West Papua - Legal Perspective
Both Timor-Leste and West Papua are cases of rogue colonialism. As many already know, Australia has allowed Indonesia to colonise both for a share of the loot and because 25 million angry muslims (now armed to the hilt by every War Lord in the world, including us) on our doorstep is a real fear of our government.
We have come to understand colonialism as a unique part of our Australian heritage, but it has in fact been outlawed the world over - although you would hardly know given the way we have lorded over Nauru for the past 100 years. We were found guilty of breaching International Law with our ongoing colonisation of Nauru many decades after decolonisation was introduced. But that is another story, not unlike this one. To understand the common elements between Timor-Leste and West Papua, a crash course in 'independence' at the international level is necessary. Otherwise, getting to the bottom of Indonesia's claims of "separatist rebels" can hardly be comprehended, let alone Australia's complicity in the whole show.
1) West Papua's Free choice From a global ban on colonisation came the natural right to Self-determination. By virtue of that right, a state freely determines their political status and freely pursues their economic, social and cultural development.
2) West Papua's Independence By way of decolonisation, the Dutch became administrators of West papua where they set about the independence process. By virtue of administration, the state's resources and its sovereignty remain theirs, unless they are annexed to a parent state.
3) Indonesian attempt to Annex Indonesia persistently invaded the region until eventually the UN stepped in and gave Indonesia administration of West Papua. The only way for Indonesia to legally annex West Papua was to get them to relinquish their sovereignty voluntarily (by referendum).
4) Enter Manus Island From the outright bloodshed and visibility of East Timor, Australia was, unexpectedly and quite reluctantly, instructed by NATO to intervene as peace keepers. Having learned that lesson the hard way, Australia is now providing part of the veil of secrecy which has given Indonesia complete invisibility in West Papua, Manus Island being the very place Australia detained the West Papuan activists during/after the cleverly staged referendum in 1969.
5) Real Referendum Launched Last year, risking life and limb, West Papua self organised and snuck a petition from one end of Papua to the other, obtaining the votes of 1.8m West Papuans (70% of the population). UN’s decolonisation committee refused to look at it claiming West Papua’s cause is outside the committee’s mandate, however, we now know that is not true.
Resources
Decolonization crash course https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_sGTspaF4Y Decolonization UN instrument http://www.un.org/en/decolonization/declaration.shtml International Law position on colonial occupation in West Papua https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTvspxnouMY Annexation crash course https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckzBgiUK6jQ An illegal annexation that demonstrates double standards https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYDxOnDGpHc Double standards of AU government https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCs-v1ONbGc The whole story again, minus UN Law references https://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-28/rollo-west-papua-complicity/5049204