Embassy sit-down leads to arrests
The four all members of the West Papua Action were protesting against the country's record towards its former colonial territory on the 40th anniversary of a controversial agreement signed by The Netherlands, Indonesia and the United Nations on August 15, 1962.
The group say the Dutch Government failed to protect the West Papua people by ignoring what they claim was a rigged Indonesian poll on independence for the natives.
A spokesman for the group said three members, coordinator Mark Dorris, Micheline Sheehy Skeffington and Treena Lenthall, entered the reception of the embassy on Merrion Road, Ballsbridge, at about 11.30am. They told the receptionist they had a letter for the ambassador and asked to see him.
On hearing he wasn't there, they sat down, displaying t-shirts reading, West Papua betrayed with the word VERRAAD, meaning betrayed in Dutch, and the dates 1962 and 2002.
The protestors then asked an official to send the letter to the Foreign Minister with a covering letter stating he had received it from the group. When the official said he could not do this, the group refused to go. The ambassador then arrived with gardaí, who arrested the four.
Mr Dorris was taken to Donnybrook Station while Ms Sheehy Skeffington and Ms Lenthall and Ciaron O'Reilly, who was arrested outside the embassy, were taken to Irishtown Station. They were later released pending further investigations.
A spokesman for the group said: "Forty years of inaction by the Netherlands Government has driven our group to this sit-down protest. We would still hope the Netherlands Government would play an active and constructive role towards a solution for West Papua."
The 1962 agreement, signed in New York, allowed Indonesia take over West Papua which lies north of Australia, from its colonial ruler, so long as an "act of self-determination in accordance with international practice" took place within six years. In 1969 Indonesia staged an act of self-determination by hand-picking just over 1,022 people to vote in public to declare their loyalty to Indonesia.
West Papua Action and other human rights organisations maintain this was not a valid referendum and that The Netherlands never protested. An estimated 30,000 West Papuans died at the hands of Indonesians between 1962-69. Around 70,000 have died since.
