As protests continue to spread throughout the eastern half of the island of New Guinea, where indigenous land rights have been suspended, an unprecedented mass mobilization has begun in the west, in the Indonesian-occupied state of West Papua.
According to latest reports, as many as 20,000 Papuans have gathered in Jayapura to demand that Indonesia and the international community grant West Papua its lawful right to self-determination.
The Indonesian government has been caught completely off-guard by the effort; nevertheless, they have so far shown remarkable restraint, especially given the long history of repression against anyone that speaks up for independence or dares to raise the Morning Star flag.
Jacques Friedman, an independent reporter who has just returned from West Papua, has prepared a round-up of the latest news on the general strike. He has also written a background report on the situation, which you can download here.
For more information or to set up interviews with the organizers of the mobilization, please contact Jacques by email at nyaluguama@gmail.com
Thousands Rally in West Papua: Reject Special Autonomy, Demand Referendum on Independence
International news agencies have reported on the mass rally in Jayapura, capital of Indonesia's Papua province. Thousands of people joined a long march, walking 17 km from the MRP (Majelis Rakyat Papua – Papua People's Assembly) to the DPRP (Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat Papua – Papuan Provincial Legislature), rejecting the Special Autonomy granted by Indonesia in 2001 and demanding a referendum on West Papuan independence and an internationally-mediated dialogue with Jakarta. As protesters joined the rally from several points in the city, the crowd – claimed by media to number just a few thousand – swelled to nearly 20,000. They occupied the grounds of the provincial legislature under the watchful eye of police and army units.
According to messages from organizers, police arrested KNPB (Kominte Nasional Papua Barat – West Papua National Committee) member David Frans Huby at 9am in Jayapura. He was making a speech asking people to join the rally. He is now detained at Polda Papua (Papua regional police) headquarters. Police also prevented groups of people from nearby Keerom regency from joining the Jayapura march.
The Jakarta Globe reported on the rally and quoted one of its organizers:
“Special autonomy has failed to protect the rights of indigenous Papuans,” protest leader Markus Haluk said. “We want to urge Papua’s provincial legislature to hold a plenary meeting to declare that special autonomy is a failure and return it to the central government.”
The report states that the Papuan provincial legislature cancelled a special meeting that was to be held to process the demands of the protesters. It also reports that police detained a French journalist for reporting on the demonstration while on a tourist visa.
Papuan community media reported that Papuan provincial legislators were divided on how to deal with the rally and its demands. Legislators supportive of the MRP-sponsored declaration and the mass mobilizations backing it stated that there is a faction of legislators who oppose the movement and who were not present at the legislature for the planned special session. A group of legislators met with rally organizers FORDEM (Forum Demokrasi Rakyat Papua Bersatu – United Papuan People's Democracy Forum) and stated that they must allow protesters to spend the night on the grounds of the legislature.
According to messages from organizers, fully armed Indonesian police moved in on protesters at 6 pm, after their deadline for the rally to disperse had passed. The situation escalated to a tense standoff and then protest leaders sought negotiations with police. A meeting was held for several hours, resulting in an agreement with police that protesters would be permitted to spend the night on the legislature grounds and stay there until 6pm on July 9th. Close to 20,000 people spent the night at the protest site. The situation is tense and dynamic, and given previous behaviour by security forces, things could change quickly on the ground. According to organizers, the decision by protesters on whether or not to disperse by 6 pm on July 9th will depend on any action taken by provincial legislators with regards to holding a special session to follow up the demands made in the MRP-sponsored declaration. Dominikus Sorabut of DAP (Dewan Adat Papua – Papuan Customary Council) stated that “security forces attempted to disperse our rally but they are outnumbered. With so many of us here, what can they do?”
Papuan media confirmed that police granted permission to protesters to spend the night, and that the special Brimob (Mobile Brigade) police forces had retreated, leaving only regular police units to guard the site.
Organizers have sought to deflect what they describe as misinformation campaigns aiming to provoke protesters and to spread rumours about some organizers. Dominikus Sorabut of DAP stated that “during the past weeks provocative text messages have circulated making various allegations about the intentions of this march. However, our action is peaceful and transparent. There are those who seek to provoke by spreading rumours, but this is just a scenario to bring chaos to our movement, and it is not succeeding”.
