The shootings and arrests of people meeting peacefully at the Third West Papuan Peoples Congress at Abepura this week are the latest instance of Indonesia’s violent and repressive rule in West Papua.
Australia has an agreement for military cooperation with Indonesia which includes the supply of weapons.
It opens with the phrase “reaffirming the sovereign equality of the parties, their faith in the purposes and principles of the charter of the United Nations and their desire to live in peace with all peoples and all governments”.
The Medical Association for Prevention of War supports calls upon the minister of Defence, Stephen Smith to immediately announce a suspension of defence cooperation with Indonesia and to demand access for Australian and other journalists to West Papua.
We call on our government to proceed with an investigation into these appalling events in West Papua.
Australia took an honourable stand over East Timor. We should do so again now over West Papua.
Dr Jenny Grounds President
Dr Anne Noonan, Vice-President
Medical Association for Prevention of War, Australia
PO Box 1379 Carlton Vic 3053
Phone: (03) 9023 1958