She made it clear in her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in August, again at her televised debate with Donald Trump a few weeks later, and in all her interviews since.

Vice-President Kamala Harris, if or when elected the 47th United States president, will continue the centre-right policies of her recent predecessors, especially her current boss, President Joe Biden.

This likely means that efforts to address income equality and poverty, to abandon policies that beget violence overseas, and to confront the latticework of discrimination that affects Americans of colour and Black women especially, will be limited at best.

If Harris wins today’s election, her being a Black and South Asian woman in the most powerful office in the world will not mean much to marginalised people anywhere, because she will wield that power in the same racist, sexist and Islamophobic ways as previous presidents.

“I’m not the president of Black America. I’m the president of the United States of America,” President Barack Obama had said on several occasions during his presidency when asked about doing more for Black Americans while in office. As a presidential candidate, Kamala Harris is essentially doing the same.

And as it was the case with Obama’s presidency, this is not good news for Black Americans, or any other marginalised community.

Take the issue of housing.

Blanket housing grant
Harris’s proposed $25,000 grant to help Americans buy homes for the first time is a blanket grant, one that in a housing market historically tilted towards white Americans, will invariably discriminate against Black folks and other people of colour.

Harris’s campaign promise does not even discern between “first-time buyers” whose parents and siblings already own homes, and true “first-generation” buyers who are more likely not white, and do not have any generational wealth.

It seems Harris wants to appear committed to helping “all Americans”, even if it means her policies would primarily help (mostly white) Americans already living middle-class lives. Any real chance for those among the working class and the working poor to have access to the three million homes Harris has promised is between slim and none.

Harris’s pledges about reproductive rights are equally non-specific and thus less than reassuring to those who already face discrimination and erasure.

She says, if elected president, she would “codify Roe v Wade”. Every Democratic president since Jimmy Carter has made such a promise and yet failed to keep it.

Even if Congress were to pass such a law, the far right would challenge this law in court. Even if the federal courts decided to upload such a law, the Supreme Court decisions that followed between 1973 and 2022 gave states the right to restrict abortion based on fetus viability, meaning that most restrictions already in place in many states would remain.

And with half the states in the US either banning abortion entirely or severely restricting it, codification of Roe — if it ever actually materialises — would at best reset the US to the precarity around reproductive rights that has existed since 1973.

Less acccess to resources
Even if Harris miraculously manages to keep her promise, American women of colour, and women living in poverty, will still have less access to contraceptives, to abortions, and to prenatal and neonatal care, because all Roe ever did was to make such care “legal”.

The law never made it affordable, and certainly never made it so that all women had equal access to services in every state in the union.

Given that she is poised to become America’s first woman/woman of colour/Black woman president, Harris’s vague and wide-net promises on reproductive rights, which would do little to help any women, but especially marginalised women, are damning.

Sure, it is good that Harris talks about Black girls and women like the late Amber Nicole Thurman who have been denied reproductive rights in states like Georgia, with deadly results. But her words mean nothing without a clear action plan.

Where Harris failed the most of all, however, is tackling violence — overwhelmingly targeting marginalised, sidelined, silenced and criminalised folks — in the US and overseas.

During a live and televised interview with billionaire Oprah Winfrey in September, Harris expanded on the revelation she made during her earlier debate with Trump that she is a gun owner.

“If somebody breaks into my house they’re getting shot,” Harris said with a smile. “I probably should not have said that,” she swiftly added. “My staff will deal with that later.”

Grabbing attention of gun-owners
The vice-president seemed confident that her remark would eventually be seen by pro-gun control democrats as a necessary attempt at grabbing the attention of gun-owning, centre-right voters, who could still be dissuaded from voting for Trump.

Nonetheless, her casual statement about the use of lethal force revealed much more than her desire to secure the votes of “sensible”, old-school right wingers. It illuminated the blitheness with which Harris takes the issue of the US as a violent nation and culture.

It is hard to believe Harris as president would be an advocate for “common sense” measures seeking “assault weapons bans, universal background checks, red flag laws” when she talks so casually about shooting people.

Her decision to treat gun violence as yet another issue for calculated politicking is alarming, especially when Black folk — including Black women — face death by guns at disproportionate rates, particularly at the hands of police officers and white vigilantes.

Despite Trump’s disgusting claims, Harris is a Black woman. Many Americans assume she would do more to protect them than other presidents. However, her dismissive attitude towards gun violence shows that President Harris — regardless of her racial background — would not offer any more security and safety to marginalised communities, including Black women, than her predecessors.

The assumption that as a part-Black, part-South Asian president, Harris would curtail American violence that maims and kills Black, brown and Asian bodies all over the world also appears to be baseless.

In repeatedly saying that she “will ensure America always has the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world”, Harris has made clear that she has every intention to continue with the lethal, racist, imperialistic policies of her Democratic and Republican predecessors, without reflection, recalibration or an ounce of remorse.

Carnage in Gaza
Just look at the carnage in Gaza she has overseen as vice-president.

Despite saying multiple times that she and Biden “have been working around the clock” for a ceasefire in Gaza, the truth is that Biden and Harris have not secured a ceasefire simply because they do not want one.

Harris as president will be just as fine with Black, brown, and Asian lives not mattering in the calculations of her future administration’s foreign policy, as she has been as vice-president and US senator.

Anybody voting for Harris in this election — including yours truly — should be honest about why. Sure, there is excitement around having a woman — a biracial, Black and South Asian woman at that — as American president for the first time in history. This excitement, combined with her promise of “we’re not going back” in reference to Trump’s presidency, and many pledges to protect what’s left of US democracy,  provide many Americans with enough reason to support the Harris-Walz ticket.

Yet, some seem to be supporting Kamala Harris under the impression that as a Black and South Asian woman, she would value the lives of people who look like her, and once elected, support marginalised people much better than her predecessors.

This is a delusion.

Just like Obama once did, Harris wants to be president of the United States of America. She has no intention of being the President of “Black America” or the marginalised. She made this clear, over and again, throughout her campaign, and through her work as vice-president to Joe Biden.

There is a long list of reasons to vote for Harris in this election, but the assumption that her presidency would be supportive of the rights and struggles of the marginalised, simply because of her identity, should not be on that list.

Donald Earl Collins, professorial lecturer at the American University in Washington, DC, is the author of Fear of a “Black” America: Multiculturalism and the African American Experience (2004). This article was first published by Al Jazeera.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

President Biden — if you feel like pretending Biden is still serving as President and still making the decisions in the White House — has pledged to support Israel against any retaliations for its recent assassination spree in Iran and Lebanon which killed high-profile officials from Hamas and Hezbollah.

