[For several decades there have been allegations that a referendum held by the United Nations on the handover of Papua from Dutch to Indonesian control in 1969 was not free and fair. The small group of Papuans who were allowed to vote on their country's future in that poll, have since claimed they were intimidated into voting in favour of an Indonesian takeover. And now new evidence has emerged about UN misconduct in the organisation of the poll.]
Transcript:
Fitzgerald: John Saltford the author of "The Anatomy of Betrayal" claims he has found new evidence that the United Nations strayed from its responsibilities in organising the Papua referendum in 1969.
He says he has data to show the UN breached an international agreement it brokered on how Papua's future status would be determined.
For example, obligations under the so-called New York agreement required that all Papuans over the age of 18 should be allowed to vote on their territory's future. But, in fact only just over 1,000 handpicked Papuans were in the end permitted to vote.
Saltford: "Now when the vote took place and when the Secretary General made his report, he said an act of free choice has taken place, or an act of self-determination has taken place in accordance with Indonesian practice. And then they changed this word international, to Indonesian with no explanation, just let it go through. I mean that's deceit.
"Another article, Article 16, a number of UN experts were supposed to remain in the territory following the transfer of administrative responsibility to Indonesia in 1963.
"This was after the UN left and the task of these UN experts was to advise and assist the Indonesians in their preparations for Papuan self-determination.
"Now in fact the Indonesians weren't very keen on these UN experts coming in and the UN didn't bother pressing it and so none of these UN experts were there.
"So for a whole five or six years before a UN team arrived the act of self-determination, none of these experts had been on the ground."
Fitzgerald: Dr Saltford says the UN abandoned its impartiality in conducting the poll and says senior UN officials actually lied to the UN General Assembly about opposition to any Indonesian takeover.
Saltford: "I mean there's evidence from Australian and UN documents as early as 1963 that certainly Indonesia and the UN and the Dutch privately thought well we could have an act of self-determination involving just eight or 900 representatives with no need for a proper referendum of plebiscite.
"So the UN knew this years ago and yet in '68-69 they were claiming otherwise.
"Another example would be in the Secretary General's actual official report to the UN General Assembly, this is the official record of the whole procedure, he said that there had been petitions on pro and against the Indonesian position in West Papua and he said that the majority of these had been in favour of Indonesia, they seemed pro-Indonesian.
"Now I actually went to the UN archives, I requested a lot of information be declassified and I'm very grateful that they did do that. But having looked at the list, there's a basic list of these petitions and a synopsis of each one, it's just not true, the majority were in favour of genuine self-determination.
"So it's just another example of how the UN were happy to collude."
Fitzgerald: Is there anything really new in these findings though? I mean it's been alleged for some time that the act of free choice vote, which was held back in the '60s that passed Papua over to Indonesia wasn't free and fair. What's really new about your findings?
Saltford: "What I hope I found is by looking at UN documents, by going to New York looking at those, they were declassified as I say at my request ... Looking at Australian documents in Canberra, British documents here in London and for American documents and talking to people what I hope I found is actually putting the evidence to show that the UN collaborated with Indonesia.
"The UN was prepared to turn a blind eye, the UN was prepared to do all it could really to see that the whole process would go through and that meant denying the Papuans their right to self-determination, which was actually guaranteed in a UN brokered agreement, this New York agreement."
Fitzgerald: Doctor Saltford believes the UN is no longer the same body it was back in 1969. He says new members like Vanuatu have joined up, countries who are more interested in the fate of indigenous peoples like the Papuans. But, he says some UN officials directly involved in the Papuan handover still hold senior positions within the UN bureaucracy.