Indonesian media reported on these provocative text messages, with the regional police chief asking residents of Jayapura not to be provoked.
Meanwhile, Papuan media reported on rallies taking place in other towns in Papua, where protesters echoed the demands being made in Jayapura.
Community organizers throughout Papua reported to their networks on the situation in the various regions. In Manokwari, police violently blocked the rally and dispersed protesters. In Merauke, over 1000 people marched to the regional legislature to present their demands, and rallied against the failure of Special Autonomy to protect indigenous people, particularly in regard to the planned 80 million-hectare Merauke Food Estate. In the highlands town of Wamena, shops and businesses closed as thousands rallied, denouncing Special Autonomy and calling for economic justice and self-sufficiency, and marched to the regional legislature. Organizer Yulianus Hisage stated that “we are demanding that the Papuan people's sovereignty be restored”.
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Myself and my allies have been keeping a close watch on PNG of late i was going to take it out on the Queen but now i see that it is Indonesia who is responsable for this fiasco so be it.But still the capitol of PNG will face powerful repercussions if their is unjust arrests and violence i pray that they keep their God given rights the people of PNG they are a good tribal people who love mother earth and live in harmony with her.
please keep us updated on events out there Ahni and do you know of a reliable tribal media outlet out there that is not government run but that of the first peoples i have been monitoring The National but i feel that it has been compramised by the government out there i need intel directly from the tribal source thanks once again Ahni good work.
Hey Thunderbeing. In case there’s some confusion, I just want to note that, technically, Papua New Guinea and West Papua are two different places. They’re both on the same island–and Papuans are Paupans IMO–but Papua New Guinea has been recognized as a Nation State, where West Papua has been forced to live under Indonesia for the past 41 years (and before then, it was possessed by the Dutch). Right now, West Papua should be a State like PNG, but Indonesia took it for themselves.
Also, off hand I’m not sure of any news sources for WP or PNG. But I know that Jacques is in direct contact with the folks in WP. I’ve asked him to note a few sources here if he knows any.
Thunderbeing, thanks for your attention and comments. Just want to clarify that this report on developments in West Papua refers to the western half of the island of New Guinea which was annexed by Indonesia in 1969. I am not sure to what extent the government of Indonesia influences the political and environmental conflicts in PNG, though I imagine there is some involvement.
In West Papua there is good grassroots reporting at Jubi, in Bahasa Indonesia, but you can always use google translate : http://translate.google.ca/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Ftabloidjubi.com%2F&sl=id&tl=en
Thanks i understand now i have been watching over the China corporation thing where the government took the rights away from the tribal people so that they could dump toxins into their rivers and streams.This situation seemed the same because of the taking away from the first peoples rights and all.Giving much power to get that back to the people out there peacefully.Will be monitoring this situation now too it seems.
Hi Fok.. there is now a media site set up fpr West Papua – Westpapuamedia.info…. this is a site for media who wish to republish.
thanks
Nick
In 1963 West Papua was given by the Dutch government to the United Nations to reign for a temporary time, including the time it sets for a national plebisit for all tribes to choose whether they want to be under Indonesian reign or the Dutch or be independent.
Maybe due to first quality Indonesian diplomacy by the President Soekarno and then soeharto almost all tribal chiefs choose to be an Indonesian province.in1969 “plebisite council”.
Those results was acknowledged and supported by the US Government then . If the US didn’t support that results, the “annexation” by Indonesia could never had happened !
Don’t forget that the chiefs who choose to be with Indonesia in 1969 was different than the people now wishing to break away with Indonesia..
Read this from AllRefer.com:
Although Sukarno had asserted that a plebiscite was unnecessary, acceding to international pressure, he agreed to hold it. The Act of Free Choice provisions, however, had not defined precisely how a plebiscite would be implemented. Rather than working from the principle of one man-one vote, Indonesian authorities initiated a consensus-building process that supposedly was more in conformity with local traditions. During the summer of 1969, local councils were strongly pressured to approve unanimously incorporation into Indonesia. The UN General Assembly approved the outcome of the plebiscite in November, and West Irian (or Irian Barat), renamed Irian Jaya, became Indonesia’s twenty-sixth province. But resistance to Indonesian rule by the OPM, which advocated the unification of Irian Jaya and the neighboring state of Papua New Guinea, continued. Border incidents were frequent as small bands of OPM guerrillas sought sanctuary on Papua New Guinea territory.
