A short history of West Papua
The island of New Guinea has practised agriculture for 8000 years, but it’s so mountainous that it has never been a single kingdom. The western half, West Papua (called Irian Jaya by Indonesia) was a Dutch colony, although there was little colonial presence before the second world war. Indonesia claimed the territory from before 1949 when it first gained full independence from the Dutch. From 1957 the Dutch and Australians worked with Papuan leaders on a program which was to lead to the formation of a West Papuan state by 1970. This led in 1961 to the formation of a West Papuan Council, a move which led the Indonesians under Sukarno sending a force of about 1100 guerillas to oppose independence. The indigenous Free Papua Movement (OPM, Organisasi Papua Merdeka) proclaimed the state of West Papua.
Then in 1962 West Papua became caught up in the Cold War. The Soviet Union had arranged a billion dollar arms deal with Sukarno, and John Kennedy countered with a similar arrangement. As part of this deal the US pressured Holland and Australia to back away from West Papuan independence. After secret negotiations which did not involve West Papuan representatives, it was decided that the Indonesia would administer the province until an ‘Act of Free Choice’ in 1969. The threat of a communist sympathetic Indonesia had been balanced against what the US called a few thousand square miles of cannibal land.
In 1967 Indonesia entered arrangements with Freeport, a US company, to establish the enormously profitable Grasberg gold and copper mine in West Papua, which is now Indonesia’s largest taxpayer. Then when the referendum was held in 1969 it was a travesty. Only about a thousand hand picked Papuans were allowed to vote out of a population of about a million. Despite a critical report by a UN rapporteur who was present, citing serious violations, the UN sanctioned the vote, and West Papua officially became a part of Indonesia.
Since that time about a million Indonesians have been settled in West Papua, and now form 30% of the population. Generals of the Indonesian military the TNI, are major players in oil, logging, and mining concessions in the province. Then, as the Australian West Papuan Association puts it:
In May 2000, following a more open period after the overthrow of Suharto, more than 2000 Papuans from all over the country, as well as Papuan exiles from overseas, met for a congress in the capital, Jayapura. The Congress brought civil, church and Free Papua (OPM) leaders together to discuss the future of West Papua. Presidium leaders were elected who pledged to pursue an open and peaceful policy of ‘dialogue, love and courtesy’ with Indonesia. The Indonesian government response was a brutal military crackdown starting on December 2nd 2000. Most of the Presidium leaders were arrested and charged with subversion.
Indonesian society and the TNI
Since 1965, when Suharto came to power, the TNI has been a mainstay of the culture and economy of Indonesia as well as having responsibility for defence and intelligence in a large and culturally diverse country. It follows a model it calls dwifungsi “dual function”. TNI units run businesses and even services throughout Indonesia, and permeate all aspects of society. Anything from a mechanic’s shop to a protection racket may be part of the TNI, and this is certainly the case on the “frontier” in places like East Timor and West Papua. The consequence of this is, as Human Right Watch reports:
The Indonesian military has long been responsible for grave abuses — including extrajudicial executions, torture, and arbitrary detention — in conflict areas such as Aceh and Papua, as well as a range of serious abuses across the country. But, as recognized by the U.S. State Department in its annual human rights report issued last week (March 8 [2005]), military personnel of all ranks have largely been above the law.
TNI was ordered to divest its business interests by 2009, but progress appears to be slow. HRW reports that Freeport paid TNI US$60 million in 2004, much directly to individual unit commanders.
In 1999 the struggle for independence by the people of the province of East Timor led to the TNI arming and paying a militia to carry out attacks on the civilian population on their behalf. They have since used similar tactics in Aceh and West Papua, and it allows them to portray separatist struggles as civil disturbance rather than a suppression of uprisings by the army. In relation to outlying provinces with a separate history and culture, Indonesia is effectively an empire. It establishes a military based administration of these provinces to extract resources, whilst carrying out a program of transmigration from the central provinces designed to submerge local differences. The economic crisis of the late 90s has brought about a decline in resettlement programs, but they have been a cause of ongoing tension between indigenous and Javanese populations.
Recent events in West Papua
The arrival of 43 West Papuans in Cape York in northern Australia on January 13 this year has brought the Papuan situation into sharp focus. It was quickly established by the Australian authorities that all but one of the new arrivals would be in danger should they be returned. Indonesia places great importance on West Papua, for nationalistic and historical anti-colonial reasons, but more especially in the case of West Papua because of the value of the Freeport mine. National pride was badly injured when East Timor achieved independence, and Australia’s part in those events created widespread resentment, especially inside the TNI. Indonesia treats the granting of asylum to the West Papuans at Cape York as a matter of government policy, believing that Canberra could have intervened as it had done so often in the past. It has issued strong protests and withdrawn its ambassador, insisting that a ministerial level delegation will be required before relations can be normalised.
Human rights groups, churches, and public opinion in Australia are sympathetic to Papuan independence perhaps largely because of TNI actions in Timor. Overwhelming popular pressure forced Prime Minister Howard to intervene in East Timor and much of that sentiment remains. The government has nevertheless announced that from now on Papuan refugees will be deported to third countries such as Nauru and New Guinea for processing, and not resettled in Australia. Indonesia rarely permits journalists to travel to West Papua, so the human rights situation there is not clear, but there are reports of serious abuses and John Howard’s government has drawn criticism for “caving in” to Indonesian pressure.