Sir, - The US is certainly low on the totem-pole when it comes to voter participation, as Patrick Smyth rightly points out (The Irish Times, November 7th).
If 49 per cent or so didn't vote in the recent US elections, spare a thought for the people of West Papua (formerly Irian Jaya) where over 99 per cent didn't vote in a process brokered by the US and rubber-stamped by the United Nations, viz the so-called "referendum" which caused the transfer of power over Dutch New Guinea from the Netherlands to Suharto's Indonesia.
The people of Florida and the US have found themselves in limbo for a few weeks; the people of Papua have been in limbo for 31 years. This month 31 years ago, the UN "took note" of the infamous "referendum" in which a fraction of 1 per cent of the adult population were allowed to participate. Some 100,000 deaths later, and with on-going human rights violations, West Papua remains part of Indonesia with not a recount in sight. - Yours etc.,
Mark Doris, Co-ordinator, West Papua Action, Rathmines, Dublin 6.