Political Support
Vanuatu not independent without West Papua: Sope
By Vanatu Daily Post
Feb 11, 2008, 01:07

A Vanuatu leader said the fathers of independence made a pledge to other leaders of Pacific during the struggle days that unless the whole of Melanesia is independent Vanuatu is not independent.

Deputy Opposition Leader Barak Sope said many today would find it hard to understand that undertaking but the reality was that those who fought for Vanuatu independence had a vision that looked beyond what many leaders today see.

“Leaders like the late Father (Walter)) Lini, the late (Fred) Timakata and many other leaders of Vanuatu before independence shared the conviction that when Vanuatu becomes free it must help others be free too,” Sope told a gathering of West Papua sympathisers in Port Vila last Friday.

The former secretary general of the one of the most powerful parties in the South Pacific during those time, the National Party (now Vanua’aku Pati), said representatives of independent movements from East Timor, West Papua, New Caledonia, and Tahiti would come here to Vanuatu.

“They were people like the late Jean Marie Tjibaou (leader of the independent movement in New Caledonia) and Oscar Temaru (the French Polynesian independent movement leader who was voted the President of Tahiti in 2005) and many more. They came to Ifira and we talked about the struggle,” Mr Sope said.

He said he was happy to see that groups like the Vanuatu Free West Papua Association still shared the dreams of the fathers of Vanuatu independence who wanted the whole of Melanesia and countries like French Polynesia free from colonialism.

Earlier that afternoon the VFWPA chairman Mr Lai Sakita said the support group was set up to keep the flame that was lit by the people who steered Vanuatu into independence alive. Mr Sakita also said that by supporting a cause it unites people of different ethnic groups and educational background together, something good but is lacking in today’s society.

The Efate veteran politician who had spoke about the West Papua issue at the United Nations encouraged the VFWPA to keep the flame burning, as many people had not thought that East Timor would be independent yet they attained independence.

“West Papua will one day win its independence but we need to work hard for it,” Mr Sope said.

He said if Australia, New Zealand, the United States of America and the Peoples Republic of China supported the cause for West Papua independence they would be already independent.

But they cannot do that because they have interest in the resources of West Papua, Mr Sope said, adding that USA has the largest mining company in West Papua.

“West Papua is the richest island country in the world. It has gold, gas, petroleum, land, everything. It is even the richest province in the Indonesia that is why Indonesia does not want to give them their independence,” the former Vanuatu prime minister said.

West Papua unlike Vanuatu has already economic independence. All they want is political independence like what Vanuatu had in 1980, he said.

“If West Papua is independent the amount of aid money they will give Vanuatu if we ask will be greater than what some donor countries are giving Vanuatu today,” the first Vanuatu Roving Ambassador said.

http://www.dailypost.vu/index.php?news=1783

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