UNCEN students raise referendum with new US ambassador

Abridged in translation.

Bintang Papua 6 October 2010

UNCEN students raise referendum with new US ambassador

During a visit to Jayapura, the new US ambassador to Indonesia, Scot
Marciel, visited the Padang Bulan health  clinic and a number of
government offices.

During a visit to Cenderawasih University, there was a one-hour dialogue
with the students at which the students raised their demand for a
referendum and called for merdeka a number of times during questions and
answers. They expressed their disappointment that the ambassador's visit
to the university was only one hour long and the newly appointed
ambassador  made no reference to the issue of a referendum or similar
matters.

[According to a report in JUBI posted earlier, UNCEN students had said
that they rejected the ambassador's visit if it was only to discuss
matters such as education.]

Ambassador Marciel who was accompanied by several staff members from the
US embassy said he had just be appointed to the job and did not yet know
much. 'I  still need to study a lot. I will study everything first,' he
said.

Speaking to journalists, he said that the purpose of his visit to Papua
was to visit UNCEN and the health clinic and a number of officials such
as the MRP and the governor and he would be discussing the question of
education with the Indonesian authorities.

Responding to questions about a referendum, he said that the US
government supports special autonomy status for Papua within the NKRI.
He said that his government had never supported separatism for Papua.

During his visit to the health clinic, he met midwives. 'I am visiting
Papua to take a look at development here and to meet health personnel
and other Papuan leaders.' During his meeting with midwives,  he
discussed issues related to pre-natal care and malaria which have been
funded by the US since 2006.

During his meeting with members of the MRP, the implementation of
special autonomy was discussed. MRP members told him that special
autonomy had been a failure. 'The Papuan people have said that special
autonomy has failed and we facilitated this,' they said. They said that
the failure of special autonomy was evident from the fact that there had
been very little improvement in the living conditions of the Papuan
people and moreover, the government had pressed ahead with a decision to
split up the province which was not in accord with the terms of special
autonomy.

According to Agus Alua, chairman of the MRP , the ambassador said only
that he first needed to study all this information.