PORT VILA, 23 FEBRUARY 2022 (VANUATU DAILY POST) --- Vanuatu Free West Papua Association (VFWPA) has petitioned the United Nation Experts Mechanisms on the Right of Indigenous People (EMRIP), for the Shadow Report on militarisation of indigenous land of West Papua. One of the executive members of VFWPA, Lai Sakita said the petition followed the reception of reports from Indonesia Amnesty International and Transparency International that the human rights situation caused by the military presence in West Papua is escalating. Sakita said the Indonesian Government has banned internet access for indigenous West Papuans, which makes it difficult to gather information due to reporting restrictions, placed on international journalists in the region. He said the increase of Indonesian military deployment in West Papua since 2018 has resulted in around 2,000 deaths, 2,500 casualties, displacement of around 50,000 civilians and 5,000 fled to seek asylum in PNG.
“The Indonesian military has contributed to barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and what has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people," said Sakita.
He said the Indigenous Melanesian People of the West Papua Province of Indonesia are regarded as a minority group that must be freed from genocides and inhuman treatments. “We reaffirm the Principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that recognises the inherent dignity of all members of the human family is the foundat...
