Jan. 14, p. 8
The death of Kelly Kwalik on Dec. 16 was tragic and unnecessary, as Kelly should have listened to veteran Papuan separatist leader Nicholas Jouwe who said on his first visit back to Indonesia after more than 40 years in exile in March 2009 that the war for an independent Papua was over.
The late Kwalik was the reputed leader of the armed wing of the Free Papua Organization (OPM), co-founded by Jouwe. While Jouwe lived for most of his live in self-imposed exile in the Netherlands, Kwalik lived by the gun on the run, suspected of shootings, killings and kidnappings in the name of the OPM.
But in March last year Jouwe called for dialogue between the Papuan separatist (secessionist) movement and the Indonesian authorities, and sought compromise as neighbors instead of continuing the fight for independence, which albeit no more than a low-intensity insurgency has inflicted personal pain and hardship on civilians as well as on the families of slain security personnel and of the so-called freedom fighters. (By B.J.K. Cramer, Rotterdam, the Netherlands)
Your comments:
Well written letter; Kwalik was a terrorist who had it coming. If he had been a Muslim, Janusch would applaud the death of this thug and killer.
Kwalik was an obstacle to the betterment of Papua and, hopefully, with his kind gone, not Papuans but terrorists, we can move forward to a peaceful Papua.
A dead terrorist is a good terrorist, I’ve always said.
Mike Berkley
Washington DC
The Papuans deserve their independence if the Indonesian government continues to mistreat and abuse them and their rich natural resources.
The media coverage of the negative side of Papuans is out of proportion. Jakarta robs their resources and is trying to divide and conquer them.
The Papuans deserve their independence as long as Jakarta continues to turn their beautiful place into a military zone and keeps intimidating them.
Cramer, you live safely in Rotterdam, you can say whatever you want, but you don’t experience how brutal the Indonesian military in Papua is. Let them decide for themselves.
Yusup Lifire
Jakarta
I totally agree with the writer. I wish there were more people like Cramer who wrote about West Papua based on the true history and from a different point of view.
Unfortunately, most people who write about West Papua (from the Western world) only impose their biased views following their own agendas. So, thank you, Cramer.
Keboiwa
United Kingdom
C’mon, do you think you can manipulate public opinion just like that, as if we were in the 20th century?
Pablo
Uruguay
This letter is full of offensive misrepresentations and misleading pseudo-history. This Dutch
letter writer would like us to believe that the Free Papua Movement was created by the Dutch Colonial authorities rather than Papuan people themselves — what racist arrogance on Cramer’s part!
Janusch Vensk
Milan