A White House statement asserts that Biden spoke with Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday and “reaffirmed his commitment to Israel’s security against all threats from Iran, including its proxy terrorist groups Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis,” and “discussed efforts to support Israel’s defence against threats, including against ballistic missiles and drones, to include new defensive US military deployments.”

Hilariously, the statement also claims that “the President stressed the importance of ongoing efforts to de-escalate broader tensions in the region.”

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

In November 1928, New Zealand had its own ‘Biden moment’ when the 72-year-old Sir Joseph Ward appeared to promise that, if his party won that year’s election, the New Zealand Government would borrow £70 million in 1 year, as a fiscal super-stimulus that would get New Zealand out of the economic doldrums. In large part as a result of that promise, Ward’s party – United, hitherto in third place – was able to form the next government.

Ward misread his speech notes. One source says the proposed loan was meant to be for 10 years; another source says he meant to say £7 million. Probably both are right, in light of what actually happened in 1929; Ward probably meant to say £7 million over ten years. (The Government borrowed about £2 million in 1929, from the London money market. In 1930 and 1931, the United Kingdom was in a deep financial crisis.)

Joseph Ward was one of the most enigmatic of New Zealand’s political leaders. And, importantly, he was one of the few who were ‘fiscal liberals’; opposite of ‘fiscal conservatives’ like Chris Hipkins and Christopher Luxon. (New Zealand has had comparatively few fiscally liberal Prime Ministers. The most fiscally liberal was undoubtedly Julius Vogel. Two others, who are also household names, were Robert Muldoon and Michael Joseph Savage. Along with John Balance, they were New Zealand’s most ‘progressive’ prime ministers, at least in the sense that Julius Vogel understood that word. But in 1928, Ward was well past his political prime; his ‘promise’ was not an articulation of a new vision.

Joseph Ward and his times – a very short potted history to 1925

Joseph Ward (MP for Awarua, ie Bluff) became New Zealand’s Minister of Finance in 1893, a few weeks after his 37th birthday. He was ‘Colonial Treasurer’ during the country’s most ‘progressive’ period – in the modern sense of that word – prior to that of Savage; following Ballance’s premature death. (Ballance had been both Prime Minister and Treasurer during 1891 and 1892.)

Ward was forced out of Cabinet in 1896 on account of his personal financial situation, and resigned from Parliament in 1897 when he had to file for bankruptcy. But he contested the 1897 by-election, and was re-elected by a wider margin than in the 1896 general election. Ward was reappointed to Cabinet once he had paid off his creditors.

Ward became Prime Minister – and, in what was becoming a tradition, also Finance Minister – in 1906 following Richard Seddon’s death. His government folded in 1912; see my France’s Two-Ballot Voting System, and its New Zealand Antecedent, 12 July 2024. Ward resumed his duties as Finance Minister in the World War 1 coalition government, from 1915 to 1919. Ward lost his seat in the 1919 election; that year Prime Minister Massey was able to re-establish majority government.

In 1923, Ward tried to get back into Parliament; he unsuccessfully stood in the Tauranga by‑election. The 1922 general election had been the first genuinely three-party election. Massey’s Reform Party got 37 seats, Ward’s Liberal Party (now led by Thomas Wilford) got 22 seats; Labour (under Harry Holland, an immigrant [1912] from Australia with Marxist sympathies) got 17 seats. Massey governed with the help of the Liberals, though died in office before the 1925 election.

In 1925, Massey’s Reform Party, now lead by Gordon Coates, swept to victory. One of the Liberal’s small caucus of 11 MPs was Joseph Ward, now MP for Invercargill. The Liberal Party had become New Zealand’s third party; suffering a parallel downfall in the 1920s to Lloyd-George’s Liberals in the United Kingdom, and for the same reason – the rise of the proletariat and its own Labour Party.

1925 to 1931: Crisis Years in New Zealand

It was all downhill for the Coates’ government in 1926, and especially 1927. New Zealand suffered from a triple-financial-whammy: the return of the British pound to the gold standard at an over-valued exchange rate, the British general strike which paralysed Great Britain’s seaborne trade, and a significant downturn in the terms of trade (ie relative prices) of agricultural and pastoral products vis-à-vis manufactures. Additionally for the labour market, it was a period of technological unemployment; marked in New Zealand in particular by the revolution of machine milking on dairy farms.

1927 was a year of wholesale bankruptcy of farmers, and became the biggest year of emigration since the 1888 ‘exodus’; especially emigration to Australia, and migration of young job-seekers from the farms to the cities. However, Australia suffered the same triple-whammy, though not as intensively as New Zealand.

In 1928, Australians and others were coming to New Zealand. It was a crisis in both countries. In New Zealand in 1928 there was a National Industrial Conference; the main conclusion was that the apparent and significant rise in unemployment was mainly due to migrants and machines. (Has much changed since then?)

This was the backdrop for the 1928 election. The Liberal Party was fighting for its survival. It hired a very capable campaign manager, Albert Davy. It changed its name to United. And it chose Sir Joseph Ward to be its leader. Then, thanks in part to Joe Ward’s ‘Joe Biden moment’, United ‘won’ the election; it gained more seats than any other party, once four ‘independent Liberals’ were included in the count. United formed a Government with Labour support. Ward was Prime Minister and Finance Minister.

Labour under Harry Holland, with more seats than it had ever had, was at the ‘power table’. Holland has been New Zealand’s only ever ‘far-Left’ political leader in a position of power.

The dynamic didn’t work. While 1929 was a good year for New Zealand, in the midst of many bad years, Ward’s health deteriorated. And he had to switch to Coates’ Reform Party to gain the confidence of the House. This moment represents the real beginnings of the National Party.

Ward died early in 1930, with his earnest and conservative Deputy – George Forbes – taking over as both Prime Minister and Minister of Finance. United was lean on talent and experience, remembering that in 1928 they only had 11 MPs.

The performance of the minority United government in 1930 and 1931 matched its surviving talent. They sleep-walked into the global Great Depression, which hit New Zealand in around August 1930, later than in most countries. In 1931 they ‘saved money’ by cancelling the five-yearly census.

In the 1931 election, United and Reform went to the electorate as the ‘Coalition’, and won comfortably against a fiscally conservative far-left Labour Party. In the UK, a similarly conservative Labour Party with ‘Left’ principles but not practice was in the process of collapsing.

