Indigenous Autonomy Demand

The NEC
PO Box 639
Waigani
NCD
Papua New Guinea


To: The so called Independent State of Papua New Guinea (PNG),

From: WIC.JC and Karau Koeser, Great Chief and Ambassador of the Greater Karau Language Group Area; Co-Founder of the WIC.JC

Re: Christian Indigenous Autonomy for Murik Lakes, all Karau, Big Murik & Kaup



Christian Greetings and Salutations,

The WIC.JC has waited for a response concerning the issues we raised with the PNG NEC about the Indigenous People and Territory in the Greater Karau area of the East Sepik Province. We gave notice of 21 days to respond to our written concerns and what consequences will occur if PNG failed to respond to our demands. For further guidance in this we refer to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP), which the State of PNG is a signatory to. We argue that the UNDRIP is a contract that PNG signed with the United Nations and therefore PNG is contractually bound by this contract and must follow all of its Articles. As such we make the following notifications to the so called Independent State of Papua New Guinea.
Article 4 of the UNDRIP states that “Indigenous peoples, in exercising their right to self-determination, have the right to autonomy or self-government in matters relating to their internal and local affairs, as well as ways and means for financing their autonomous functions.” Article 5 also states that “Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain and strengthen their distinct political, legal, economic, social and cultural institutions, while retaining their right to participate fully, if they so choose, in the political, economic, social and cultural life of the State.” Article 18 also supports this as follows. “Indigenous peoples have the right to participate in decision-making in matters which would affect their rights, through representatives chosen by themselves in accordance with their own procedures, as well as to maintain and develop their own indigenous decision-making institutions.”
I Karau Timothy James Koeser was selected through Indigenous Law by my Indigenous People to bring economic development to them because of my Western Education and my Royal Indigenous Bloodlines. I tried to deal with the PNG Government according to the status quo with no positive results. That is why I have decided that only Christian Indigenous Autonomous Government will be able to provide the mechanism for the economic development my People so desperately want.
Therefore the Leadership of the Murik Lakes has decided to begin Autonomous Government under the Constitution of Jesus Christ the LORD inside of our Indigenous Region effective immediately. This includes all mineral and petroleum rights inside of the Greater Karau Region including Big Murik and Kaup. According to Article 9 of the UNDRIP the State has no right to prevent this from occurring. As you can see Article 9 of the UNDRIP does not allow the Signatory State Government to hinder us from accomplishing self-rule.
Article 9
Indigenous peoples and individuals have the right to belong to an indigenous community or nation, in accordance with the traditions and customs of the community or nation concerned. No discrimination of any kind may arise from the exercise of such a right.

