Oct 29, 2003

Pro-West Papua march held in Luganville, Vanuatu


Traffic along the main street of Luganville was disrupted Friday, 24 October, giving way to a marching mass of people on the four-lane highway, built by American marines during World War II
Four "freedom soldiers" led the procession in a slow march, holding each corner of the West Papuan flag (Morning Star). Youths, chiefs, church leaders, women and children followed with the police at their tail, waving banners bearing pro-independence and anti-colonial slogans, echoing the cries for an independent West Papua.
Chants of "stop colonialism, capitalism and imperialism" and "Free West Papua" reverberated through the northern town from Alice Store to the Unity Park, where the Morning Star was hoisted alongside the national flag, Sanma provincial flag and the Luganville municipality flag.
The march ends a week-long "Free West Papua" awareness campaign throughout the island of Espiritu Santo and the launching of the national Free West Papua awareness campaign by the lord mayor of Luganville.
"I want to thank the organizing committee of this awareness campaign for the invitation to speak at this very important occasion and to launch the awareness of the 'free West Papua' struggle. It has always been the view of the government of Vanuatu and the people of Vanuatu that in order to enable any group of people, whether it be the Kanaks of New Caledonia, or the Tahitians or our Melanesian brothers of West Papua to be recognized of their right as a people, they must have political independence. This is why Vanuatu is known for its views towards people who are still colonized against their conscience."
He told a crowd of around a thousand to recognize West Papuans as dark Melanesians who do not share any common features, characteristics and customs with the Asians of Indonesia.
"Our children learn only about Irian Jaya in geography classes. Many don't have the faintest idea of where West Papua is. This is a tactic to keep the world in the dark on the struggle for independence."
"West Papua is part of Papua New Guinea, under the control of the Indonesian government ... the people of West Papua have dark skin like us ... they are our Melanesian brothers ellipsis as published .
"We are here today to declare that 'yes', we in Luganville understand West Papua's struggles. Our thoughts and heart are with them - the fathers, children, children youths and leaders of the 'Free West Papua movement'."
A support group dubbed "Soldiers of Freedom" was launched to take the campaign to all corners of the country. Soldiers of Freedom will work under the banner of the Working Group for Justice, an interest group established to fight all injustice, especially injustice at the hands of the law. Their programme will be coordinated by the Integral Human Development Resource Centre (IHDRC). "As lord mayor, I am pleased that this awareness can be brought down to our level here in Luganville. So many times, issues of this nature are matters to be discussed only at higher government level, and many of us, at the grass-root level have no knowledge of them."
"I urge the people of Luganville to find out all they can about West Papua through this awareness, and have an understanding of what the issues are. We will not be able to make much difference to the lives of the West Papuan people, however, what we learn through this awareness will be a powerful tool. With this knowledge, we can talk about it to others and let them know of what injustices we can also do to ourselves."
"We have four flags flown today. We stand together to tell the world that in order for the people of West Papua to be recognized, they must be given political independence. And this is a message that the government of Indonesia must know," Lord Mayor Paul Hakwa said. (Source BBC Worldwide Monitoring)