Once again (ie after his 1925-1928 failures), Reform’s William Downie Stewart junior, New Zealand’s dogmatic precursor to Ruth Richardson and Roger Douglas – a ‘classical liberal’ – became Finance Minister. Forbes, as sitting Prime Minister, stayed on, becoming New Zealand’s least-inspiring political leader

The Great Depression deepened in New Zealand, until Downie Stewart lost a political arm-wrestle with his Reform Party leader Gordon Coates, in January 1933. The New Zealand economy bottomed out in the summer of 1932/33, after Coates won his battle to devalue the New Zealand pound.

Summary

Joseph Ward’s ‘Biden moment’ bisected the 1925 to 1933 period, enabling 1929 and most of 1930 to be relatively good years for New Zealand in the midst of a disastrous run of circumstance compounded by the unbending economic liberalism of William Downie Stewart, one of New Zealand’s worst-ever Ministers of Finance.

Today, we could learn from the failings of fiscal conservatism in those years, and the brief relief gained during Joseph Ward’s brief ‘Lazarus’ administration.

Additional References:

https://nzhistory.govt.nz/people/sir-joseph-ward

https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/2w9/ward-joseph-george

https://nzhistory.govt.nz/culture/the-1920s/1928

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/books/ALMA1929-9917504153502836-The-remarkable-life-story-of-Sir Joseph Ward

https://www.odt.co.nz/opinion/today-history-nzs-most-shocking-election-result

*******

Keith Rankin (keith at rankin dot nz), trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand.

Political scientist Paul Buchanan and Selwyn Manning examine: The United States and how the world is engaging with it geopolitically.

Specifically, Paul and Selwyn analyse what has changed in this regard in 2024, and consider whether some leaders of global, regional, and even small powers are preparing for the possibility of a second Donald Trump presidency.

And, importantly, at this juncture, they assess whether some leaders who are central to conflict in the world today, regard the Biden Administration as having entered a lame-duck period.

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More than two dozen Palestinian journalists had called for a boycott of the dinner, writing an open letter urging their American colleagues not to attend.

“You have a unique responsibility to speak truth to power and uphold journalistic integrity,” said the letter from the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate.

“It is unacceptable to stay silent out of fear or professional concern while journalists in Gaza continue to be detained, tortured, and killed for doing our jobs.”

‘It hurts our souls’
Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary was one of the signatories of the letter calling for the boycott.

She spoke to the network from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, saying she did not “have the words” to describe what she had been going through.

“This isn’t something that has been ending. It has been continuous every single day for more than 200 days.

“We have been killed, displaced and homeless, and we’re not only reporting on this, but we’re also living it with every single detail.

“We’re living this war in all aspects of life. We have not seen our families as journalists. We have not been able to eat well. We have been dehydrated.

“We have been reporting in one of the harshest conditions any reporter can go through despite losing a lot of colleagues, and it hurts our souls and our hearts every single day.

“We have been constantly targeted by the Israeli air strikes and shelling.

“All of these daily things we have been living as journalists are overwhelming [and] exhausting, but we still continue because there have been at least 100 Palestinian journalists whom I personally know that have been killed since October 7.

“If they were here today with us, they would be reporting, and they would be raising the voice of the voiceless Palestinians.”

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

An Australian author and advocate, Jim Aubrey, today led a national symbolic one minute’s silence to mark the “blood debt” owed to Papuan allies during the Second World War indigenous resistance against the invading Japanese forces.

“A promise to most people is a promise,” Aubrey said in his open letter marking the debt protest — “unless that promise is made by the Australian government.”

After the successes of Australian and US troops against the Japanese in New Guinea, the Allies continued the advance through what was then Dutch New Guinea then on to the Philippines.

The first landing was at Hollandia (now Jayapura) in April 1944, which involved the Australian navy and air force.

Aubrey said in his letter:

“The Australian government’s WWII remembrance oath to Papuan and Timorese allies by the RAAF in flyers dropped over East Timor and the island of New Guinea — ‘FRIENDS, WE WILL NEVER FORGET YOU!’ — is in reality one of history’s most heinous bastard acts in war
and diplomacy.

“Betrayal is the reality of this blood debt and includes consecutive Australian governments’ treachery and culpability as a criminal accomplice and accessory to six decades of the Indonesian government’s crimes against humanity.

“Barbarity that shames us! Genocide, ethnocide, infanticide, and relentless ethnic cleansing.

Aubrey, spokesperson for Genocide Rebellion and the Free West Papua International Coalition, said that he and supporters were commemorating the Second World War “Papuan sacrifice for us” — Australian and American servicemen and women — four days before ANZAC Day without inviting Prime Minister Anthony Albanese or any government minister [and] without inviting US President Biden.

“To have them with us on this special solemn occasion, while honouring the fact that many of us — children and grandchildren – would not be here if it were not for Papuan courage, loyalty, and sacrifice so steadfastly given to our forebears, would be dishonourable.

‘Heartless complicity’
“We condemn outright their heartless complicity and premeditated exploitation of Papuans in their time of peril. A blood debt not honoured by a single Australian government or US administration!

“Lest We Forget . . .  six decades of providing the Republic of Indonesia with an environment of impunity for crimes against humanity — 500,000 victims in Western New Guinea, 250,000 in East Timor [now Timor-Leste after the 1999 liberation].

“Future historians will teach their undergraduates that Australian governments did forget! That Australian governments also contravened Commonwealth and State criminal codes by helping the Indonesian government prevent the legal decolonisation of Western New Guinea and achieve their subsequent unlawful annexation; and by concealing and destroying evidence of the 1998 Biak Island Massacre.

“It is not only a matter of honour and truth, it’s personal. I have only just discovered that my father and my uncle were Australian servicemen in the Pacific Theatre campaigns across New Guinea.

“Honourable Australians and Americans, however, only need to know our duty of care and our international obligations cannot be compromised for political and economic plunder. The victims of crimes against humanity deserve the support and the protection they are by law, by right, and decency entitled to.

“Pacific Island nations look to the East for a relationship of integrity in their international affairs. Who can blame them with Australian governments track record of treachery, dishonour, and their demeaning elitism and history in the genocide of indigenous peoples.”

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

The West Papuan resistance OPM leader has condemned Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and US President Joe Biden, accusing their countries of “six decades of treachery” over Papuan independence.

The open letter was released today by OPM chairman Jeffrey P Bomanak on the eve of ANZAC Day 2024.

