Australia, West Papua & Indonesia: What the HECK is going on?!?!

OK there's been rather a lot of crazy stuff zooming around lately regarding Australia's fun new plans for dealing with West Papuan asylum seekers. Up to this point, the government's actually treated the West Papuans quite well - a number of applicants have been granted temporary protection visas** and have thereby been acknowledged as genuine refugees from the horrendous persecution that is often suffered by West Papuans under the sovereignty of Indonesia. But now the Prime Minister has suggested some reforms to the way in which WP asylum claims are assessed, which are OFFICIALLY THE WORST IDEA I'VE EVER HEARD IN MY LIFE.

Let me tell you why they've been proposed, and why they are dog-gone ridiculous.

Australia is a little bit jumpy about our Muslim neighbours to the North. For a few reasons, Australia really just wants to suck up to Indonesia, stay on its good side, and keep everything peachy-keen and friendly. This is for various reasons pertaining mainy to trade and regional stability. The impression that can pretty easily be gleaned from Indonesia is that they really don't give a fat rat's about Australia, and in fact the recent cartoons depicting Howard and Downer as dingos going at it like, er, rabbits (??) gives you a pretty good idea of how much respect our country has in the eyes of Indonesia. They don't really seem terribly concerned about playing nice.

When the first boatload of West Papuan asylum seekers put-putted into Australian water a few months ago, almost immediately high-level officials from within the Indonesian government were on the blower to Howard and Downer warning them of the implications of accepting the refugee claims of the 40-or-so West Papuans in the boat. Basically, the WPs had arrived with overwhelming video and documentary evidence of their atrocious treatment at the hands of the Indonesians. West Papua is an area very much like East Timor - a 'province' (basically the western half of New Guinea) which was annexed by Indonesia in 1969. Since then it has been under Indonesian rule, and they have been fighting fiercely for their independence. (If you are interested you can read a Wikipedia article about it here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Papua)

Indonesia is still a teeeensy bit annoyed with Australia for supporting the East Timorese independence movement, which certainly explains to some extent why they're extra touchy about Australia recognising the validity of WP asylum claims - it basically says to West Papua, "we believe that you are being treated badly by the Indonesians who govern your homeland". Australia has even been accused of pushing for West Papuan independence - a move which would SERIOUSLY piss off the Indo government (as it would constitute an undermining of their sovereignty), and which Australia has been feverishly denying.

When the asylum seekers lodged their claims, there were some tense times when we were all waiting to hear the government's verdict - they were being pulled in a few directions by many different influences, and nobody knew what the decision would be. Surprisingly and, I must say, admirably, the Australian government recognised the claims for the WPs and granted a number of them visas. This was a fantastic step forward for them - it seemed a tacit recognition of the fact that in international law, domestic / nationalistic concerns should have nothing AT ALL to do with the refugee determination process. However, since then, and since the arrival of some more WP boat people, things are getting a little hairy. We all know that John Howard LOVES to be able to take a "strong stance on border protection", but it seems that this time (unlike the Federal Election 2001), the electorate is not necessarily behind him. The media have all been burned by the untruths, half-truths, and not-quite-truths of the Tampa, Children Overboard and SIEV-X incidents, and as such are being much, much more thoughtful, careful and inquisitive in their treatment of the boatpeople this time around. So perhaps Little Johnny PM won't get away so easy this time.

In order to placate the Indonesians and reaffirm Australia's belief in Indonesia's sovereignty over West Papua, Howard has suggested that Australia should reassess the way that WP asylum claims are reviewed. In fact, he has suggested that perhaps Indonesia would like to review the claims and give Australia THEIR verdict on whether the applicants should be granted asylum!!!! OH MY GOODNESS.

This is like asking Goering, Heydrich and Himmler to assess Jews' claims for asylum during WWII. It's like asking the Taliban to sit on a committee assessing Hazara refugee claims. It's like asking John Howard for tips on eyebrow maintenance and being a nice guy. IT'S JUST NOT RIGHT. THESE PEOPLE ARE EXACTLY THE PERPETRATORS OF THE EVIL THAT IS THE SOURCE OF THE PROBLEM!

Not only is this idea really, really stoopid, it also has a few major problems legally. First, as I said before, nothing about Australia's refugee determination process should take into account domestic or nationalistic interests. The ideals and obligations that arise under the refugees convention *should* transcend domestic law, foreign affairs and inter-national relations by a significant margin. So, Australia should not be pandering to the requirements of Indonesia just so we can all play nice.

Secondly, how very idiotic it is to hand the persecutors dossiers of information about the people who are accusing them. This means that IF the WP asylum seekers are refouled (sent back to a country where they would not be safe from persecution) back to West Papua, their risk of trouble has increased by a factor of fifty because the Indonesians would know exactly the claims being made against them, and they MAY not like it! Perhaps this would act in a sort of ironic Catch-22, whereby the Australians WOULD accept their refugee claims because the knowledge of the Indo officials would increase the risk of persecution! But who knows. And frankly I'm not that excited about testing the theorum.

Anyway I'm exhausted and possibly rambling, but if you have any comments or anything to add to this I'd love to hear it!

Cheers

Jess x


** OK so TPVs are a terrible, terrible idea, but at least it's recognition of their claims...