Message from West Papuan tribesman, Sem Karoba

by Badman Thu Aug 14, 2003 13:53

Nor mr smart. There is an island called 'Ireland' that was referred to, no ambiguity, no confusion, no mention of a political entity, just the name of a fucking pile of peat in the middle of the Atlantic - you can be a banana republican, an orange man living in the dark ages, or a native of tallaghtfornia or moronia - it doesn't matter, you still live on an island called Ireland (the only other name I know for it is Hibernia - the land of Winter).

by Mr Angry Thu Aug 14, 2003 13:39

or in the UK as stated above

by Ali la Pointe - FEIC Thu Aug 14, 2003 12:44

As mentioned in the Raytheon piece above, afri have a (non-exhaustive) list of companies from throughout Ireland that are tied into the arms trade. It can be found at this link.

by Ali la Pointe - fu-fighting anti-imperialistas Thu Aug 14, 2003 12:32

Get a life

by Seáinín Wed Aug 13, 2003 20:56

Now I see.

by Ali la Pointe - fu-fighting anti-imperialistas Wed Aug 13, 2003 17:14

Raytheon, whose Derry software plant is developing ASTOR (Airbourne STand Off Radar) funded from £800 million from the UK's Ministry of Defence, a targeting system for guiding missiles, helicopters and attack aircraft, is also the world's largest missile manufacturer. They make Tomahawk Cruise, Hellfire, Sidewinder, Patriot and various other types of air-to-air, surface-to-air and anti-tank missiles. They are also the manufacturers of the infamous "daisy cutters" (JSOWs), the delivery systems for cluster bombs, napalm-type incendiary devices and various types of mines.

Raytheon have, along with people like British Aerospace, Shorts, Boeing etc., been funding the Indonesian military since the 1970s, cutting deals with generals to arm the government and giving the same generals political and financial leverage, thus contributing directly to Indonesia's genocidal expansionism. Raytheon are also the main sponsors of the "US-Indonesia Friendship Society" a pro-Suharto lobby which glossed over massacres and other human rights abuses to attract US investors to Indonesia.

That's just in Derry, there's also Shorts in Belfast and others. A good guide to companies in Ireland (north and south) which are integrated into the military-industrial complex can be found on the AFrI website. (you'll have to do a google on that one as i can't remember what it is).

Oh and, Seánin, try and find a more respectful way to refer to Sem than "this character" after all, he is more than respectful to us...

by Seáinín Wed Aug 13, 2003 16:58

If you like a bit of rough like me.

by Seáinín Wed Aug 13, 2003 16:46

This character is claiming that weapons are being produced in Ireland for use in over there.


What/where/how???

by Donal D. Wed Aug 13, 2003 10:58

NZ Herald Wednesday August 12, 2003

Pacific Islands Forum: Getting down to the nitty-gritty


In the first of a three-part series, Theresa Garner looks at the issues that
will dominate the forum in Auckland this week

* * *
Asked to come up with a poem that illustrated Pacific themes for this year's annual Pacific Islands Forum, Wellington poet Kate Camp went for the romantic approach, coining the phrase "Stars in the Sea" as part of a
dreamy word-picture of blue sea, flowers and shells.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which paid $500 for the effort, liked the wording so much it used it as the title for a glossy book put out to celebrate the forum. But it is the gritty reality of the Pacific Islands that will demand attention at the Auckland summit this week.

Since the last forum in Fiji, report after report has highlighted the bleak state of Pacific countries, from gun problems and lax security threatening the stability of the region, to stagnant or backward economies, to
poverty and corruption. And leaders will meet in
Auckland at a time when soldiers and police from member countries are patrolling the streets of another's capital in the best example of
what can go wrong in the Pacific.

Under Operation Helpem Fren - Solomons pidgin for helping a friend -
Australian and New Zealand troops and police have been deployed to restore law and order after four years of ethnic fighting. Their mandate was the forum's Biketawa Declaration. At the time of its signing on Biketawa Island in Kiribati in 2000, Prime Minister Helen
Clark said: "There is a step beyond the talk, talk, talk."

The declaration, a code of intervention in member countries during crises, was a major change for an organisation that prided itself on its Pacific way of not doing anything to cause offence to other members. But as Clark said at the time, no one envisaged
military coups or the complete breakdown of law and order when the forum first met in 1971. And with global and national security concerns on his mind, Australian Prime Minister John Howard has sent strong signals that he wants to be the region's policeman, promoting Australia as a "long-term guardian" which would take a more
"interventionist" role in the Pacific.

Hugh Laracy, an associate professor of Pacific history at Auckland University, says with the Solomons intervention under way, awareness
of problems that beset the islands is at an "acute" level this year.

Despite the forum's consensus on the intervention, concerns about what has been termed a move to "recolonise" the country will be on the minds of smaller nations. One independent Solomons MP, former Prime Minister
Manasseh Sogavare, has said the intervention was an attempt to recolonise and control his troubled nation.