Praising the courage and determination of Papuans against the Japanese Imperial Forces in World War Two, Bomanak said: “There were no colonial borders in this war — we served Allied Pacific Theatre campaigns across the entire island of New Guinea.

“Our island! From Sorong to Samurai!”

Bomanak’s open letter, addressed to Prime Minister Albanese and President Biden, declared:

“If you cannot stand by those who stood by you, then your idea of ‘loyalty’ and ‘remembrance’ being something special is a myth, a fairy tale.

“There is nothing special in treachery. Six decades of treachery following the Republic of Indonesia’s invasion and fraudulent annexation, always knowing that we were being massacred, tortured, and raped. Our resources, your intention all along.

“When the Japanese Imperial Forces came to our island, you chose our homes to be your defensive line. We fed and nursed you. We formed the Papuan Infantry Brigade. We became your Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels.

“We even fought alongside you and shared the pain and suffering of hardship and loss.

“There were no colonial borders in this war — we served Allied Pacific Theatre campaigns across the entire island of New Guinea. Our island! From Sorong to Samurai!

“Your war became our war. Your graves, our graves. The photos [in the open letter] are from the Australian War Memorial. The part of the legend always ringing true — my people — Papuans! – with your WWII defence forces.

“My message is to you, not ANZAC veterans. We salute the ANZACs. Your unprincipled greed divided our island. Exploitation, no matter what the cost.

“West Papua is filled with Indonesia’s barbarity and the blood and guts of 500,000 Papuans — men, women, and children. Torture, slaughter, and rape of my people in our ancestral homes led by your betrayal.

“In 1969, to help prevent our decolonisation, you placed two of our leaders on Manus Island instead of allowing them to reach the United Nations in New York — an act of shameless appeasement as a criminal accomplice to a mass-murderer (Suharto) that would have made Hideki Tojo proud.

“RAAF Hercules transported 600 TNI [Indonesian military] to slaughter us on Biak Island in 1998. Australian and US subsidies, weapons and munitions to RI, provide logistics for slaughter and bombing of our highland villages. Still happening!

“You were silent about the 1998 roll of film depicting victims of the Biak Island massacre, and you destroyed this roll of film in March 2014 after the revelations from the Biak Massacre Citizens Tribunal were aired on the ABC’s 7:30 Report. (Grateful for the integrity of Edmund McWilliams, Political Counselor at the US Embassy in Jakarta, for his testimony.)

“Every single act and action of your betrayal contravenes Commonwealth and US Criminal Codes and violates the UN Charter, the Genocide Act, and the Torture Convention. The price of this cowardly servitude to assassins, rapists, torturers, and war criminals — from war criminal Suharto to war criminal Prabowo [current President of Indonesia] — complicity and collusion in genocide, ethnocide, infanticide, and wave after wave of ethnic cleansing.

“Friends, we will not forget you? You threw us into the gutter! As Australian and American leaders, your remembrance day is a commemoration of a tradition of loyalty and sacrifice that you have failed to honour.”

The OPM chairman and commander Bomanak concluded his open letter with the independence slogan “Papua Merdeka!” — Papua freedom.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

An Australian author and advocate, Jim Aubrey, today led a national symbolic one minute’s silence to mark the “blood debt” owed to Papuan allies during the Second World War indigenous resistance against the invading Japanese forces.

“A promise to most people is a promise,” Aubrey said in his open letter marking the debt protest — “unless that promise is made by the Australian government.”

After the successes of Australian and US troops against the Japanese in New Guinea, the Allies continued the advance through what was then Dutch New Guinea then on to the Philippines.

The first landing was at Hollandia (now Jayapura) in April 1944, which involved the Australian navy and air force.

Aubrey said in his letter:

“The Australian government’s WWII remembrance oath to Papuan and Timorese allies by the RAAF in flyers dropped over East Timor and the island of New Guinea — ‘FRIENDS, WE WILL NEVER FORGET YOU!’ — is in reality one of history’s most heinous bastard acts in war
and diplomacy.

“Betrayal is the reality of this blood debt and includes consecutive Australian governments’ treachery and culpability as a criminal accomplice and accessory to six decades of the Indonesian government’s crimes against humanity.

“Barbarity that shames us! Genocide, ethnocide, infanticide, and relentless ethnic cleansing.

Aubrey, spokesperson for Genocide Rebellion and the Free West Papua International Coalition, said that he and supporters were commemorating the Second World War “Papuan sacrifice for us” — Australian and American servicemen and women — four days before ANZAC Day without inviting Prime Minister Anthony Albanese or any government minister [and] without inviting US President Biden.

“To have them with us on this special solemn occasion, while honouring the fact that many of us — children and grandchildren – would not be here if it were not for Papuan courage, loyalty, and sacrifice so steadfastly given to our forebears, would be dishonourable.

‘Heartless complicity’
“We condemn outright their heartless complicity and premeditated exploitation of Papuans in their time of peril. A blood debt not honoured by a single Australian government or US administration!

“Lest We Forget . . .  six decades of providing the Republic of Indonesia with an environment of impunity for crimes against humanity — 500,000 victims in Western New Guinea, 250,000 in East Timor [now Timor-Leste after the 1999 liberation].

“Future historians will teach their undergraduates that Australian governments did forget! That Australian governments also contravened Commonwealth and State criminal codes by helping the Indonesian government prevent the legal decolonisation of Western New Guinea and achieve their subsequent unlawful annexation; and by concealing and destroying evidence of the 1998 Biak Island Massacre.

“It is not only a matter of honour and truth, it’s personal. I have only just discovered that my father and my uncle were Australian servicemen in the Pacific Theatre campaigns across New Guinea.

“Honourable Australians and Americans, however, only need to know our duty of care and our international obligations cannot be compromised for political and economic plunder. The victims of crimes against humanity deserve the support and the protection they are by law, by right, and decency entitled to.

“Pacific Island nations look to the East for a relationship of integrity in their international affairs. Who can blame them with Australian governments track record of treachery, dishonour, and their demeaning elitism and history in the genocide of indigenous peoples.”

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

The UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Monday — and for the first time since the beginning of the Israeli military’s genocide of Palestinians, the United States abstained rather than vetoing it.

Security Council resolutions are legally binding, despite the Biden administration claiming that they are not.

But it is up to the Palestine solidarity movement to ensure the US government enforces it.

The resolution demands an immediate ceasefire that leads to a “lasting” and “sustainable” ceasefire, demands the “immediate and unconditional release of all hostages,” and emphasises “expand[ing] the flow of humanitarian assistance.”

