West Papua and PNG

Despite all the evidence to the contrary and through its consistent inaction, the PNG Government is complicit to the state-sanctioned murder of the Melanesian race in West Papua.
News of atrocities perpetrated continuously by the Indonesian security forces are splashed out through the media to the whole world.
But it seems the PNG Government’s response is disturbingly muted or non-existent for our own political expedience while worshipping the path Indonesia charts for us.
On page 17 of Monday’s daily newspaper (The National,
March 25), PNG Foreign Minister, Rimbink Pato, in his blissfully ignorant and insensitive self, while praising Indonesia said, and I quote, “We all know that one of the great characteristics of the sovereign state of Indonesia is its diversity, and one of the delightful features of that diversity is a big Melanesian population with cultural practices similar to those in many countries in the Blue Pacific.”
If ever I have heard or seen a dumb statement ever, this is up there with many of Donald Trump’s and counting.
Pato continues on with, “We should look at this as a bond of unity between the Blue Pacific and Indonesia and reject any moves to make it a cause of dispute.”
Tell that to the governments of Solomon Islands and Vanuatu and the majority of ordinary citizens of PNG who, however, do not share this cowardly view while we continue to witness the genocide of our Melanesian brothers in West Papua.
Then on page 26 of the same paper, human rights advocates raised concerns about child welfare in Papua’s Highlands region most notably from the Nduga regency due to displacement from the fierce fighting.
This escalated last year and is part of a pattern that has been ongoing since 1963 due to the
illegal invasion and annexation and then the fake referendum in 1969.
Unless and until the West Papuan referendum issue is addressed for their political expedience for a change, there will never be any peace.
The Indonesian Government, for their political expedience, is all-systems-go in this crime
against humanity, and there will soon be no more diversity in
West Papua for Pato to sing praises to.
As point man in the PNG Government’s foreign policy, Pato, needs to stop drinking the cool aid supplied by the Indonesian Government and wake up from his alternate reality.
At least have the courage and decency to ask about the welfare of the West Papuans for the sake of their human rights.
That’s not too much to ask now, is it?

Raymond Bure