Dear, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia
Retno Lestari Priansari Marsudi, S.I.P., LL.M.
To Whom I Respect,
May you always be in a good and healthy condition and protected by God.
My name is Christin Chatrin Nebore, a student who was born and raised in the city of Sorong, West Papua.
On this occasion, we disagreed with the answers and statements of the diplomat representatives of the Republic of Indonesia at the 75th UN General Assembly held on Saturday, September 26, 2020.
Related with the speech of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Vanuatu, he spoke about human rights violations in Papua in his speech. Of course, the Minister must have found out in advance. However, there were some firm answers given by the sister with the initials SAP. Actually, it does not match the reality experienced by indigenous Papuans in Indonesia.
She rebuked the Republic of Vanuatu, which was considered to have an unhealthy obsession with how Indonesia should govern its own country, and lost the essence of the fundamental principles in the UN Charter. That the Indonesian nation, which is spread across more than 17,400 islands, is committed to human rights, respects diversity, and respects tolerance. Everyone has something in common in the third-largest democracy in the world, promoting and protecting human rights where every individual has equal rights under the law.
Apart from that, Indonesia has ratified international conventions on the elimination of all forms of racial discrimination. As well as telling that Vanuatu is not a representation of the Papuan people and must stop imagining being them (Papua).
But the reality is that human rights violations and racial discrimination have indeed occurred, are still happening, and are experienced by the Papuan people wherever we are from the past until now. Even if it has not been resolved fairly, her answer was to cover this fact from the outside world and hurt the hearts of the Papuan people. The proof is that the mass media rarely cover news about cases of human rights violations in Papua, the Special Autonomy that has been granted has not succeeded in making the Papuan people prosperous, and now the whole community rejects Special Autonomy Volume II.
In addition, there was the Biak Massacre case July 6, 1998, the massacre Wasior’s case in June 2001, the Massacre Wamena’s case April 2003, the Massacre Paniai’s case (Enarotali) December 8, 2014, the Nduga case December 2, 2018, and most recently the case of racial discrimination experienced by native students. Papua in Surabaya, August 16, 2019. This led to conflicts and demonstrations throughout Papua and resulted in casualties, injuries, and the destruction of public facilities and government facilities in Papua.
However, the legal process against indigenous Papuans who are suspects of the mass protests is discriminatory and unfair. Meanwhile, case triggers such as SA, TS, AA only undergo legal proceedings with minimal penalties. Actually, there are still very many cases that occur and are not exposed.
I deeply regret that in commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the establishment of the United Nations (UN) with the theme “The Future We Want, the United Nations We Need: Reaffirming Our Collective Commitment to Multilateralism Confronting COVID-19 Through Effective Multilateral Action” 2020, Indonesian international relations actors should, in this case, the diplomat representatives of the Republic of Indonesia at the UN General Assembly did not cover up the truth from the international world.
Moreover, if an actor wants to become a representation of the Papuan people, he must first understand the history, circumstances, everything related to incidents of human rights violations in Papua.
Since the statement went viral, many Indonesians have made blasphemies, racial discrimination, and bad comments to the Republic of Vanuatu on social media without knowing the real situation. In fact, their hatred speeches are exactly the same as what we Papuans in Indonesia feel.
In a world situation like this, we should all play an important role in fighting COVID-19, both the government and society. Not that to make the situation worse. Increasing humanity, creating better world peace, upholding justice and truth, strengthening relations between countries, synergizing with each other, praying for one another, to realizing the aspirations of the Indonesian nation as stated in the 1945 Constitution are some of the many steps we can take. implement in this life.
Thus I submit this simple letter. Not separated from human limitations, I apologize profusely. God bless the Minister, bless Indonesia, bless Papua, and bless the world including all of us. (*)
Open letter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia
Sorong, 30 September 2020,
Christin Chatrin Nebore
Sorong, West Papua.