The resolution also contains several weaknesses, reflected in its intentionally vague, watered-down language, which obscures member states’ responsibilities to enforce the ceasefire.

Concerningly, the resolution only demands a ceasefire “for the month of Ramadan,” which ends in two weeks. US diplomats also lobbied for concessions until the last minute, leading to replacing the call for a“permanent ceasefire” with the much weaker “lasting ceasefire.”

The resolution demands the release of all hostages, but it fails to explicitly name the tens of thousands of Palestinians held illegally in Israeli detention and subject to systematic abuse, instead referring ambiguously to both parties complying with “their obligations under international law in relation to all persons they detain.”

Essential clause ‘buried’
And although the resolution does “reiterate its demand for the lifting of all barriers to provision of humanitarian aid at scale” — in a clear message to the Israeli government — this essential clause is buried at the end of a longer sentence that merely emphasises the need to expand the flow of humanitarian aid.

As JVP international advisor Phyllis Bennis puts it, “in UN diplo-speak… ‘emphasising’ something ain’t even close to ‘demanding’ that it happen.”

Nevertheless, the US’s decision to abstain on the vote has inflamed tensions with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who immediately announced that he had cancelled a high-level Israeli delegation bound for Washington.

President Biden had explicitly requested the meeting to raise concerns about Israel’s potential ground invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city where nearly 1.5 million Palestinians are currently sheltering.

Biden has insisted on a plan to evacuate civilians, however impossible that may be, and has called the planned ground invasion a “red line.”

That a ceasefire resolution was finally achieved is in large part due to the massive pressure being exerted by the Palestine solidarity movement. It is a reminder that pressure works, and that now is not the time to let up.

That it took this long, however, shows us how far we have to go.

US vetoed four times
The US vetoed four previous UNSC ceasefire resolutions while the Israeli military slaughtered tens of thousands of Palestinian men, women, and children, even after the World Court found South Africa’s claim that Israel was committing genocide to be “plausible.”

Gaza is now a shell of its former self, its entire landscape rendered unrecognisable by the Israeli military’s months-long genocidal onslaught.

Over 32,000 Palestinians have been killed. Full-blown famine is imminent, and half of Gaza’s entire population — 1.1 million people — are facing starvation.

Yet the Biden administration remains intent on continuing to arm the Israeli military.

Immediately following the passage of the resolution, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield was already undermining it by claiming that UN Security Council resolutions are not legally binding.

This is patently false — and it tells us that the Biden administration is fully prepared to skirt any and all responsibility to enforce this resolution, which would necessitate cutting off the flow of US weapons to the Israeli military.

$3.8 billion for Israeli military
Last week, Biden signed off on a spending bill that would provide $3.8 billion in funding to the Israeli military.

The bill will also ban funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) through March 2025.

Meanwhile, the US military continues to conduct aid airdrops in Gaza — a public relations manoeuvre intended to diffuse pressure on the US government.

These aid drops will not prevent a famine, and they do not absolve the United States government of its complicity in this genocide. They are also dangerous, expensive, and inefficient.

Republished from JVP

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

One year since Prime Minister Anthony Albanese went to San Diego to unveil the AUKUS deal the news came that the first of three second-hand Virginia class nuclear-powered submarines supposed to arrive in 2032 may not happen.

Former coalition prime minister Scott Morrison announced AUKUS in September 2021 and Albanese continued to champion the pact between the US, Britain and Australia.

Phase one involves Australia acquiring eight nuclear-powered submarines as tensions in the Indo-Pacific are growing.

Concerns about the submarines ever materialising are not new, despite the US passing its National Defence Bill 2024 which facilitates the transfer of the nuclear-powered warships.

However, the Pentagon’s 2025 fiscal year budget only set aside funding to build one Virginia submarine. This affects the AUKUS deal as the US had promised to lift production from around 1.3 submarines a year to 2.3 to meet all requirements.

Australia’s acquisition of the first of three second-hand SSNs were to bridge the submarine gap, as talk about a US-led war on China continues.

US Democratic congressperson Joe Courtney told The Sydney Morning Herald on March 12 the US was struggling with its own shipbuilding capacity, meaning promises to Australia were being deprioritised.

Production downturn
Courtney said that the downturn in production “will remove one more attack submarine from a fleet that is already 17 submarines below the navy’s long-stated requirement of 66”.

The US needs to produce 18 more submarines by 2032 to be able to pass one on to Australia.

After passing laws permitting the transfer of nuclear technology, the deal is running a year at least behind schedule.

Greens Senator David Shoebridge said on X that “When the US passed the law to set up AUKUS they put in kill switches, one of which allowed the US to decide not [to] transfer the submarines if doing so would ‘degrade the US undersea capabilities’”.

Pat Conroy, Labor’s Defence Industry Minister, retorted that the government was confident the submarines would appear.

The White House seems unfazed; it would have been aware of the problems for some time.

Meanwhile the USS Annapolis, a US nuclear-powered submarine (SSN) has docked in Boorloo/Perth.

AUKUS still under way
Regardless of whether Australia acquires any nuclear-powered vessels, the rest of the AUKUS deal, including interoperability with the US, is already underway.

Andrew Hastie, Liberal Party spokesperson, confirmed that construction at HMAS Stirling will start next year for “Submarine Rotational Force-West (SRF-West)”, the permanent US-British nuclear-powered submarine base in WA, which is due to be completed in 2027.

SRF-West includes 700 US army personnel and their families being stationed in WA. If the second-hand nuclear submarines do not materialise, the US submarines will be on hand.

SRF-West may also serve as an alternative to the five British-designed AUKUS SSNs, slated to be built in Kaurna Yerta/Adelaide over coming decades.

Australia respects the Pentagon’s warhead ambiguity policy, meaning that any US military equipment stationed here could be carrying nuclear weapons: we will never know.

Shoebridge said on March 13 he was entering a hearing to decide where the AUKUS powers can dump their nuclear waste. Local waste dumps are being considered, as the US and Britain do not have permanent radioactive waste dumps.

The waste to be dumped is said to have a low-level radioactivity. However, as former Senator Rex Patrick pointed out, SSNs produce high-level radioactive waste at the end of their shelf lives that will need to be stored somewhere, underground, forever.

‘Radioactive waste management’
The Australian Naval Nuclear Power Safety Bill 2023, tabled last November, allows for the AUKUS SSNs to be constructed and also provides for “a radioactive waste management facility”.

The Australian public is spending US$3 billion on helping the US submarine industrial base expand capacity. An initial US$2 billion will be spent next year, followed by $100 million annually from 2026 through to 2033.