UPDATE: It looks like the occupation of the parliament grounds has come to end–under the threat of violence from the police.
But on the brighter side of things , a forum is apparently going to be held to discuss the failure of special autonomy, which will be followed by a special session in parliament. It’s a bit of a long shot, but they could end up rejecting special autonomy and endorsing independence.
AND THANKS to Nick, Jacques, Thunderbeing and Boelee for the resources and commentary.
BOELEE: It sounds alot like what happened to the Indigenous Peoples here in Canada and the United States. We were also pressured to concede to the State, choosing the lesser of two evils, I guess (capitulation or death). And now most nations are unwilling to challenge the relationship, but there are some who genuinely want to live autonomously. And I think there will be more in the future. Thanks.
Also, the undercover West Papua documentary ‘Forgotten Bird of Paradise’ has been uploaded onto the net. You can watch it at http://www.dancingturtlefilms.com/
It is true that the Act in 1969 obtained international approval from the US and the UN, in spite of the coercion involved and the clearly undemocratic nature of the exercise – in which less than 1 percent of the population of West Papua was rounded up and pressured, under threat of violence, to choose integration into the Unitary Republic of Indonesia. This reflects strategic interests of the US in allying itself with an expansive and repressive business-friendly Indonesia in the context of the communist ‘threat’ in South-east Asia – not to mention the fact that US mining giant Freeport McMoran’s contract to extract gold and copper from West Papua (at the site with the richest gold deposit in the world) was signed with the Soeharto regime in 1967, two years before the Act (thus before Indonesian rule over Papua was even made official).
Former United Nations Under-Secretary General Chakravarthy Narasimhan has since made these comments on the UN’s (half-hearted) endorsement of the Act of Free Choice that he was in charge of supervising:
“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 there who had their fundamental human rights trampled… How could anyone have seriously believed that all voters unanimously decided to join his [Suharto’s] regime?… Unanimity like that is unknown in democracies.”
(Taken from http://www.petitiononline.com/unreview/ – a petition to the UN to review the Act.)
The ‘tribal chiefs’ who were pressured to surrender to the will of the Indonesian state and American corporate colonialism have died by now. Their legacies live on: in Wamena there is a bronze statue of Kurelu Mabel in the centre of town; and in the nearby Assotipo area is a statue of Ukumearik Asso. It is hard for me to imagine what these locally powerful men were thinking and feeling when they encountered the Indonesian military and its program for integration forty years ago. The West Papuan national movement is in its fifth decade. The strategies and tactics of the activists driving the current civil society consensus in Papua are not the same as those of the OPM units defending pockets of remote land in the forests and hills – but the same thirst for liberation animates their struggle to free themselves from colonizing state power.
[...] many as 20,000 Papuans gathered in Jayapura to demand that Indonesia and the international community finally grant West Papua its lawful right to [...]
Correction on history:
In 1962 the Dutch were forced by the US to sign the deal trading the people of West Papua without their consent to Indonesia, the US drafted the ‘New York Agreement’ on advice of their national security adviser (see Dept. of State record at my website) McGeorge Bundy was was appointed on advice of Robert Lovett who was a director of the Freeport corporation. And it was Freeport that wanted West Papua’s gold & copper. The history is a tragic example of the US government being manipulated and other people suffering for fifty years because of it.
The important facts are 1) West Papua is a colony (suffering alien subordination) as defined in UN resolution 1541 principles 4 and 5, and 2) West Papua is entitled to UN protection and human rights promised in UN resolution 1514.
[...] conflict in Papua through peaceful dialogue. The latest attack against DAP comes on the heels of unprecedented widespread mass mobilization, with a wide coalition of Papuan groups uniting to reject Jakarta’s Special Autonomy package, [...]
[...] latest attack against DAP comes on the heels of unprecedented widespread mass mobilization, with a wide coalition of Papuan groups uniting to reject Jakarta’s Special Autonomy package, [...]