Background
West Papua is the western part of the island New Guinea and borders on the Moluccas in the West, Papua New Guinea in the East, and Australia in the South. West Papua has a population of approximately 1.8 million of which nearly 900.000 are indigenous Melanesians, covering over 240 autonomous peoples who each have their own language, culture, and economic and institutional structures. The remainder of the population is composed of different Indonesian groups that settled in West Papua in the past 30 years. The rate of the population growth of the Indonesian groups is increasing rapidly. Marginalization of indigenous peoples is increasing. Indonesian migration to West Papua is one of the major threats to the existence of the indigenous peoples of West Papua. Christianity was introduced in the 19th century, and Animism is still practiced today. With the immigration of Indonesians, Islam is becoming increasingly prevalent.
West Papua is rich in natural resources: gold, silver, natural gas, copper, timber etc. The Indonesian government, ever since it took over West Papua, takes full advantage of those resources, allowing only very small amount of the profits to reach West Papuans.
The Papuan people existed for thousands of years before the Spanish discovered "New Guinea" in 1546. In 1828, the western half of the island became a Dutch colony, West New Guinea. To realise a self-governing Papua State, the Netherlands supported the Papuans in establishing their own institutions, such as the New Guinea Council. The New Guinea Council inaugurated the national symbols on 1 December 1961: West Papua as the name of the country, Hai Tanakhu Papua as the nation al anthem and "Sampari (Morningstar)" as the national flag.
On August 1962, Indonesia and the Netherlands signed the New York Agreement to reolve a dispute over the future political status of the territory. In 1963, Indonesia succeeded to seize control over the territory with the understanding that a referendum, the Act of Free Choice, would enable the Papuans to vote on their own future status. In 1969, the stipulated referendum was "stage managed" by the Indonesians to secure the outcome the Indonesian government wanted. The outcome was unanimous vote for continuation of the Indonesian occupation of West Papua. On 19 November 1969, the UN General Assembly "took note" of the referendum and endorsed the Indonesian occupation. In the early 1970s, Indonesia renamed this territory Irian Jaya, their 26th province.
In 1965, the indigenous people of West Papua started a resistance movement against Indonesian occupation and established the Organisasi Papua Merdeka (OPM), the Free Papua Movement.
Current human rights situation
For a number of years the Indonesian government has pursued a transmigration programme aimed at moving people from densely populated Indonesian islands to areas with a low population density like West Papua, thereby changing the demographic structure of the region. The consequences of the programme are deforestation and other environmental effects, and the destruction of the cultural heritage at the same time as forcing movement of the local population in "assimilation ca mpaigns".
The Indonesian Government, Security Forces and military (ABRI) are continuously exercising serious restrictions on both freedom of expression, of assembly and of association throughout much of the territory of Indonesia, including West Papua.
Arbitrary arrests and detentions are also commonly reported in relation to all sections of the population including political opponents and human rights activists. People of West Papua are routinely detained without warrants, charges or court proceedings, many are held in incommunicado detention, people are frequently denied access to defence council, and bail is, particularly in political cases, rarely granted. More than 200 political prisoners, many of whom are prisoners of consc ience, after unfair trials, remained in prison serving sentences of up to life imprisonment in Indonesia. Torture and ill-treatment by security forces and police are still common in West Papua, including electrocution, repeated beatings, burning with cigarettes and sexual abuse. According to Country Reports submitted to the US Congress, West Papua is one of the areas in Indonesia in which extrajudicial killings are most frequent and in which ABRI "continue to employ harsh measures agai
nst separatist movements".
It remains difficult for both domestic and international observers to monitor the human rights situation in West Papua, as the government continues to prevent or restrict such monitoring.
Current political situation
The indonesian government has obvious economic interests in West Papua with its mountains and forests which are extremely rich in natural resources such as gold, oil and wood.
