The Guardian 5 April, 2006
Editorial
West Papuan independence struggle
The granting of temporary visas to the boatload of West Papuan people fleeing their homeland and oppression by the Indonesian military has created a serious turn in relations between Australia and Indonesia.
They have been exacerbated by the cartoons printed by one Indonesian and one Australian newspaper. These cartoons — both of them — are disgusting, crude and vulgar, culturally insulting and highly irresponsible. They show that important elements of the media in both countries and some cartoonists have no concern for the relations between near neighbours. This is not to excuse the policies of either the Indonesian or Australian Governments in regard to West Papua.
The issue of West Papua has been reduced to the question of granting refugee status to the West Papuans and now the cartoons, whereas the long struggle of the West Papuan people for independence is largely ignored.
West Papua was originally part of the Dutch colonialist empire in the East Indies. As with most other colonial powers the Dutch were forced to give up their colonies after WW2 as national liberation movements wrested control from the imperialist powers.
For a time the Dutch held on to their West Papuan colony. It was agreed in the early 1960s that Indonesia would assume control of West Papua for a "specified" period after which the Papuan people would be granted the right of self-determination. The UN was to supervise a referendum on this question and a "referendum" was held in 1969.
Even at this time the overwhelming majority of the Papuan people wanted independence so the referendum had to be manipulated. Although the territory had a population of an estimated one million people, only 1,022 persons voted in the referendum and even those who voted had to be terrorised into voting for Indonesian annexation.
This dishonest and faked referendum was, however, accepted by the UN and West Papua became a province of Indonesia.
In subsequent years the resistance of the Papuan people steadily increased and today their struggle has reached a high level, including armed struggle.
For its part, Indonesia has pursued the same methods of military oppression as were used to occupy East Timor. Indonesia has also organised the transmigration of hundreds of thousands of Indonesians to take up land in West Papua. This is clearly aimed at altering the demographic composition of the population to ensure that, in the future, those of Indonesian ethnic origin will make up the majority of the population. There are also stories that Indonesian authorities have introduced AIDS and infected pigs, possibly deliberately.
The West Papuan Indigenous population is ethnically Melanesian and has a much closer affinity to Papua New Guinea than to Indonesia. It should logically become a part of one united Papua New Guinea state but it is clear that the Indonesian authorities will fight to the end to prevent such a development.
West Papua is extremely rich in minerals and forest timber. The Freeport McMoran mine on the territory’s north coast is one of the largest gold and copper mines in the world. It has netted its US owners millions in profits (said to be about $US1 million per day) while the Indigenous workers receive a pittance and have virtually no rights. Villages have been destroyed, rivers poisoned and local communities battle for survival under a military reign of terror.
BHP Billiton is also trying to get into the act and, if successful, would pollute the region just as it did at Ok Tedi in PNG.
The Australian Government is at one with Indonesia in declaring that West Papua is a part of Indonesia. It is certain that the Australian Government will not only continue to supply weapons to the Indonesian army but will also back the big mining corporations in their rape of the wealth of West Papua while refusing to support the legitimate national liberation movement.
As with liberation movements elsewhere, it will not be silenced and will continue to grow both in numbers, sophistication and strength.
The refugees from West Papua have helped to put their struggle on the front page and there will be many Australians who will support their struggle under the "Morning Star" flag just as Australians helped the long struggle of the people of East Timor. Eventually they will win.