West Papua is another East Timor. The land was integrated in to the Republic of Indonesia against the wishes of the Papuan peoples. Terrible human rights abuses and massive environmental destruction has been taking place in beautiful and resource rich territory since the early 1960s.

The peoples of West Papua deserve the right to self-determination. They deserve to live in peace. Your support is crucial.

Where is West Papua?

West Papua is the western half of the island of New Guinea, located north of Australia. It is home to some 2.5 million people, around 1.3 million of whom are indigenous West Papuans. The country is rich in minerals and resources and has enormous tracts of untouched wilderness. It is also has some of the most diverse bird and marine life in the world. See map.

Why should I be interested in West Papua?

In 1969, the Indonesian government, with assistance from the United Nations held a referendum to allow West Papuan's to decide whether they wanted to become part of Indonesia, or remain independent. This was referred to as the "Act of Free Choice".

The referendum did not represent the true aspirations of the West Papuan people because less than 1% of a total population of 700,000 were permitted to vote in the referendum. Those who were allowed to vote were threatened with having their tongues cut out if they did not vote in favour of becoming part of Indonesia. Unsurprisingly, they voted unanimously in favour of becoming part of Indonesia.

West Papuans refer to the referendum as the "Act of No Choice".

What has happened since 1969?

Since 1969, the Indonesian military has waged a campaign of terror and violence against the West Papuan's, killing, raping and torturing people struggling for basic human rights. West Papuan's are killed even for the simple act of raising their national flag, the morning star. The killings are on such a scale as to threaten the very survival of the West Papuan people.

To defend themselves and fight for their basic freedoms, West Papuan's have engaged in a campaign of guerilla warfare against the Indonesian military. It's West Papuan name is Organisasi Papua Merdeka (OPM). Every leader of the Free West Papua Movement has been murdered by the Indonesian military. In November 2001, Free West Papua Movement leader Theys Eluay was tortured and killed by Indonesian army personnel.

The situation in West Papua is similar to that of East Timor, which gained independence from Indonesia in 1999. Some of the Indonesian military commanders responsible for the violence in East Timor are now operating in West Papua, with similar results.

What do the West Papuans want?

What most people want: the right to live in peace, to speak their own language and have their own culture that they can pass on to their children, and to have a say in how they live. Importantly, West Papuan's are ethically and culturally different from Indonesia They are related to Melanesian people, including the people of the Torres Straits, Fiji and the Solomon Islands. They therefore want independence from Indonesia.

The closest that Indonesia has come to addressing the problems they have created in West Papua has been to give West Papuans greater autonomy. However, this has not led to an end of the violence.

Indeed, 2002 marked a new stage in the Indonesian military's campaign of terror in West Papua, with Indonesian military forces being implicated in the killing of US citizens associated with the Freeport mine, which they tried to blame on OPM.

Why won't Indonesia give West Papuan's their freedom, like it did East Timor?

The reasons are complex, but an important one is money. Indonesia derives vast amounts of money from West Papua through the gold and copper mines that are located there. The largest of these is jointly owned by the US mining giant Freeport and the UK/Australian company Rio Tinto. Every year, the Indonesian military receives around $11 million from the Freeport mine. Other companies operating in West Papua include BHP-Biliton and BP.

Why haven't other countries rallied to support West Papua?

Because of these financial links, Western governments are unwilling to say anything that might offend the Indonesians, choosing instead to ignore the human rights abuses happening in West Papua. The Australian government even provides training and supplies to the Indonesian military.

What's the United Nation's position?

The United Nation's maintains the line that West Papua lost its right to independence in the 1969 "Act of Free Choice". This is in spite of the fact that some of the UN staff who helped organise the referendum say it was not free or fair.

Former United Nations Under-secretary General, Chakravarthy Narasimhan, who helped to organise the Act of Free Choice, for example, says "It was just a whitewash. The mood at the United Nations was to get rid of this problem as quickly as possible. Nobody gave a thought to the fact that there were a million people who had their fundamental human rights trampled".
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