INDONESIA has sent a protest to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs for questioning the incorporation of West Papua, now Irian Jaya, into Indonesia.
The committee said in a resolution last January that if was deeply concerned at the inadequacy of the 1969 "Act of Free Choice" as a genuine expression of self determination of the people of West Papua, a former Dutch colony ceded to Indonesia in 1963. It also expressed concern at allegations of torture, killing, intimidation and cultural suppression in West Papua.
"The resolution is an unacceptable and wrong footed interference in the internal affairs of Indonesia", Mr Harsoyo Sudirman, charge d'affaires of the Indonesian embassy in London, said in a letter to the committee.
A copy of the letter was sent to Reuters news agency by the Indonesian foreign ministry in Jakarta.
David Shanks add The main thrust of criticism of the 1969 "Act of Free Choice" is that the assent to the integration of West Papua as Indonesia's 26th province was by 1,025 Papuans handpicked by Indonesia. One wavering member of this group was said to have become persuaded only when a pistol was put to his head. A plebiscite on self determination has never been held, nor have the people ever been consulted, critics say.
