of West Irian repression
p. 30 · Read in the full issue
Fierce New Guinea criticism of West Irian repression
Two West Irianese Parliamentarians in June were offered $4,000 by Australian members of the Papua-New Guinea House of Assembly so they could fly to the United Nations with a petition alleging Indonesian repression and atrocities in West Irian.
Mr. Willem Zonggonao and Mr.
Clemens Runaweri were sent across the border (they told the Australians) by the Free Papua Movement which is trying to prevent Indonesia getting sovereign control of West Irian dur ing the act of free choice from July 14 to August 5.
Mr. Zonggonao was one of the leaders of the political convention at Hollandia (now Djayapura) in October, 1961, to choose a national anthem, flag and coat of arms for what they hoped would become, in 1970, the Republic of West New Guinea (West Papua).
In Djakarta, Foreign Minister Mr.
Adam Malik reportedly greeted news of the Zonggonao-Runaweri crossing of the border as the “act of guilty men who were in a plot to try to kill our military commander in West Irian, Brigadier-General Sarwo Edhie, and the United Nations Special Repre sentative, Dr. Fernando Ortiz-Sanz”.
In Port Moresby, elements of the Free Papua Movement were tipped off a fortnight before the crossing, and began trying to raise money for the trip to New York with the petition.
Permissive residence
At the end of the month, Runaweri and Zonggonao were shipped to remote Manus Island by the Aus tralian administration and offered permissive residence. There was no government offer to help them reach New York.
Then, a group of seven elected Australian members of the Papua- New Guinea House of Assembly arranged to guarantee $4,000 to help the two men get to New York. Those involved included Mr. John Middle ton, Mr. T. J. Leahy and Mr. W. A.
Lussick.
Mr. Leahy had a conference with the Administrator, Mr. Hay, and eventually persuaded him that the two men should be allowed to go to New York “so that West Irian can at least put its side of what is happening over there”.
In the parliamentary lobbies, official members tried to impress on native elected members even more firmly that Australia handles Papua- New Guinea’s foreign affairs, and that elected native members should not contribute to the $4,000 fund be cause they would be aligning their country against their Indonesian neighbours in West Irian.
In the House itself there was strong criticism of Indonesia’s attitude in West Irian.
Meanwhile, Australia and Indo nesia have achieved a new political rapport along the 455-mile, jungled border between Papua-New Guinea and West Irian.
Djakarta and Canberra are looking at the possibility of marking the border for the first time, by defoliating the jungle.
Border plan
American defoliants used early this year in Vietnam have been examined, and Papua-New Guinea’s Division of Surveys is now testing an Australian defoliant near Port Moresby.
The Director of Lands, Surveys and Mines, Mr. Donald Grove, told the June House of Assembly that nobody had decided yet whether the defoliation of the border jungle was desirable or feasible. However, the testing would continue.
In the meantime, two senior District Administration officers from Port Moresby, Mr. Royce Webb and Mr. Ken Brown, have completed the first round of conferences in the West Irian capital, Djayapura, to establish liaison between patrol posts on both sides of the border (p. 19, also).
The Indonesians and Australians want to be in the position to head off any large-scale border crossings by West Irianese, during the act of free choice or afterwards.
The Djayapura conference followed confirmation that Indonesian soldiers had penetrated more than eight miles into Papua late in May, and had shot
dead one West Irian refugee, Julis Yam. An Australian coroner found that Yam had been shot in the head on May 29 and that a dead com panion found with him, Pius Leonardus Ndiken, had died of un known causes.
A third West Irianese, Johanes Kidop, was captured by the Indo nesian patrol but escaped after three days. All three West Irianese had been among more than 250 con tacted in Australian territory by patrols investigating a reported Indo nesian attack on a refugee camp on May 18, 12 miles inside Papua.
The two dead men, Kidop and two others had been sent off by an Australian District Officer, Arthur Marks, with baggage when an Indo nesian patrol surprised them on a river bank, and began shooting.
",.. chasing the killers"
The Indonesians left in the baggage a note: “We do not want to fight (Australian) Papuans—we are only chasing the killers”.
This was interpreted as a reference to a reported skirmish in May on the Indonesian side of the border, in which two Indonesians were said to have been killed by villagers.
At the end of June, nearly 340 West Irianese had crossed the border since April 26, when Indonesians chased 80 men, women and children into Wutung, at the northern end of the border. All are being processed for permissive residence in Papua- New Guinea.