As reported by the ABC earlier this month, two more stories about West Papua.

The first is based on an AFP article.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-03-16/papuans-jailed-for-treason/3895216

'West Papuans jailed for treason'

'An Indonesian court has sentenced five men to three years in jail in the restive Papua region for raising an outlawed separatist flag and declaring the region's independence.'

'The men had led a pro-independence celebration attended by 5,000 Papuans on October 19.

"All five defendants are found guilty of committing treason as stated in the criminal code.  All aspects have been proven legally and convincingly", Judge Jack L Oktovianus told the Jayapura district court.

"We sentence them all to three years in prison".

'The maximum sentence for treason is life in prison, but prosecutors had sought a five-year prison term.

'Among the defendants was Forkorus Yaboisembut, president of the Papuans' self-proclaimed state.

'At least three people were killed and more than 90 injured during the pro-independence celebration.

'Local TV footage showed paramilitary police shooting into the crowd and beating participants with batons and bare fists after the men declared independence and raised the outlawed Papuan flag.

'Eight police officers involved in the shooting were let off with a warning.

Muslim injury or killing of non-Muslims is never, within a Muslim state, considered to be of any particular consequence. - CM

'Human rights groups denounced the court decision, saying it violates international laws and the Indonesian constitution, which guarantees freedom to protest.

Guarantees of this sort, in Muslim states (as also in other kinds of repressive entities), tend to be unreliable. - CM

'In 1969, Indonesia (that is, majority-Muslim ethnically-Malay Indonesia - CM) took control of Papua (that is, seized and occupied majority-Christian ethnically-Melanesian Papua - CM), a former Dutch colony on the western half of New Guinea island, after a vote among a select group of Papuans widely seen as a sham.

'Papuans, mostly indigenous Melanesians (who are non-Muslims, whether Christian or animist - CM) have long accused Indonesia's (that is, majority-Muslim and Muslim-dominated Indonesia's - CM) military of violating human rights in the region and complain that the bulk of earnings from its rich natural resources flow to Jakarta.

Indonesia keeps a pretty tight lid on West Papua, and it is difficult to find out much about what is really going on in there; but given everything I know about the way that Muslim entities have always treated non-Muslim populations and territories under their control, and in particular, what is known of the atrocious way in which the Indonesian military (almost entirely Muslim, and Muslim-dominated) treated the non-Muslim East Timorese, I am inclined to believe that the accusations and complaints that AFP is so airily referring to are solidly based on fact.

And so to our second item, a combination of material from ABC and AFP, in which we hear a perfectly rational call from an Australian senator for our country to speak up on behalf of the oppressed West Papuans, a call which is - alas - vitiated by that same senator's rather unrealistic view of the nature of Australia's 'relationship' with Muslim Indonesia. 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-03-19/carr-urged-to-act-on-west-papua-concerns/3898542

'Carr urged to act after activists jailed in West Papua'.

'New Foreign Minister Bob Carr has been urged to make the West Papua region a matter of priority after five activists were jailed over peaceful protests in the Indonesian region. 

'The activists were sentenced to three years in jail on Friday for raising an outlawed separatist flag and declaring the region's independence during protests last October.

'Those jailed include Forkorus Yaboisembut, the president-elect of an independent West Papua, and his prime minister Edison Waromi, along with Selpius Bobii, Dominikus Surabut, and August Kraar.

Observe, in those names - Edison, Selpius, Dominikus, August - the influence of Western and Christian culture among the Papuan Melanesian people. - CM

'West Papua has been at the centre of a long-running campaign for independence.

And if Bosniak Muslims and Albanian Muslims were supported by 'the world' in their demand for independence from non-Muslim Serbia, and the Uighur Muslims are supported by 'the world' in their demand for independence from non-Muslim Han-dominated China, why should not the West Papuan, ethnically Melanesian non-Muslims, while they still form the overwhelming majority in their own ancestral lands (though the Indonesian Muslims are using the hegira method to try to swamp them with imported Muslims), call for independence from ethnically-Malay Muslim Indonesia? - CM

'Papuans, mostly indigenous Melanesians (who are overwhelmingly non-Muslim, mostly Christian with some animists; AFP and the ABC will not point out this extra and not-inconsequential detail - CM) have long accused Indonesia's military of violating human rights in the region and complain that the bulk of earnings from its rich natural resources (timber and minerals - CM) flow to Jakarta.

'But West Papua's independence is not recognised by Indonesia (of course not: no Muslim entity ever recognises any non-Muslim's right to life, let alone the right of any non-Muslim not to be ruled over by Muslims - CM) and the Australian government says it respects Indonesia's sovereignty over the region.

Which is a thoroughly cowardly betrayal of our persecuted and oppressed fellow-kuffar - CM

'Mr Carr met with Indonesia's foreign and defence ministers last week but Greens Senator Richard di Natale  says he failed to raise issues such as ongoing political violence and access for journalists and human rights monitors.

Mr Carr has 'form' - and not good form, from an infidel point of view - in his dealings with Muslims.  In 2003 he attended an international conference that was also attended by the Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the very one who some years later proposed to build a great big mosque very close to Ground Zero in New York; and professed himself terribly impressed by him.  Mr Carr, then the Premier of New South Wales, was so very impressed that he invited Imam Rauf to Sydney 'for two weeks of meetings and public talks'.  As we see in this Sydney Morning Herald article from 21 March 2004:

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/03/21/1079789939987.html

And now Mr Bob Carr, who was so terribly impressed by Feisal Abdul Rauf, and invited him to Australia!, is our Foreign Minister...CM

"I think it's a sign of a mature relationship with a country like Indonesia if we can raise those kinds of concerns very early on, acknowledging that there are some very important things about our relationship, but being able to raise some of these uncomfortable truths as well", he [that is, Senator Di Natale - CM] told Radio Australia.

'The activists say they plan to appeal against their sentence'.

Mr Carr, and for that matter Senator Di Natale, and any other Australian politician who is required or proposes to have dealings with Muslim-majority Muslim-dominated Indonesia, or who is taking an interest in the situation in West Papua (or, for that matter, in South Sudan, the Philippines, Kashmir, Israel, etc.), would be well advised to do some homework on Islam.  

Since they are busy politicians who don't have much time to read, I suggest the following brief course of study.  1/ N Dawood's translation of the Koran, as published by Penguin books, Surah 9.  2/ Jacques Ellul's brief essay on Jihad, which was written as foreword for Bat Yeor's historical study, "The Decline of Eastern Christianity Under Islam"

http://www.dhimmi.org/Foreword.html

And 3/ Patrick L Moore's classic article from 1994, "From Cold War To Guerra Fria", rediscovered recently and posted here by 'Hugh Fitzgerald',

http://www.newenglishreview.org/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/26087

and which can also be read and printed off from the following printer-friendly link:

http://www.ewtn.com/library/ISSUES/GUERRA.HTM

And those who want to know how pious and orthodox Indonesian Muslims, in their heart of hearts, would like to see their country's 'relationship' with non-Muslim neighbours like Australia develop, would also do well to copy, and print off, and affix to their refrigerators, and also to their laptops, an arresting passage from V S Naipaul's "Among the Believers: An Islamic Journey".

While visiting a Muslim school in Pabelan in Java, Indonesia, around 1980, V S Naipaul recorded the following exchange, initiated after someone observed, of one of the students, 'He's from Timor'.

"Prasojo was interested. 'Which one?' (That is, which Timor: East or West - CM).

"Timor", said Taufiq, and laughed. "Our newest colony.  Soon we'll be colonizing Australia". [in Among the Believers, Section IV: Indonesia, part 3, 'Deschooling'].