SPECIAL AUTONOMY IN WEST PAPUA: SOLUTION OR SOURCE OF PROBLEMS? (6)

Conclusion

For Markus Haluk, Executive Director of the United Liberation Movement of West Papua (ULMWP), it's clear that the special autonomy program (OTSUS) with the creation of new provinces in West Papua is not the solution to the conflict between Jakarta and Papuan separatists.

During the 21 years of special autonomy in Papua, the Indonesian government has been unable to solve the problems of health and education. Papua is the poorest province in Indonesia. It also has the highest mortality rate from HIV/AIDS. 

Whether OTSUS is a solution or a source of problems is a minor question compared to whether Indonesia is Papua's future, whether the Republic of Indonesia is a home for the Papuan people.

The presentations made it clear that Indonesia sees Papua as its future. Indeed, Indonesia has tenaciously held Papua in its grip since 1963. Papua, for its part, sees Indonesia as its misfortune. This is reflected in the fierce sixty-year struggle of the Papuan people to break away from the Indonesian republic.

The special autonomy imposed by Indonesia on Papua is not a solution. OTSUS is merely a unilateral policy of the Indonesian colonial government within its political framework for the conquest of Papua. Development projects aim to expel indigenous Papuans from their lands. This reality is obvious!

The question now is: "What can we do to stop the process of genocide, ethnocide and ecocide in West Papua?" 

Our conscience compels us to take a stand and act for the independence of West Papua. Let's support ULMWP: we must save the last Papuans before they are exterminated by the Indonesian colonial regime through its development projects, military operations and a whole range of other pragmatic policies.