Comments on: Australia needs to ‘step up’ on West Papua, says Vanuatu at UN assembly https://asiapacificreport.nz/2019/09/30/australia-needs-to-step-up-on-west-papua-says-vanuatu-at-un-assembly/ Independent Asia Pacific news and analysis Mon, 30 Sep 2019 11:28:48 +0000 hourly 1 By: Veronica Furrie https://asiapacificreport.nz/2019/09/30/australia-needs-to-step-up-on-west-papua-says-vanuatu-at-un-assembly/#comment-14123 Mon, 30 Sep 2019 11:28:48 +0000 https://asiapacificreport.nz/?p=40930#comment-14123 Greetings from Adelaide, South Australia
Thank God for Vanuatu setting an example to the rest of the world and Australia and refusing to turn a blind eye to the human rights atrocities being committed against the people of West Papua by the Indonesian military just like they did with East Timor.
As an Australian who cares about human rights, the rule of law and fairness I have difficulty in understanding how General Wiranto can possibly be in a position to settle historic human rights abuses in West Papua, when the United Nations in February 2003 indicted the same man, General Wiranto, Indonesia’s former armed forces commander and commanding officer in East Timor in 1999, for crimes against humanity during East Timor’s bloody vote for independence. Gen Wiranto, was regarded as the officer principally responsible for the bloodletting that swept the former Indonesian territory during the UN-sponsored referendum.

President Joko Widodo in appointing Wiranto as Indonesia’s Security Minister illustrates that he was never serious about human rights.

Viva Vanuatu

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