Since the start of 1996 there has been an increase in local resentment in West Papua over such issues as environmental degradation, natural resource exploitation, slow socio-economic development, commercial dominance of immigrant communities and abuse of power by the authorities. This has resulted in several serious incidents, some of which were provoked by the movement OPM, and many of which have resulted in violence and deaths, causing further tension in the political s ituation. The primary aim of the OPM is the right to self-determination under international law, and thereby the ability to live on their traditional lands with the possibility of controlling the economy of West Papua.
On 8 January 1996, an OPM group in the highlands of West Papua took 26 hostages, of which eight people were held until 15 May 1996. Although the resort to such kind of action was condemned by the international community, the OPM group was finally able to attract the world s attention to the ever deteriorating human rights situation and environmental destruction by the SLORC. (West Papuans believe that the international community would still not have reacted if it was not for the British, Dutch and German citizens who were among the abducted). The OPM is still today an active liberation movement with supporters in West Papua and in the rest of the world, struggling for recognition to self-determination of the Papuan people through advocacy, diplomacy, non-violent action as well as armed resistance.
During the last 30 years, vast areas of West Papua have been granted as concessions to multinational, transnational and Indonesian mining, oil and logging companies without consultation with, or approval of, the indigenous peoples who have inherited these lands from their ancestors who held them for 40.000 years. Many indigenous communities - who have had little contact with industrialization or large scale commercial activity - have been forcibly removed from their ancestral lands or made leave through intimidation, bribery and human rights violations to make way for the exploitation of the natural resources of their lands. Moreover, the operations of the mining companies, particularly PT FI (subsidiary of the US-Based Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold Corporation, operating in West Papua for over 20 years now) in West Papua have caused enormous tension which has often led to "civil war" incidents between the tribes in the area.
In late January 1997 two Amungme PT FI employees abducted and raped three Dani women in a container. This sparkled violent conflict between members of the two groups in which six people died and 52 were wounded. The Indonesian troops stationed there did nothing to intervene, instead they attended the spectacle, taking pictures. Less than two months later, more violence broke out involving hundreds of local people, when Nduga men tried to rob two members of the Amungme tribal cou ncil, LEMASA (representative body of the indigenous people in the area), in Kwakmi Lama. The Indonesian troops again did nothing to prevent the killings that followed (six or more people were killed), in a two days fighting. These incidents are regarded by many people as a symptom of the social ills created by the mining companies presence in the area.
Tension erupted into violence again on 21 and 22 August which resulted in two deaths, when a thousand tribesmen armed with bows, arrows and spears, blockaded the main PT FI road, in effect cutting off all conections between the mining company and the lowlands. The action flared up following a road accident the evening of 20 August, when two tribespeople were killed in a road accident after accepting a ride with Freeport personnel.
The accident, which occured under mysterious circumstances, inflamed the already strained relations between PT FI and the indigenous groups effected by its mining activities. In 1996, PT FI set up the "1% Trust Fund", which was intended to compensate the tribal communities for loss of land and environmental damage. After negotiations with the Indonesian government, the one percent of PT FI s profits would, eventually, be funneled into development projects determined by military needs in the area. The fund was rejected in March 1997 by the two local groups, the Amungme and Kamoro, who are most affected by PT FI s operations. These groups called on PT FI to fulfil its responsibilities with respect to human rights and environmental damage. PTFI ignored this message, and instead dealt with other indigenous groups. On August 14, 1997 PT FI went ahead with the second phase of the 1% Fund.
On October 7, 1997 the Associated Press reported that famine and disease caused by the worst drought in a half-century have claimed at least 413 lives in Irian Jaya. Many of the victims were babies and infants living in drought-stricken villages where food gardens have withered and safe sources of drinking water have dried up. The Jakarta Post said communications with villages hit by the drought was difficult and a thick haze from hundreds of forest fires set by logging companies had hampered attempts to deliver emergency supplies.
Currently, the West Papua Peoples Front (WPPF), based in the Netherlands, represets the West Papua Peoples in many forums and international conferences.
Sources: UNPO report and report of the Human Rights Unit of European Parliament
