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Indonesian Minister on Papua Conflict: ‘We get it’
September 28, 2011

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Darwinista
1:20pm Sep 28, 2011

Just hollow, diplomatic, talk. Like the indians in the USA, the aboriginis in Australia, the Tibetans in China, the papuas in Papua are doomed. They are already a minority in their country, have lost the rights to their forest and land are less educated and have less health care then the immigrants in their province. Illegal Thai fishing has brought AIDS that nobody cares about. I feel sorry for the Papua's but see the future very bleak.

padt
10:39am Sep 28, 2011

No Marty doesn't get it. The only ones who are getting anything in Papua are those members of certain Indonesian establishments who are over there involved in and protecting their illegal mining and forestry businesses - under the guise of being over there supposedly doing other things.

And Marty - they are not going to give up anything, and you know it - and they will ruthlessly continue to suppress everything and everyone if they think it necessary to protect their illegal interests.

If the Foreign Minister thinks a few words of cliche are going to convince people he is monumentally out of touch with reality and risks being remembered for insulting people's intelligence.

Autonomy for Papua? There is a snow flakes chance in hell of that happening under the present mentality, lack of transparency, accountability and practices which are throttling democracy in Indonesia.

SirAnthonyKnown-Bender
10:18am Sep 28, 2011

“But when there are problems,” he said, “let’s address them in an inclusive way and problem-solving way rather than simply creating more challenges ahead.”

Yes, let's all sing a few choruses of "We are the World". Or perhaps not... www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/11/10

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New York. Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said on Tuesday that his government was fully aware of problems in restive Papua and was working to find a way to deliver autonomy.

Speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, Natalegawa said that Indonesia has listened to human rights groups and sought ways to address legitimate concerns since the country embraced democracy in the 1990s.

“The key thing here, to all our international interlocutors, friends, and [those] both critical as well as supportive: We get it,” Natalegawa said.

He said that the two provinces of Papua “need special attention, special empowerment. Autonomy is the way to go.”

“But when there are problems,” he said, “let’s address them in an inclusive way and problem-solving way rather than simply creating more challenges ahead.”

Indonesia took over Papua in 1969 and has since faced a low-level insurgency. Human Rights Watch says that Indonesian forces have killed civilians and imprisoned peaceful activists.

Indonesia in 2001 introduced autonomy in Papua -- a vast, mineral-rich province that shares an island with Papua New Guinea -- but local activists say that the implementation has been half-hearted and not improved their rights.

Natalegawa stressed to his audience that Indonesia was open to change, saying that its positions at the UN Security Council on issues including North Korea and Myanmar has gradually evolved.

Natalegawa said, without further details, that the government was considering its positions on Iran and human rights-related issues including capital punishment.

Agence France-Presse