DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS IN ASIA AND THE PACIFIC SEARCHING FOR SOLUTIONS NOVEMBER 9, 2010

Dear friends,

Herman Wainggai, a West Papuan activist, organizer, educator, is working in partnership with George Mason University

Learning from other social movements like within Burma, and other non-violent movement after they have succeeded attaining their democracy and human rights - political and economic -, so on 9 November 2010 we will hold a symposium on Democracy and Human Rights in Asia and the Pacific at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, USA.

West Papuans recall how in New York on 19 November 1969, eighty four member states of the United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 2504 noting the results of the UN Act of Free Choice in West Papua. This finalised the New York Agreement (1962), thereby integrating the West Papuan nation into the Unitary Republic of Indonesia.

The indigenous peoples of West Papuan neither agreed to, nor have accepted, the colonisation of their country. They were not consulted regarding the New York Agreement , and it is well documented that the Act of Free Choice was a sham.
West Papuan resistance and nation-making have increased since the discharge of President Suharto in 1998, in the face of ongoing military abuses, slow genocide, and the imposition of Special Autonomy, now rejected by West Papuans.

Most political analysts believe that the long standing impasse between the government in Jakarta and the people of West Papua is a key international concern.
OBJECTIVES OF SYMPOSIUM:-

1 To influence the US politik to view the data about West Papua as well as Indonesia
2 To encourage the US to support West Papuan aspirations for self-determination

METHOD:-
1 An environmentally-sensitive tele-conference about West Papua, situated locally in Washington where a response to each of the four speakers from West Papuan, Australian and American as keynote speakers is beamed via satellite into the conference room, making it a truly global conference.

2 Four prepared questions to each speaker via telecommunication link: from USa, Canada, Africa, Caribean, Indonesia, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, England, Australia and West Papua

3 Public Broadcasting Network to televise conference, which provides documentation but also technology for people anywhere to send SMS questions and responses conference.

Presenters are :

1. Lester Kurtz – Professor of Sociology and Anthropology, George Mason University, Fairfax VA.

2. Sheila Jackson Lee – Congresswoman, United States House of Representatives (seventh term)

3. Herman Wainggai – Former political prisoner , educator and activist, diplomatic coordinator, Asia- Pacific Provisional Government, West Papua National Authority

4. Edmund McWilliams - Former U.S. senior Foreign Service Officer and Political Counselor at the US Embassy in Jakarta from 1996 to 1999

5. Peter Woods – Anglican minister and artist, and activist for justice (Melbourne, Australia)

6. Daryn Cambridge – specialist in strategies for non-violent resistance

7. John Dale – Prof. of Sociology GM University, (Globalization, transnational conflict and human rights)

8. Alama Binbyak Mirino – leader of Women’s Solidarity Movement in Biak, West Papua

9. Franz Kapissa – Political Lecturer Cenderawasih University, Jayapura, Minister of Defence in Provisional Government, West Papua National Authority

10. Paul James – Prof. RMIT Melbourne, Director of Global Institute and Director of UN Global Compact Cities Program

11. Jacob Rumbiak – Academic, former political prisoner and Minister for Foreign Affairs, in Provisional Government, West Papua National Authority

Secretariat- WPNA, 2010