Opinion News - Thursday, August 14, 2008
Fadel Kamal, Sydney
Once again Indonesia is playing an active role in promoting world peace. An international conference on Peace Building and Conflict Prevention in the Muslim World organized by Nahdlatul Ulama in Jakarta on July 29 - Aug. 1, 2008. A delegation from Western Sahara participated in the conference.
In 1955, a victory in solidarity was achieved in the name of liberty and human freedoms for oppressed peoples with the Asia-Africa Conference and in the first stirrings of the non-aligned movement during the famous Bandung Conference.
At issue then were the aspirations of many peoples in Asia and in Africa to enact their rights as peoples and to exercise the sovereignty denied them by colonial rulers as well as to ensure the scourge of colonization no longer afflicts our world. Indonesia's role, now as then, is significant.
Today, Asia is a thriving region of generally independent states. Colonialism is, for most, a bitter, if all too recent memory. In Africa too, colonial powers have withdrawn to release that continent's panoply of peoples and cultures.
Few decolonization processes have been easily won, or smoothly realized. Yet all have engendered a greater appreciation of freedom, for the principles of human rights and democracy.
Yet, in Africa, one colony remains: Western Sahara. Those vaunted principles so valued and in whose name so much has been dedicated remain absent here. Many of the indigenous Sahrawi people languish in refugee camps and can only dream of independence. Colonial occupiers have attacked our people, stolen our resources and separated families via a 2,700 km long sand wall, which is dotted with military posts and landmines.
In the face of this, the Saharawi people have denounced violence as a first option solution. We have established a government, democratically elected, which has been recognized by over 80 countries and is a member of the African Union (AU). Morocco's occupation is recognized by no-one. But the presence of a Moroccan military occupation in Western Sahara since 1975 represents a significant spanner in the works on the world's decolonization well-oiled machinery.
Few countries are as well positioned as Indonesia to work towards a win-win decolonization process in Western Sahara.
Decolonization, it might be said, is in the very life-blood of modern Indonesia. The first paragraph of the RI Constitution preamble, struck in1945, reads: "With independence being the right of every nation, colonialism must be eliminated from the face of the earth as it is contrary to the dictates of human nature and justice."
RI's official foreign policy seeks to ensure its "role in settling international problems, particularly those threatening peace and contrary to justice and humanity."
As a country that understands the injustices and inhumanity inherent in colonialist occupation, RI must surely not only empathize with its Muslim brothers and sisters in Western Sahara, but can securely refer to its own national principles to help end their plight.
Indeed, this is something the Indonesian government appears to be doing. The government has set a course for raising RI's profile as a responsible international power, befitting its size and heritage.
Making RI's task more pressing is the fact that Western Sahara is on the UN decolonization list, the International Court of Justice has reaffirmed the right of the Saharawi people to self-determination in its famous verdict of 1975 and, there is a UN Settlement Plan that has been agreed by both parties Morocco and Polisario.
Furthermore, The UN, the African Union (AU) and the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) have all adopted positive stances which support the right of the Saharawi people to self-determination.
We have agreed to participate in a free and fair referendum to decide the fate of Western Sahara. So has Morocco. But they, like colonial powers through the ages, reneged on their agreement and have since refused to consider that option.
That Western Sahara's independence movement remains committed to democracy and has renounced terrorism and violence should not be ignored. Should the global community wish to reward these values, then Western Sahara presents the opportunity to do so.
Indonesia, now poised to become an even greater influence on the world stage, can encourage that process and build on its Bandung legacy. It can help realize something the international community has failed to reach for over three decades: the enduring self-determination of the people of Western Sahara.
The writer is Polisario's chief representative to Australia and New Zealand
(source ; the Jakarta Post August 14, 2008)
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