PORT VILA, 06 SEPTEMBER 2018 (VANUATU DAILY POST) — “It is high time for the international community and the United Nations (UN) to call on Indonesia to stop mass killings of innocent West Papuan Melanesians. It is an unthinkable and inhumane act by Indonesia to continue the genocide practices it is carrying out on indigenous Melanesians in West Papua. It must be stopped.”
Shem Rarua, President of the Oceania Decolonisation Committee (ODC) is appealing to the international community and the UN to do something urgently.
He said in 2009, the Papua National Leadership, appointed a Committee that came to be known as Oceania Decolonization Committee, based in Port Vila, to address the issues of West Papua and the desire of the West Papuan Melanesians for the right to freedom through political independence.
The Oceania Committee on Decolonisation is a non-Government Organisation that enshrines Christian Principles and also promotes culture and traditional values of the Peoples of Oceania.
The President of ODC said the issue of West Papua and the cry of the indigenous Melanesians to be freed from the Indonesian military occupation and genocide activities has reached the state where the international community and the UN need to put the end of the genocide first, then move to the next platform to dialogue for political freedom for the West Papuan Melanesians.
“The history of this ongoing conflict and the role played by the international community in the struggle for self determination and an end to the colonial oppression, environmental destruction, and suffering of the West Papua Melanesians is, most urgent,” he said.
“Agendas on this issue must be brought forth and given highest priority by the international community and the UN.”
He said gross human right violations has becoming too much to bear by any human society in this world.
He went on to state that “while many people and organizations regionally and internationally speak for West Papua before and today, time becomes an essence as to when will there be and end by Indonesia of the brutal killings of human beings inside West Papua by the Jakarta military.
“We need the international community, we need the UN, we need the International Lawyers, we need the International Criminal Court, to collectively act now and not wait for another time or everyone wait to see the entire population of West Papua totally wiped out by the Indonesia military.”
He congratulates the Government and the Minister of Foreign Affairs for Vanuatu’s unwavering stand on West Papua struggle for political freedom to the UN Committee on de-colonization in 2019 and pledges ODC support at this level……
