The Wire

A security treaty that was put on ice after diplomatic relations soured between Australia and Indonesia looks set to go ahead, with news the document will be signed off next week. But “security” is a flexible term – many believe the pact has less to do with security and more to with Australia agreeing to acknowledge Indonesia’s territorial control over the troubled province of West Papua. West Papuan activists inside and outside the territory maintain that the 1969 referendum on the issue of independence or assimilation with Indonesia was rigged. As a result the province has suffered discrimination and human rights abuses at the hands of the Indonesian military ever since. Well one group that thinks the treaty is a good idea is the Lowy Institute. The institute’s Dr Malcolm Cook, Program Director for Asia and the Pacific, outlined to the Wire why. The Uniting Church Australia’s Reverend John Barr, one of the few people to enter West Papua recently, spoke about his concerns on the impact of the security treaty on the troubled province, while ADFA’s Clinton Fernandes outlined why public opinion will force a change on West Papua.