By: Iqbal Fadillah) *
The Indonesian government, through a press statement, strongly condemned the action of the Government of Vanuatu who deliberately smuggled Benny Wenda (Chair of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua / ULMWP) during his honorary visit to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (KTHAM) in Geneva, Switzerland. The honorary visit which was originally carried out in the framework of the discussion of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Vanuatu at the Human Rights Council. However, Benny Wenda’s presence in the group was to submit a Papuan independence petition. In the petition, Benny claimed there were more than 1.8 million Papuans who wanted a referendum on independence from the Republic of Indonesia.
Similar efforts to support Papuan independence have also been undertaken by diplomats from Nauru, Vanuatu, Tonga, Solomon Islands, Palau, Tuvalu and Marshall Islands at a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Hearing Meeting at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, to compile joint communication calls for the United Nations to immediately investigate allegations of gross human rights violations in West Papua.
The Seven Pacific Countries accused the Indonesian government of ordering the authorities to carry out extrajudicial killings, beating activists, and detaining activists of the Free West Papua movement. However, the Indonesian envoy to UNHCR denied the accusation and stated that all legal efforts to protect the rights of Papuans had been carried out. The Indonesian government always ensures that every alleged violation of human rights is legally processed, and seeks a conducive situation in Papua.
President Jokowi is trying to change the civil security approach in Papua and West Papua. The president also promised to open a permit to cover foreign journalists to Papua and release political prisoners. These efforts are evidence of the presence of the Government of Indonesia to protect all Papuan people. The Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia is a sovereign State, so that no State can intervene or interfere with all the problems of the Republic of Indonesia.
These intervention efforts tend to use a humanitarian approach that is examined from the perspective of international law. This is not surprising because the State’s intervention in the domestic affairs of other countries was legitimized by the UN Charter, especially Chapter 7 relating to actions related to the threat of peace, violations of peace and acts of aggression. But will the potential doctrine of humanitarian intervention occur in Papua?
Humanitarian intervention according to Heinze (2009, 7) is a subject that contains a lot of controversy and confusion. Controversial because humanitarian interventions are conceptually clearly contradictory to the concept of sovereignty. The concept of sovereignty accepted in the history of relations between nations is the concept of Westphalia’s sovereignty, which incidentally was born as a consequence of the Westphalia peace agreement in 1648 which in essence is that every political entity called the State has the right to regulate its own affairs without interference from other parties (non-interference). These principles are further stated in the UN Charter Chapter 2 (Article 7) which prohibits other countries from interfering in the internal affairs of other countries.
Furthermore, humanitarian intervention is contradictory to the principle of prohibiting the use of military force (non-use of force). This principle is explicitly stated in the UN Charter Chapter 2 (Article 4) which contains a prohibition on the use of military force, except for self-defense or with the permission of the UN Security Council. On the other hand, Welsh (2004, 3) provides a definition of Humanitarian Intervention as an act of “coercive interference in the internal affairs of other countries which involves the use of military force to prevent violence against human rights or prevent the widespread suffering suffered by citizens.
From a variety of conceptual definitions of Humanitarian Interventions, it can be concluded that humanitarian interventions contain at least three main elements namely the use of military force (methods), termination of violations of Human Rights (objectives), and carried out without the permission of the State concerned (procedures). The definition tends to be different from the concept of military intervention, namely the State uses coercive means (military force) to punish other countries, because they are considered to endanger international security without humanitarian relief efforts.
The approach to human rights violations tends to be used by Papuan Separatism Groups to continue to voice the struggle for the Free Papua Movement through national and international channels by involving Pacific States which are considered allied countries as Melanesian nations.
However, the doctrine of humanitarian intervention against Indonesia that is sought and expected by separatist groups in Papua will not occur, as long as there is a presence of the Government in the Papuan community in the form of, improving welfare, upholding the rule of law, and increasing the professionalism of the TNI / Polri security apparatus. uphold human rights by continuing to promote the sovereignty of the State.
As for increasing the protection and enforcement of human rights in Indonesia, so that there are no more accusations from other countries regarding human rights violations that occurred in Indonesia, especially in Papua, so that they can intervene in the sovereignty of the Republic of Indonesia in the name of upholding human rights, diplomacy measures are carried out by Indonesian diplomacy. The Government of the Republic of Indonesia in an international forum must be able to show that Indonesia is a sovereign State whose sovereignty cannot be disturbed by other countries. In addition, it is necessary to find a more appropriate formula on how to prevent negative excesses from implementing humanitarian interventions, by promoting the principle of non-intervention that a State does not have the right to interfere in domestic affairs or problems of a State other. This principle is one of the five principles of peaceful coexistence contained in the UN Charter.
) * The author is a social political observer
