The United States Congress is to vote on a bill which could see the US Government ordered to monitor the human rights situation in the Indonesian province of West Papua. The House International Relations Committee has passed the State Department Authorisation Act for the next financial year.

It contains a requirement that US diplomats report on the implementation of Indonesia's special autonomy law for the mainly Melanesian province.

Presenter/Interviewer: Bruce Hill

Speaker: US Congressman Faleomavaega Eni Hunkin: American Samoa

Faleomavaega: Well I think for the first time we've gotten some sense of attention on the part of the Congress in giving some sense of recognition of the plight of the people of West Papua, and I think the provisions of this portion of the State Authorisation Bill gives notice to our State Department as well as to the administration that there's beginning to see now the attention of the Congress in understanding the history, the legacy and the plights, the sufferings of all that has happened to the colony of West Papua New Guinea since its inception when the Dutch first colonised this province and this colony, and then it became a colony of Indonesia, and as far as I'm concerned it continues to be a colony of Indonesia.

This autonomy law that the Indonesian government passed in 2001 is an absolute sham, it's a farce, and we are wanting to request it be the State Department make a full investigation of this area to try and find out if in fact the autonomy law really is being applied to the provisions of the laws, really being applied, and we have every reason to believe it's not.

Hill: This was passed by the International Relations Committee but it still hasn't passed the full House or the Senate, so it's not binding yet. What are the chances of it going through all those?

Faleomavaega: Well we're planning on having the bill come before the floor of the House sometime next week.

Hill: Couldn't this cause problems diplomatically between the United States and Indonesia?

Faleomavaega: We've gone through these cycles sometimes and I will say that I am not in agreement with the policy of my own government relative to West Papua New Guinea for obvious reasons. To say that in the name of terrorism that we're not going to give serious consideration, especially by the President's own mouth, it's an inaugural address and it is addressed before the Joint Session of the Congress in February, how serious he is about promoting it, enhancing democracy throughout the world, just as he's trying to demonstrate that to, in the Middle East, to the people of Iraq, a very commendable effort on his part, and this is what really amazes me, what I consider the height of hypocrisy on the part of the Australian government to recognise the territorial or internal matter within Indonesia and West Papua. It tells me that this is somewhat of a contradiction, a hypocrisy to say that here your own backyard neighbour where the atrocities and the killings continue, and Australia sends thousands of soldiers or whatever number they sent to Iraq to promote democracy there. It's saying we haven't even cleaned up our own backyard.

Hill: This bill has only been passed by a committee; it still hasn't been passed by the full Congress or the Senate yet. Often these things are seen as gestures and it doesn't really mean that the Executive branch of government really has to do anything. Isn't this basically still just a shot across Indonesia's bows? Isn't it just talk really at the moment?

Faleomavaega: Well how do you think the people of East Timor finally got what they wanted after 200-thousand some East Timorese were murdered and tortured by the Indonesian military? It took them about 30 years to achieve final independence, and some people have said to me well gee you're causing a lot of disturbance and havoc here, if you want to promote democracy and all this to the people of West Papua New Guinea. I'd rather die trying to live as a free person than to be subjected to slavery, to intimidation and to the kind of thing that now the Indonesian military continues to harass and to do all these kinds of evil acts against the people of West Papua. I just don't think that that's conscionable.