European Parliament
Caroline Lucas (Verts/ALE ). –
Mr President, I rise to draw attention to the continuing plight of the West Papuan people. Just a week or so ago was West Papua Independence Day, which is traditionally held on 1 December to mark the anniversary of the Dutch promise to grant independence to West Papua, a promise originally made in December 1961. Of course, that independence never came and instead there has been a continuing military occupation by Indonesia for over 40 years, with torture, disappearance, detention without trial and murder of West Papuans at the hands of the military being commonplace.
I am calling on you, President, as well as the Commission and Council, to raise the issue of West Papua’s self-determination with the relevant Indonesian authorities, and for them to do all they can to ensure the withdrawal of the Indonesian military from West Papua and the holding of a free and democratic referendum on self-determination, including all the indigenous West Papuans.
A number of colleagues have put down a written declaration for this session to coincide with Independence Day for West Papua, and I urge my colleagues here to co-sign that written declaration.