Laracy says the states could expect more "firm" and less "indulgent" talk from their aid donors, Australia and New Zealand. Other interventions would be quite proper "if we reach the point of propping up corrupt
and inefficient regimes with our taxpayers' money, against the aspirations of so many of the people", he said.

"Given the way things are so acute now, I think Pacific Island nations really need to recognise their vulnerability and accept the broad leaf
historical record of Australian and New Zealand
goodwill toward the islands. "If there are protestations about sovereignty and autonomy, it can wear a bit thin. It would be unwise of them to get offside with New Zealand or Australia."

Pacific countries got more from the relationship than New Zealand did. "Overall, the relationship has been pretty friendly and generous. I think they may well need to recognise that. "Every so often, sovereignty and cultural autonomy tend to be covers or rationalisationfor inefficiency and incompetence, and lack of probity in running their affairs. "You can see that in the Solomons, and it turns up in Tonga
as well. Criticise them, and they're likely to fall back on claims of sovereignty."

As well as the Solomons crisis, at the top of everyone'sminds will be the election of a new Secretary-General to head the forum. The
contract for the present head, Noel Levi from Papua New Guinea, Expires this year.

In the running are Tagaloa Tuala, Samoa's Minister for Lands and Environment, Australian Greg Urwin, a former senior foreign affairs
official, Tongan Dr Langi Kavaliku, a former
Deputy Prime Minister, and Vinci Clodumar, Nauru's Ambassador to the United Nations. If the job goes to Urwin there is likely to be controversy, because a Pacific Islander from a smaller state has always held the position.

His nomination has been seen by some states as a
sign Australia is trying to dominate the forum. There is little doubt Australia's new assertiveness in the Pacific will make a mark this year.

But with the prospect of fresh blood comes the hope that it will be accompanied by a strong drive to do things better and pool resources in the "Pacific way".

Australian Professor Helen Hughes, in a controversial report released by the
Centre for Independent Studies, said the forum wasted the aid funds on which it depended, and was "ineffectual because the Pacific states are
not interested in any measures that would
rationalise administration and thus deprive them of jealously guarded political and public service jobs".

With such an indictment, the forum
will be looking to deliver results. No one burning issue is expected to dominate,
but a range of vulnerabilities and concerns will
be on the table. The Pacific countries will be seeking ways in which they can enhance and protect their resources and fisheries and deal with the effects of globalisation.

The hope is that this forum will bring a strong sense of going back to basics and finding ways to work co-operatively for regional needs. But
Progressive Coalition MP and former
Associate Foreign Affairs Minister Matt Robson says he has seen no sign that the "essential" issue of development is at the forefront, rather than security concerns. "The question of democracy is also a big one, because
without democracy, which includes the right of a free press and political parties to operate, we're not going to get anywhere."

This was because inadequate leaderships "can go from one government to another to get what they need". Of the larger countries with an
interest in
the Pacific, he said: "I don't think they are particularly concerned with development. They are concerned with keeping these people on side. "So if New Zealand gives Tonga a hard time, they'll just shrug their shoulders
and say 'oh well, we'll approach Japan, China or the US'."

Laracy said there was a risk to Pacific nations in cosying up to larger countries."It may give immediate short-term relief in aid and
assistance but, again, they're getting into unfamiliar territory with people with
whom they haven't had a shared history or tradition.

"My feeling is that no matter what our faults are, at least we're the devils they know."Another concern for Robson was getting proper taxation systems in place. "It is clear that many elites of these countries have a First
World standard, whereas their people have a dire Third World standard of living.

I don't think at present our Government knows a way forward on these issues." Meanwhile, an anti-corruption group says electoral corruption
and the "politics of division" remain dangerous characteristics of Pacific Island countries.

Transparency International says that "throughout the Pacific, gift-giving cultures - exploited as they are by foreign interests - may help to
obfuscate the insidious reality of corruption.

"Pacific Islanders tend to find Western definitions of corruption unconvincing in view of their own societies of communal dependence."

The group says that with the apportioning of aid moving in the direction of peacekeeping and security, multinational investors have stepped in to supplement aid shortages, allowing corrupt relationships to flourish.

And throughout the region, the traditional protections against corruption, such
as an independent Judiciary, open government and accountable public and private sector activities, are under strain.

by Intl. Tue Aug 12, 2003 22:11

The international solidarity movement for West Papua, meeting in Otara, Tamaki Makaurau, Aotearoa (New Zealand) from 8-10 August, calls upon the members of the Pacific Islands Forum to remember the unresolved tragedy of the Pacific people of West Papua when they meet in Auckland later this week.

The movement urges Forum leaders to grant West Papua observer status as a step to resuming its role in Pacific regional affairs, a right denied to the West Papua people for the past forty years.

