Len Garae – "This report is an act of solidarity, I make it clear that this struggle is the struggle of the people of Papua. It is not my struggle as an Australian, but I am proud to be in solidarity with them and to support them in whatever they want."
The Executive Officer of the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission in Brisbane, Peter Urns made the statement before handing over the Report to the Chairman of Vanuatu Free West Papua Association, Pastor Allan Nafuki in front of the Paton Memorial (Presbyterian) Church at Independence Park yesterday.
In February this year, the Executive Officer went to West Papua for the second time with a small delegation, after the Pacific Island Forum Summit agreed to seek Indonesian Government cooperation for a South Pacific human rights fact finding mission to be sent to West Papua which has not happened. His group was the first "shadow fact finding mission" to West Papua this year.
The 24-page Report called "We will lose everything on a Human Rights Fact Finding Mission to West Papua", is produced by the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission following its visit to West Papua last February.
The Report has documented the constant killings and human rights abuses of the West Papuans despite assurances from the Indonesian Government that such atrocities have stopped.
The Executive Officer explains, "When we did this report, Papuans showed us where we would go (in West Papua) and they guided us and told us what we could do and what we could not do.
"And when we finished the draft of the report, we handed it to our Papuan friends who told us what changes were needed and they gave us final approval before we released it as an act of solidarity.
"And it is a great pleasure to have this launched here in Port Vila today (yesterday), in Fiji yesterday (before yesterday), in Australia last Sunday, in Jakarta even today (yesterday) to say the people of Melanesia agree that this is the voice of the people of West Papua that we are trying to represent solely, as I said to one Papuan friend, that this is the voice of the people of West Papua, and not the voice of the Government of Indonesia.
"And so it is with great pleasure that I hand this Report over to the Chairman of the Vanuatu Free West Papua Association, Pastor Allan Nafuki."
Pastor Nafuki launched the Report and blessed it with a prayer while the West Papuan Morning Star Flag was flying freely in the wind outside the church.
The Executive Officer Peter Urns is also leading the coordination team of the Australian West Papua solidarity movement with the United Liberation Movement of West Papua.