9 minute read
The West Papuan Struggle For Freedom
by Nikotemo Sopepa
n 16 August 2019, the Indonesian police, a number of O West Papuan students burned an Indonesian flag outside their local dormitory in Surabaya, a city in Java. This act provoked a response from some Indonesian nationalist militia who gathered outside the dormitory and called them “monkeys”. The students were also threatened. But these threats did not deter the students from what caused them to burn the flag at the first place. The threat and intimidating slur ‘monkey’ however caused a people to rise above their fear and despair and took up fifty-seven-year long fight for independence and free determination.
The burning of the Indonesian national flag was not a sign of treason as most Indonesians see it.
Rather it was a cry for freedom from an unjust treatment of West Papuan people in their own land. What is happening to the West Papuans reminds me of Francis Hazel’s book Strangers in Their Own Land, a story of a century of colonial rule in Micronesia. Although the Micronesians in the Northern Pacific gained their independence in 1986, they are still a protectorate of the United States of America. The Micronesians were colonised by Spain, then the Germans, then Japan, and finally the USA after World War II. The 1986 independence was more of a concealment of USA’s hidden interest in the region – a military bridge between USA and Asia.
West Papua’s case is not different from that of Micronesia’s. The USA’s military interest has cost West Papuans not just their land, but their freedom, and many lives. Over half a million lives were taken by the Indonesian military and police. West Papuans were hunted down in towns, villages, and even those who fled to the darkness of the forest were not spared. This is because the Indonesian government believed that the defected West Papuans were traitors. The cry for freedom and justice is seen by the government as the most treasonous act. But how could you commit treason when your hands are tied behind your back against your will in your own house?
Both Indonesia and West Papua were colonised by the Dutch in the late nineteenth century. When Indonesia became
A Papuan student, his face painted with the colours of the separatist Morning Star flag, holds a poster during a rally near the presidential palace in Jakarta, Indonesia, in 2019. (Tatan Syuflana / Associated Press)
independent in 1949, West Papua did not join the new independent nation. This is because these are two different sets of people with different cultures. The West Papuans belong to Oceania (Pacific). Their culture is similar to other people in the Oceania like Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Kanaky (New Caledonia), Papua New Guinea, and Fiji. More so, the West Papuans, like their family members in Papuan New Guinea have traded with the Solomon Islands and other Oceania islands pre-European/Westerners contact. They identified themselves more with people of Oceania, and Oceania has regarded them as brothers and sisters before Dutch colonisation.
When Indonesia became independent of Netherlands, the Dutch government recognised West Papuans as a people with a different culture and ethnicity. For more than a decade the Dutch government prepared West Papua for their independence. In 1961, West Papua declared independence and raised its flag – the ‘Morning Star.’ The Morning Star signifies a people’s struggle for freedom and justice, and that is exactly what they achieved in 1961.
Within months of its independence, West Papua was invaded by Indonesia. This caused conflicts between Indonesia, Netherlands, and the indigenous Papuans. Unable to fight against its former colonial master, Indonesia turned to Russia for support. The USA saw Russia’s involvement as a threat to its global presence, especially since Russia’s association with the issue will signal the spread of communism in the region.
Papuans protesting during a visit by a UN envoy in the run up to the vote. Image via ulmwp.org
On 2 April 1962, US President John Fitzgerald Kennedy wrote a secret letter to the Dutch Prime Minister Jan de Quay to hand over administrative control of West Papua to the United Nations, whereby US businessman and diplomat Ellsworth Bunker will mediate the talks to hand over West Papua to Indonesia to prevent the spread of communism, which according to President Kennedy, is a threat to the West and the Free World.
Indonesia finally annexed West Papua in 1969 under the United Nations Treaty known as the New York Agreement. The first paragraph of the agreement reads, “The Republic of Indonesia and the Kingdom of the Netherlands, having in mind the interests and welfare of the people of the territory of West New Guinea (West Irian) hereinafter referred to as " the territory." This paragraph betrays the Papuans and robs them of their right to free determination. A referendum called the ‘Act of Free Choice’ was held, where one thousand twenty-five West Papuans were hand-picked by the Indonesians military to vote in favour of Indonesia’s annexation. This “Act of Free Choice” is known to West Papuans as an ‘Act of No Choice’ for it was undemocratically held under the close supervision of the United Nations, who has the interest of the West, more so the United States of America than the people of West Papua. From that day onwards, the Morning Star flag became a sign of civil disobedience, and a threat to Indonesian democracy. But for the West Papuans it became a sign of hope.