This letter is meant to inform the State of PNG that the Indigenous People of Kopar, Mendam, Karau, Dapuap, Aramot, Wakamot, Jangaimot, and Kaup on the North Coast of New Guinea in the East Sepik Province are forming an Autonomous Indigenous Region (AIR) for self-rule over all our lands, all our people and all our resources above or below two meters inside of our Indigenous Territory. We claim full and absolute title over all of our resources either above or below two meters from the surface of Earth above, on or under our Indigenous Sea and Ground Territory. We reserve all rights to all our Indigenous Property and over our Indigenous Nation.
We also demand 12 Billion Kina in compensation as redress for the failure of the PNG Government to issue a marine dry products set of licenses in a timely manner for the past 5 years to a Company called Wankau Deep Sea Tuna Ltd (WDST), which was created specifically to serve the financial needs of our People. We ask this redress because our marine operation would now be operating at its projected gross income level of 12 Billion Kina per year. The actual financial losses are higher than that. The figure will be adjusted accordingly if we have to take this matter to court. We charge the PNG Government 1 Billion Kina per month in compensation for every month the NFA fails to release the afore mentioned licenses and or the National Development Bank fails to supply this WDST company with the promised 1 million Kina no interest loan effective as of the posting of this letter. We base this claim upon the National Fisheries Authorities own statistics concerning the value of the Marine Resources inside of our Autonomous Indigenous Region, and Article 20 of the UNDRIP, which states the following.
Article 20
1. Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain and develop their political, economic and social systems or institutions, to be secure in the enjoyment of their own means of subsistence and development, and to engage freely in all their traditional and other economic activities.
2. Indigenous peoples deprived of their means of subsistence and development are entitled to just and fair redress.
If the PNG Government is unable to settle this debt in cash we would be willing to negotiate a settlement. We will give the Independent State of Papua New Guinea 21 days to pay this debt or we reserve the right to pursue this matter in National and International Court with all relevant interest and penalties applied to our total financial compensation demand to reflect the nature of this debt concerning our marine resource company (WDST). We also ask that those individuals in the NFA that are responsible for the delays in issuing our Marine Dry Products set of licenses should be terminated from employment for their blatant and callous negligence concerning our Indigenous Rights.
We also would like to take this opportunity to inform the PNG Government that we will be charging usage fees to any commercial vessel that uses any part of our Indigenous Waters. We will notify you about the specifics of this usage fee including back payments for 35 years of unauthorized usage by commercial ships inside of our Indigenous Waters at a later date. We demand that the PNG NEC order all commercial shipping companies operating inside of the Greater Karau, Big Murik and Kaup Oceanic Indigenous Coastal Region to desist from using our Indigenous Waters until such time as this redress issue is settled. Unnecessary Marine traffic through our Indigenous Waters will adversely affect our fishing operations. This is why we demand that the PNG Government should inform all Marine Operations in PNG to stay out of our Indigenous Waters effective immediately. If we catch any commercial vessels in our Indigenous Territory we will confiscate that vessel and the owner of that vessel will have 21 days to pay fines totaling 10 million Kina or we will claim the vessel as our own to do with as we wish.
Be advised that I am sending notice, as of the posting of this material, to the People of the Murik Lakes Language Group to immediately begin forming their Indigenous Government based upon Article 4 of the UNDRIP. We do reserve the right to secede from PNG if the PNG Government attempts to stop us from forming our legal, rightful, U.N. authorized Autonomous Indigenous Government, or if the PNG Government insists on claiming ownership to our Indigenous petro-mineral or other Natural Resources. Though the UNDRIP does not authorize secession we reserve this right because our permission was never granted for the actual formation of the PNG Government in 1975 because we were never given a referendum to clearly express our People’s Will concerning being placed under PNG rule. We simply never gave our written consent to the formation of the so called Independent State of Papua New Guinea therefore our relationship with PNG is de-facto and legally non-binding. Since our permission was not required for joining PNG then no permission is required to secede. PNG Laws claiming ownership to resources below two meters in Indigenous Territory is a violation of Article 26 of the UNDRIP.
Article 26
1. Indigenous peoples have the right to the lands, territories and resources which they have traditionally owned, occupied or otherwise used or acquired.
2. Indigenous peoples have the right to own, use, develop and control the lands, territories and resources that they possess by reason of traditional ownership or other traditional occupation or use, as well as those which they have otherwise acquired.
3. States shall give legal recognition and protection to these lands, territories and resources. Such recognition shall be conducted with due respect to the customs, traditions and land tenure systems of the indigenous peoples concerned.


The following UNDRIP Article 19 was violated at the formation of PNG in 1975 by the Australian Administration, Michael Somare and even the United Nations because no thought was given to the wishes of the 850 Indigenous Nations existing in the Territory of Papua and New Guinea concerning the union of these two separate legal entities, and the formation of Papua New Guinea. The PNG laws claiming ownership of resources below two meters from the surface of the Earth in Indigenous Territory is also a violation of the above the UNDRIP Article and the PNG Government has failed to take legal steps to change the laws of PNG to reflect the UNDRIP agreement PNG signed with the United Nations on behalf of the Indigenous Nations existing inside PNG.
Article 19
States shall consult and cooperate in good faith with the indigenous peoples concerned through their own representative institutions in order to before adopting and implementing legislative or administrative measures that may affect them.
I cannot find any mention of the process outlined in Article 19 of the UNDRIP occurring prior or subsequent to so called PNG Independence in 1975. The obvious and necessary way to “obtain their free, prior and informed consent” from our Indigenous Citizens would have been a referendum. So called PNG Independence in 1975 violated Article 19 of the UNDRIP because no referendum occurred to authorize the establishment of PNG.
Article 38 of the UNDRIP states the following. “States in consultation and cooperation with indigenous peoples, shall take the appropriate measures, including legislative measures, to achieve the ends of this Declaration.” We don’t see any progress by the PNG Government to try and satisfy this article. In fact, we see the opposite where the PNG Government is actually creating legislation to undermine the principles described by the Articles in the UNDRIP. This is significant because Article 38 is a contractual statement, which the PNG Government agreed to comply with when they signed the UNDRIP.
Finally, let me once again remind the Government of PNG and the International Community that there was no referendum by the People to establish PNG as a Nation. There was also no ratification of the Constitution of PNG by the People. This means that technically the New Guinea side of PNG would still remain under the protection of the United Nations. Therefore, Declarations from the United Nations would have absolute legal bearing inside New Guinea. In other words, the PNG Government would have no option but to honor Declarations given out by the United Nations concerning anything having to do with Indigenous Rights inside New Guinea. Because of this we have decided to enact by Christian and Indigenous Right Article 4 of the UNDRIP. We also claim full title to all of our Indigenous Resources as per Article 26 of the UNDRIP.


Most Faithfully,
March 2, 2011
TimoTHY James Koeser a.k.a. Karau, Great Chief and Ambassador of Idjygahp and Sait

A Disciple of the LORD Jesus Christ, Leader of the WIC.JC – the World’s Christian & Indigenous Rights Organization