The Pentagon has budgeted US$4 billion for its submarine industry next year, with an extra US$11 billion over the following five years.

The removal of the Virginia subs, and even the AUKUS submarines from the agreement, would be in keeping with the terms of the 2014 Force Posture Agreement, signed off by then prime minister Tony Abbott.

As part of the Barack Obama administration’s 2011 “pivot to Asia”, the US-Australia Force Posture Agreement allows for 2500 Marines to be stationed in the Northern Territory.

It sets up increasing interoperability between both countries’ air forces and allows the US unimpeded access to dozens of “agreed-to facilities and areas”.

These agreed bases remain classified.

US takes full control
However, as the recent US overhaul of RAAF Base Tindall in the NT reveals, when the US decides to do that it takes full control.

Tindall has been upgraded to allow for six US B-52 bombers that may be carrying nuclear warheads.

US laws that facilitate the transfer of Virginia-class submarines also make clear that as Australia is now classified as a US domestic military source this allows the US privileged access to critical minerals, such as lithium.

Paul Gregoire writes for Sydney Criminal Lawyers where a version of this article was first published. The article has also been published at Green Left magazine and is republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

The New Zealand government has given its full blessing to Cook Islands and Niue establishing diplomatic relations with the United States.

At the US-Pacific summit on Monday (Washington time), President Joe Biden said he recognised the two island nations as sovereign and independent states, an announcement which the US Embassy in Aotearoa has labelled as “historic”.

Both countries are self-governing in ‘free association’ with New Zealand.  

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins acknowledged that and responded to questions around what the US’s move means for both countries’ relationship with Aotearoa.

“That’s the way that the American system works,” Hipkins said.

“So in order to recognise those specific countries, the wording that they use is they recognise their sovereignty but actually they also recognise, through diplomatic channels, the unique constitutional relationship that those countries have with New Zealand as well.”

The establishment of diplomatic relations does not change the constitutional relationship Aotearoa New Zealand has with either the Cook Islands or Niue, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesperson said.

“Aotearoa New Zealand welcomes the establishment of diplomatic relations between US, Cook Islands and Niue,” the MFAT spokesperson said.

Diplomatic relations
“The Cook Islands has diplomatic relations with 61 countries, and Niue has diplomatic relations with 21 countries.

“[The NZ government] expects that the establishment of diplomatic relations[with the US] will better enable close engagement.”

In his speech, Biden said building a better world started with stronger partnerships.

“And that’s why the United States is formally establishing relations with the Cook Island’s . . .  and Niue,” Biden said.

Pacific Islands Forum chair and Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown has hailed the move as a milestone that marks an “era of change”.

He said Niue and the Cook Islands were “celebrating”.

“These milestones celebrate era’s of change and demonstrate that with unshakable resolve and leadership, remarkable achievements are possible,” Brown said.

Brown thanked the US President for his elevated level of engagement with the Pacific over the last year.

Development funding
Massey University’s defence and security analyst Dr Anna Powles said formalising diplomatic ties was “very much about ensuring that Cook Islands and Niue are able to receive development assistance funding”.

“There’s obviously also a strategic benefit from the United States perspective to have diplomatic presence, or at least diplomatic reach, into both of those countries.”

On top of the diplomatic ties talk, Biden also announced climate assistance at the summit.

He told Pacific leaders more than US$20 million is being injected into climate assistance.

The announcement for climate support and affirming the US’s commitment to climate action comes just days days after he was slammed by Pacific youth climate activist Suluafi Brianna Freuan following the UN Climate Ambition Summit.

Suluafi said not all nations were being ambitious enough when it came to climate ambition.

“What are the commitments that they will make to financing those most vulnerable to climate change, including those in their, their very ocean, their neighbours in the Pacific,” Suluafi said.

“[Countries] really need to talk about how they will phase out fossil fuels.”

But President Biden wanted to be clear that the Pacific’s stance on the climate crisis was the US’s position too.

‘I hear you’ – Biden on climate crisis
“I want you to know I hear you, the people in the United States and around the world hear you,” Biden said.

“We hear your warnings of a rising sea that they pose an existential threat to your nations. We hear your calls for reassurance that you never, never, never will lose your statehood, or membership of the UN as a result of the climate crisis.”

The President also announced the doubling of US-Pacific exchange student spots.

He committed to a free, open, prosperous and secure Indo-Pacific region.

Biden also plans on investing US$5 million into co-funding a fisheries and ocean science vessel.

It is expected to be used to manage the region’s tuna resources and for ocean science research.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

United States President Joe Biden yesterday apologised to Prime Minister James Marape and the people of Papua New Guinea for abandoning his planned trip to Port Moresby, and instead is sending Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.

Details of Blinken’s travel to PNG are still being finalised and will be announced soon, but he will be here on Monday, Marape said.

He said Blinken would be involved in bilateral dialogue with the PNG government and leaders of the Pacific Island countries.

Marape, while addressing journalists yesterday afternoon, had to excuse himself twice during the hour-long address, to take calls from the White House and from Biden.

He said Biden was apologetic but had given his commitment to visit PNG and the region in the near future.

Marape also talked about the benefits of the US-PNG Defence Cooperation Agreement, downplaying fears that the agreement was unconstitutional and would sacrifice PNG’s sovereignty.

“Sorry I didn’t mean to be rude, but this call that came in this time, you know the US President is a very important man, he is not easily accessible, he’s got stiff protocols to access him and I was privileged on behalf of our people that he placed a call directly through my cell phone,” Marape said in apology to the local and international journalists in attendance.

“We spoke and I just stepped out and got his call.

‘Sincerest apology’
“He [President Biden] conveyed his sincerest apology that he cannot make it into our country.

“I did place an invitation to him that the next earliest available time, please come and visit us here, but he has confirmed that he has directed Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to arrive here on Monday to meet with us for a specific bilateral with Papua New Guinea as well as a regional meeting with the Pacific Island leaders.

“He did invite again the Pacific Island leaders for a continuation of a progressive continuation of the meeting that we initially held last September in Washington.

“And so those were the reasons why I stepped out.”

Marape also said he had invited Biden to visit PNG whenever he could, and Biden had agreed.

He said that when Biden came, he would be able to sign the Ship Riders Agreement with PNG.

He said the agreement had been approved, and was ready for signing.

But he did not give a firm answer on the signing of other, more controversial agreement, the US-PNG Defence Cooperation Agreement.

He said the agreement was done within the confines of PNG laws, and assured the people that it would be of benefit to the country.