Since 1969 the West Papuans have been fighting for their freedom. They have not accepted their political fate as a people of Indonesia. Many of them have been bribed to shut their mouths, others to discard their own people. There are more deaths by murder than natural deaths in West Papua. The killing has been going on for fifty-one years, for the West Papuans never gave up on their hope to run their own lives in their own land. Equally impassionate is the Indonesian grasp on the necks of the West Papuan people.
But it is not the Papuan people the Indonesian government is interested in. This is evident in the merciless killing of West Papuans by the Indonesian military and police even to today as I sit here in my living room writing this article. Women were raped, tortured, and murdered in front of their children and husbands. In 2014 I was asked to write an article on pressing issues in the Pacific with pictures to show the struggle people in the Pacific go through. I wrote on West Papua, and included a few photographs of the merciless killing of West Papuans by Indonesian military and police. Among the photographs was pictures of a mother who was raped and killed, that of a man whose had brain spread on the road, and of an elderly man who was considered as a hunting trophy by the Indonesian military. When the article was published the photographs were missing. I inquired about the exclusion of the photograph, and received an email stating that the pictures were too ‘bloody and barbarous.’ But that is exactly what I wanted the world to see. That is exactly what the West Papuans want the world to see. I wanted the world to look through the eyes of the children whose parents have been taken away from them. I wanted the world to see through the eyes of men whose wives were raped, or through the eyes of women whose husbands have been murdered. I wanted the world to see through the eyes of many West Papuans who witnessed many villagers flee to the safety of the jungle, only to be hunted down and killed like wild animals.
Over three quarter to a million Indonesians have migrated to West Papua in a government migration scheme to Indonesianise West Papua. The World Bank has been the main financer of this migration scheme. Indonesians from overly populated Java and Sulawesi have moved permanently to West Papua. West Papua is rich with mineral resources like oil, timber, gold, copper, and natural gas to name a few. Corporate companies like the Anglo/Dutch Shell, the Freeport McMoran company of Louisiana, and RTZ company of the UK continues to plunder West Papua’s resources. The Grasberg gold mine in West Papua is the largest gold mine in the world. The University of Texas reported that “very little of the revenue returns to West Papua, and only a small proportion benefit the native Papuans” from all its resources. It seems like the intricate but well stratified system that works against the West Papuans’ will for freedom is working well, with all its chains well-greased by first world countries, including the United Nations. For these, the West Papuans fight. And for these they are killed.
Human rights abuse in West Papua is curtained behind the pretext of repressing separatist Papuan groups. But this is how Indonesia kept its economic and business agenda in a land where people’s cry for help has fallen on many deaf ears. The international community has neglected West Papua’s cry for too long. They have taken petition after petition to the United Nations, but the United Nations seems to exist for a chosen few.
“Environmental destruction and rampant militarism walk hand in hand in # WestPapua” via Twitter. Photo by Buchtar Tabuni.
Members of the Papuan Students Alliance hold a banner during a protest against the signing of the New York Agreement In 1962 on August 15, 2013 in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Ulet Ifansasti / Getty Images
Human rights activists and churches in the Oceania have taken on the fight outside of Indonesia. But nothing much has changed. Political leaders around the Pacific region even turn a blind eye to the reality of the matter in West Papua. The political stance of respecting Indonesia’s sovereignty over a people’s struggle for independence is hogwash.
Many feel that West Papuans should take up armour and fight like the East Timorese did against Indonesia. But the poverty-stricken Papuans have resorted to peaceful advocacy like elsewhere in the world. There are West Papuans who resorted to violence, a tactic condemned by many including myself. But I ask myself, to what cost will I go to protect my children and community against intruders in my own home? This is why West Papua’s plight must be taken seriously by all those who believe in the freedom of all humanity. It is when we stand up for those who have no power that guns are laid down. Violence should never be a tactic, but how long will West Papuans keep the peace while their blood is spilt like seasonal offerings to the ground?
If the world continues to turn a blind eye, the slow and silent genocide of West Papuans will continue until it is too late. The land of West Papua has drunk too much innocent blood. Surely, the church cannot be silent anymore. We must stand with and for West Papua. They must have their independence. They must have the right to determine their own future – in their own land.
