Viktor Kaisiepo at the United Nations in New York for a meeting of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Photo: Human Rights Film Festival 2009
Pacific Scoop:
Obituary – By Dirk Vlasblom in Amsterdam
Papuan human rights campaigner Viktor Kaisiepo has died at the age of 61 in Amersfoort, the Dutch town where he resided in exile from the land he loved.
He was an internationally renowned fighter for the right to self-determination of the people of West Papua, where he was born. Kaisiepo had been seriously ill for some time, his wife said.
In May 2000, Kaisiepo set foot on his native soil for the first time in 38 years.
In Indonesia, the political tide had turned, and then President Wahid gave Western New Guinea its old name back: Papua.
The indigenous people held a conference on the political future of the region and Viktor, then aged 51, could not afford to be absent.
Before flying from Jakarta to the provincial capital of Jayapura, he made a stopover on the island of Biak, off the coast of Papua. That is where the Kaisiepos come from and he could not ignore his ancestors’ request by failing to first tread on the land where their bones rested.
Click here for the full article: Pacific Scoop: Victor Kaisiepo Obituary
Saturday, February 6th, 2010 at 10:25 amand is filed under News, West Papua. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.