It welcomes the Forum's previous expressions of concern about the human rights situation in West Papua, but urges the Forum leaders to take further action in response to the deteriorating situation in the territory and the targeting of human rights defenders.

The solidarity movement calls upon the Forum leaders to send a fact-finding mission to West Papua to investigate the human rights situation there and to press Forum dialogue partner Indonesia to:-

a) end military operations in West Papua, start the process of de-militarisation and halt the activities of Laskar Jihad and all militia forces;

b) renew efforts to resolve the conflict by peaceful means in accordance with the call by the people of West Papua for their country to be made a Land of Peace;

c) ensure the safety and protection of all human right defenders, enabling them to carry out their activities without intimidation or obstruction;

d) bring to justice those responsible for serious crimes committed in West Papua, including the killing of Papuan leader Theys Eluay in November 2001.

The movement strongly urges the Forum members to condemn the violations against West Papuan women and children as a result of the Indonesian militarisation of the territory. The Forum should resolve to end all forms of military cooperation with Indonesia, including the training of
military personnel.

The movement further condemns the systematic destruction of the environment and cultural structures of the West Papuan people, and calls on Forum leaders to address the dire humanitarian situation of West Papuan refugees in Papua New Guinea and to take steps to protect their legal and human rights.

Recognising that the root cause of the human rights problems in West Papua is the fraudulent Act of 'Free' Choice, which was part of an attempt to legitimise the take over of West Papua by Indonesia in 1969, the solidarity movement urges the Forum to support widespread demands
for the United Nations to review its conduct at the time and for West Papua to be reinstated on the agenda of the UN Decolonisation Committee.

by WP Tue Aug 12, 2003 22:10

Vigil at Netherlands Embassy in support of West Papua
There will be a vigil outside the Netherlands Embassy from 11.00am to 12.00pm (please note time) on 15 August 2003, the 41st anniversary of the New York Agreement concerning West Papua. Activists have been protesting at the Embassy since 15 August last year.

Address: 160 Merrion Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4.

The Netherlands signed an Agreement at United Nations Headquarters in New York with the Indonesian Government (the West Papuans weren't involved in the Agreement), where they agreed, inter alia, that an "act of self-determinaton in accordance with international practice" would take place within six years in West Papua. It never happened Netherlands government did nothing, and continue to remain silent, 41 years later.

It is time for the Netherlands to call publicly as a matter of urgency for a proper act of self-determination in West Papua in accordance with international practice as they agreed to at the UN 41 years ago on August 15, 1962.

The West Papuan people continue to suffer the consequences of silence with at least 100,000 deaths at the hands of the Indonesian military since 1963.

West Papua, north of Australia, was taken over by Indonesia in 1963.

For more information on West Papua: http://westpapuaaction.buz.org

West Papua Action
134 Phibsborough Road, Dublin 7
Tel. 01 - 860 3431
Fax. 01 - 882 7576
Email wpaction@iol.ie

by Infosource Tue Aug 12, 2003 22:08

(1) Engage in awarness activities through speakers, forums,gigs, leaflets, articles, news reports, interviews, documentaries etc..

(2) Lobby the Irish government and local representatives for immediate action on West Papua. The government basically states that, despite what we saw from East Timor, Indonesia can be trusted to pursue peace through dialogue. What crap! - The Irish government are also complicit in their support of the 1969 Act of Free Choice, which ensured West Papua's integration into Indonesia.

(3) Protest/Direct Action against BP, Freeport MacMoran, Rio Tinto who are raping the natural wonders of West Papua and ensuring mass human rights violations. Senator George Mitchell and Irishman Peter Sutherland are assisting BP in their noble deeds.

(4) Call on the Netherlands to abide by the New York Agreement which stated that West Papua must be allowed decide its future, following the withdrawl of the colonial regime. Essentially, in common with most colonial powers, the Dutch have washed their hands of this bloody history.

(5) Demand that West Papua's remaining cultures and languages are free from the ongoing corporate, church and government abuses that are forcing 'integration'.

(6) Work for the preservation of some of the world's last remaining rainforests and unique eco-systems.

(7) Provide 'ground support' for West Papuan activists such as Sem Karoba. Basics such as travel expenses can make a huge difference as no mainstream NGO is providing such support.

(8) Acknowledge that the so called 'development' of Ireland, of the Western world, is built of the blood and rape of tribal peoples and their lands the world over. A complete overhaul of our economics, our thinking, our consumer behaviour is needed.

by Infosource Tue Aug 12, 2003 21:56

More information on West Papua can be found via:

New Internationalist West Papua edition:
http://www.newint.org/issue344/contents.htm

WestPapua.net - bilingual news and info site:
http://www.westpapua.net

Friends of People Close to Nature (FPCN):
http://www.fpcn-global.org/tribes/oceania/melanesian/west-papua/index.php

- Sem Karoba = koteka@westpapua.net