Separatist leaders from the Indonesian province of West Papua say they are not troubled by Australian Prime Minister John Howard's latest statement that Australia will recognise the territorial integrity of Indonesia. Mr Howard reiterated the policy on Monday as part of a joint declaration on partnership with the visiting Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Presenter/Interviewer: Paul Allen
Speakers: John Howard, Australian Prime Minister; Andy Ayamiseda, West Papua People's Representative; Richard Chauvel, Head of Australia Asia Pacific Institute
Allen: Australian Prime Ministers have said this before, and on Monday, current Prime Minister John Howard said it again. Australia supports the territorial integrity of Indonesia, and won't back any separatist movements.
Howard: I made it very clear to the President that Australia fully respects the territorial integrity of the Indonesian republic, that is a given our relationship. It has long been the position of the Australian Government that in relation to such issues as the Papua secession movement and also in Aceh we respect Indonesia's integrity, and that is something that is mentioned in the over arching agreement.
Allen: Andy Ayamiseda, of the West Papua people's representative office in Vanuatu, is neither surprised nor disappointed by this official lack of support for the independence movement in the Indonesian province.
Ayamiseda: It doesn't bother us. We have been struggling for the last four decades without any assistance of anybody, so it doesn't really bother us whether he (Howard) recognise or not.
Allen: Mr Ayamiseda has every reason to be relaxed about Prime Minister Howard's approach. Australian Governments have made these statements before, and then later done the complete opposite. Here's Richard Chauvel, head of the Australian Asia Pacific Institute.
Chauvel: I think the difficulty from the Australian Government's point of view is that the frequency of the statement has been inversely related to the degree to which it's been believed. That relates very much to our role in 1999 with respect to East Timor. Prior to '99 it had been the oft stated and formally stated position of the Australian Government and successive Australian Government's that we supported Indonesian sovereignty in East Timor, and in Indonesian eyes, until it came to the crunch that support evaporated.
Allen: Chauvel doubts many of West Papua's more realistic independence leaders will be very surprised by Prime Minister Howard's latest restatement of Australia's respect for the territorial integrity of Indonesia. But he believes a similar reversal of policy to what happened with East Timor will be much tougher in West Papua.
Chauvel: In this case west Papua is another ballgame. West Papua in Indonesian eyes is a much more integral and important part of Indonesia than East Timor ever was. not only much more important economically, more resource rich than East Timor, but Indonesia fought the Dutch for some 12 or 13 years in the 1950s and early 60s in their eyes to regain of control of West Papua.
Allen: But the determination of West Papua's independence leaders does not seem to have lost any momentum. West Papua people's representative Andy Ayamiseda expects his movement to win the day, regardless of what the Australian Government says.
Ayamiseda: We believe that all the Australian people's heart are with us despite government's position. Australian people are fairly fair in their judgement, and any violation that occurred in East Timor us happening in West Papua, and eventually things will go that way. Our international diplomacy is very advanced. There is no way Indonesia is going to stop this diplomacy.