord of 1998 which allows only people with 18 years presence in the territory to vote.
“The FLNKS reaffirms that the electoral citizens body is irreversible from the Noumea Accord, and that its modification could break the social peace in the country.”
They will also choose the next phase in order to progress the Noumea Accord, which in the eyes of the FLNKS remains unfinished.
“The next phase is how we will come out constructively of the Noumea Accord to rebuild something that resembles us and that brings the people of New Caledonia together,” the statement said.
The FLNKS statement affirms that all future discussions about the future of the country will be decided and acted in New Caledonia not France.
‘We will not reproduce the Accords’ New Caledonia’s High Commissioner Louis Le Franc said that France would not reproduce the Noumea Accords.
Seven months after taking his role in Noumea, the commissioner said he was optimistic about future trilateral discussions.
He said it was a shame the last meeting did not involve the anti-independence side.
“We are in a period, post-Noumea Accord, we will not reproduce the accords and we will hopefully find an intelligent solution for the sake of future generations.
“The French Minister of the Interior and French Overseas Minister only have one voice, therefore the framework put down is very hard to be respected.”
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contributes to enabling Israel’s unchecked occupation & must also be condemned/accounted for 