Rabuka apologises to PNG
Meanwhile, Governor-General Sir Bob Dadae received Fiji Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka at Government House in Port Moresby this afternoon.

Rabuka arrived in the country today and paid a courtesy call on the Governor-General.

By way of introduction, the Prime Minister and his delegation performed a traditional Fijian reconciliation ceremony complete with the presentation of a whale tooth, a significant Fijian traditional gift, to the Governor-General.

The traditional ceremony that Prime Minister Rabuka performed sought forgiveness and reconciliation on behalf of the people of Fiji for the closure of the Fiji High Commission in PNG in 2020.

Lawrence Fong and Gorethy Kenneth are PNG Post-Courier reporters. Republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister James Marape is still confident of delivering the PNG-US Defence Cooperation Agreement despite the cancellation of US President Joe Biden’s visit, and the leaking of a draft copy of the confidential document on Tuesday.

He said PNG’s national interest was at the heart of the agreement, which was still expected to be signed on Monday in Port Moresby between himself and the US government leader or official who would step in for Biden.

Marape said yesterday the agreement that was leaked on Tuesday was still in draft format, and he would announce the finer details today following a cabinet meeting yesterday

By yesterday afternoon, the White House was still yet to confirm who would step in for Biden to visit Papua New Guinea.

Copies of the leaked agreement were circulated to PNG and regional media on Tuesday, with Radio New Zealand carrying it on its website the same afternoon.

Marape said the agreement would greatly boost PNG’s defence capabilities and provide key infrastructure in strategic air and sea ports.

“There is a lot of misinformation in the news release. I will announce to the country the upsides of these agreements on Thursday [today],” Marape said told the Post-Courier.

Still in draft form
“The agreement was still in draft form and we will discuss it fully at our cabinet meeting later today [Wednesday].

“I want to inform all that PNG’s national interest is the reason why we [are] elevating our traditional military relationship with USA to a higher and better level, including addressing the needs of our military, to upgrade and sea and airspace border protection.”

Speaking to the Post-Courier separately on Tuesday, and without making any particular reference to the US-PNG Defence Cooperation Agreement, Chief of the PNG Defence Force Major-General Mark Goina said budget support to the military over the years had been unsatisfactory.

“Such agreements with our bilateral partners are crucial in helping plug the gaps,” he said.

“We have devised plans where we have a budget put in place, in accordance to our needs, and based on that, we have identified where the gaps are, and that is where our partners are brought in, partners like Australia, New Zealand, US, China, India, UK and other partners we have relationships with.

“So they come and cover those gaps for us,” General Goina said.

“That’s how we have been addressing our budget shortfalls.

“And this will continue until such time, when we are able to meet our own needs satisfactorily.”

Pact yet to be finaiised
The 14-page agreement, a copy of which was also seen by the Post-Courier, will be finalised by the end of this week for signing on Monday in Port Moresby.

When signed, the agreement will work in line with all previous defence agreements between the two countries.

The draft agreement, titled “Agreement on Defence Cooperation Between the Government of the United States of America And the government of the Independent State of Papua New Guinea’, contains a total of 22 specific sections or articles, which deal with a broad range of issues.

The articles range from issues such as:

• the status of US personnel who will pass through or be based in PNG military facilities;
• access to and use of agreed facilities and areas covered in the agreement;
• pre-positioning and storage of equipment, supplies and materials;
• property ownership, security; entry and exit;
• movement of aircraft, vehicles and vessels; importation, exportation and taxes;
• driving and professional licenses;
• contracting;
• logistics support; medical and mortuary affairs, postal and recreational facilities and communications services; and
• utilities and communications; and o

Strategic specifics
The specific areas and facilities covered under the agreement include the strategically-valuable Nadzab airport and Lae wharf, the Lombrum naval base and Momote airport in Manus, and the Port Moresby seaport and Jackson’s International Airport.

Access to these strategic areas and facilities are covered in article five of the agreement, which states, in part, that: “The parties shall cooperate to facilitate the required approvals to enable unimpeded access to and use of the agreed facilities and areas to US Forces and US contractors as mutually agreed.”

“Such agreed facilities and areas may be used for mutually agreed activities including visits, training, exercises, manoeuvres, transit, support and related activities, refueling of aircraft . .” and others.

There were fears that the agreement would undermine PNG’s sovereignty, even though many similar agreements exist between the US and its allies around the world and the Indo-Pacific region — countries which still enjoy their freedoms and sovereignty.

Lawrence Fong and Gorethy Kenneth are PNG Post-Courier reporters. Republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

US President Joe Biden will cut out his historic trip to Papua New Guinea — and also to Australia — to return to complete debt ceiling negotiations in the US, according to a White House statement.

Biden was scheduled to make a brief, historic stopover in PNG, and meet with other Pacific leaders, before travelling to Australia for a meeting of the Japan, Australia, India, US grouping known as the Quad countries.

However, he will now return to the US on Sunday, following the completion of the G7 summit in Japan “in order to be back for meetings with Congressional leaders to ensure that Congress takes action by the deadline to avert default”.

“We look forward to finding other ways to engage with Australia, the Quad, Papua New Guinea and the leaders of the Pacific Islands Forum in the coming year,” the White House said.

“The President spoke to [Australian] Prime Minister [Anthony] Albanese earlier today to inform him that he will be postponing his trip to Australia.

“He also invited the Prime Minister for an official state visit at a time to be agreed by the teams. The President’s team engaged with the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea’s team to inform them as well.”

‘Revitalising and reinvigorating’ alliances
The White House said “revitalising and reinvigorating” alliances like the Quad remained a key priority.

The US would look to find other ways to engage with Australia, the Quad, Papua New Guinea and other Pacific Islands Forum leaders in the coming year, it said.

On Tuesday, RNZ Pacific revealed Biden was poised to get a security deal signed with PNG, which would give US armed forces uninhibited access to PNG’s territorial waters and airspace.

In preparation for Biden’s three-hour stopover, Prime Minister James Marape had called on Governor-General Sir Bob Dadae to declare a public holiday.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Free Papua Organisation (OPM) leader Jeffrey Bomanak has appealed to US President Joe Biden for a “proactive role” in ending Indonesia’s “unlawful military occupation and annexation” of West Papua.

He claims this illegal occupation led to the subsequent US “foreign policy failure” in protecting six decades of crimes against humanity.

