Until yesterday, no major country has ever admitted that that the people of West Papua were forced into Indonesia against their will. Yesterday at Foreign Office Questions in the House of Lords something very significant happened which may one day be seen as a milestone on the road to peace in Papua.

  Today West Papuans are welcoming what they see as a helpful step forward taken by the British Government in the search for a peaceful and just resolution of the West Papua conflict.

  Yesterday, Baroness Symons, Foreign Office Minister and spokesperson for the Government on foreign affairs in House of Lords, replied to a question from the Bishop of Oxford, the Rt Revd Richard Harries, a long time friend of the Papuan people. Baroness Symons agreed with the Bishop's analysis of what had happened in 1969 when Suharto's Indonesia went through the motions of consulting the Papuan people about their choice for the future-independence or Indonesia:

"He [the Bishop] is right to say that there were 1,000 handpicked representatives and that they were largely coerced into declaring for inclusion in Indonesia."

  For over 35 years, the people of West Papua have been trying to tell the rest of the World that they want independence from Indonesia. In fact, they have been saying that they never wanted to be part of Indonesia in the first place and if in 1969 they had had a proper chance to exercise their right to self-determination they would have been able to tell the World just that.

  Until now the Papuans' voice has been ignored. In the world of realpolitik, it has been all too easy for big powers to ignore a mere million Melanesians.

  Next year, the West Papuans' eastern neighbours in Papua New Guinea will be celebrating the 30th Anniversary of their independence from Britain. However, on the western side of the straight line colonial border which arbitrarily divides the Melanesian people of New Guinea into two halves, the West Papuans have nothing to celebrate. Their lot in the "accident of history" is not to celebrate but to commemorate-to try to keep alive the memory of over 100,000 of their sons, daughters, mothers and fathers who have been killed since the Indonesian military arrived to occupy their land in 1963.

  The Papuans trusted that when their former colonial rulers, the Dutch, promised that they would be allowed a one-person, one vote referendum to choose between independence or Indonesia, that would be exactly what they would get, especially as the promise was supported by the USA and guaranteed by the United Nations. Ever since 1969 the Papuans have been telling anyone who'll listen that the cruelly-named "Act of Free Choice" which was supposed to fulfill their promise of a democratic referendum was anything but free. In fact, 1,025 handpicked Papuans were forced at gun-point to "vote" 100% for incorporation into Suharto's Indonesia, with the UN and the rest of the World looking on . . . but doing nothing.

  In her reply to the Bishop, Baroness Symons went on to say:

"The question is what should happen now."

  The Papuans of course have the same question. Their answer is to find a way forward towards peace not through confrontation with Indonesia, but through peaceful all-inclusive dialogue between Papuan leaders and the Indonesian Government. supported along the way by the international community. Papuans are pleading that violence must never again be seen as the way to settle the dispute. Just like the Northern Ireland and Israel/Palestine conflicts, West Papua desperately needs a genuine internationally sponsored peace process . . . in which the British Government could play a prominent and very constructive role.

  Perhaps in years to come, 13 December 2004 will be remembered by future generations of West Papuans as a significant date in their history . . . in a West Papua at peace and in which the Papuan people at last have something to celebrate.