Bomanak made this appeal in an open letter to the President — a harrowing 22-page document citing a litany of alleged human rights violations against Papuan men, women and children by Indonesian security forces — days before Biden’s arrival in the Papua New Guinea capital Port Moresby next week for a vital summit with Pacific leaders.

“Six decades of callous betrayal and abandonment – my people enslaved, imprisoned, assaulted, tortured, raped, murdered, massacred, poisoned, impoverished, and starved and forcefully relocated; villages bombed . . . every day of every week,” wrote Bomanak in the letter dated May 17.

He said that when West Papua was part of the Dutch colonial empire for 500 years, “we were never abused and mistreated . . . we were never subjected to crimes against humanity”.

However, under Indonesia’s colonial empire, “we have lived in a slaughterhouse with hundreds of thousands of victims — men, women, and children.

‘Gateway to hell’
“The New York Agreement, written and sponsored by your government on 15 August 1962 without any inclusion or representation of a single West Papuan, paved the road for this slaughterhouse.

“My people call this agreement ‘The Gateway to Hell’.”

Bomanak accused the US, along with Australia and New Zealand – “our Second World War allies” – of having treated the West Papuan people as “collateral damage” for “geopolitical convenience” when dealing with Jakarta.

“Unfortunately, these democratic Christian governments who we supported during the life-and-death cataclysm of the Second World War, abandoned both their duty to support international decolonisation laws and their duty of care to stop Indonesia’s barbarism against indigenous West Papuans — the rightful landowners of our ancestral lands,” he said.

Bomanak’s open letter cited horrendous case after case with gruesome photographic documentation.

“I would like to introduce you to some of these crimes against humanity and some of our victims,” he began.

“I have restricted the prima facie photographic evidence to not visually include the worst of the worst. Although, how this can be defined is a subjective detail beyond my assessment – they are all my suffering grandmothers and grandfathers, mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, sons and daughters.

“Every crime is personal. Every victim is family.

Mutilation and dismemberment
“Dismemberment is one of Indonesia’s defence and security forces specialties to instill terror and fear into village populations,” Bomanak said.

“This practice has been used from the beginning of the Indonesian military occupation and is still being used.”

Bomanak provided documentation of a 35-year-old woman, Tarina Murib, who was allegedly beheaded by Indonesian security forces on 4 March 2023. – International Mother’s Day.

“Murdered and mutilated by the Indonesian military in Puncak Regency; villages and churches have been emptied as thousands more soldiers have been deployed in the area.”

Bomanak also cited the killing and mutilation on 22 August 2022 of four Papuan civilians by Indonesian special forces — Irian Nirigi, Arnold Lokbere, Atis Tini and Kelemanus Nirigi.

“[They] were beheaded and their legs were cut off before their bodies were placed in sacks and tossed into the Pigapu river.”

He raised cases of assaults on village elders and children.

“Using terror to make us fear to stand up for our right to freedom . . . our right to defend our ancestral lands from a hostile and barbaric invader.”

Infanticide
“It is estimated that 150,000 children have been victims of Indonesian crimes against humanity. This is the equivalent of a Holocaust,” said Bomanak.

“An evil forced upon West Papua for Cold War politics and to satisfy American mining company Freeport-McMoRan’s quest to be the beneficiary of West Papua’s spectacular mineral reserves rather than the Dutch, which would have been the case if West Papua had been decolonised in accordance with international law and if the rights of West Papua’s people to freedom and nation-state sovereignty had been respected,” he said.

Bomanak cited the case of nine-year-old Kris Tabuni, who died on 18 October 2022. His death is still unexplained.

Truth ‘distortion’
Bomanak condemned politicians and diplomats who “cannot envisage Indonesia leaving West Papua”.

“It is a step that is difficult for them to take. They respond to the injustice of the invasion and military occupation of our ancestral land with hand-wringing apologies while stating that the world is an unfair place.

“This is their personal maxim for hardship and crimes against humanity, and then they join in the plunder.

The historical truth is that West Papua — the western half of the island of New Guinea — has never been a part of Indonesia.

“Various legal, political and military arguments stating otherwise are all contrary to the norms of international laws and to justice.

“The Papuan nation is not part of the Indonesian Colonial State. The process of annexation on 1 May 1963, was forced onto my people.”

NZ hostage pilot
Bomanak also wrote about the hostage crisis involving 37-year-old New Zealand pilot Philip Mehrtens who was captured by the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB), the armed wing of the OPM, on February 7.

Addressing President Biden, Bomanak said: “A war of liberation has been undertaken by my people since the fraudulent 1969 referendum.

“We have issued hundreds of warnings to both Indonesians and foreigners not to be in our land.

“Unlike, Indonesia, we will care for Philip Mehrtens, the same way we care for our brothers and sisters. He is safe with us, but he is at great risk from Indonesian air and ground combat operations.

“The Indonesian defence force has already suffered significant battle fatalities. We request a peaceful solution with the aim of Indonesia leaving West Papua.

“Perhaps you can appoint Ambassador Caroline Kennedy [Ambassador to Australia] to this role?”

Bomanak’s letter also tracks the many West Papuan peaceful political leaders who have been the victims of extrajudicial executions in an effort to “terrorise the independence movement”. They include the following:

“Arnold Ap was assassinated in 1984. Tom Wanggai died in mysterious circumstances while in prison which we believe was another extrajudicial execution in1989.

“Tribal leader Theys Hiyo Eluay was assassinated in November 2001. Filep Karma also died in mysterious circumstances which we believe was another extrajudicial execution in November 2022 at the same beach where Arnold Ap was executed.”

“President Biden, I could have easily filled 10,000 more pages with victims of this miscarriage of international justice, but I understand your time is limited with important matters of state and of international affairs.

“Sir, there is no honour in helping Indonesia maintain their lie, their deception, their treachery, and the six decades of crimes against humanity that many academics call ‘West Papua’s slow genocide’.

“The fraudulent annexation of my country is as much a story of dishonourable and deceitful Western governance.”

Concluding the open letter, Bomanak told President Biden that if Ukraine could have an investigation for crimes against humanity, then “after six decades of Indonesia’s crimes against humanity, West Papuans are entitled to justice through the very same measures of accountability and due process.”

The OPM has waged an armed resistance against the Indonesian military since 1969. The West Papuans argue that they should regain independence on the grounds that, unlike Muslim-majority Indonesia, they are predominantly Christian and Melanesian from the Pacific. Pro-independence views among Papuans are also motivated by Indonesia’s repressive rule in the Melanesian provinces.

• OPM leader Jeffrey Bomanak’s open letter full text

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz