Freedom for Land and People

http://tuimotu.org/a/YSXCwV9

Freedom for Land and People

Ron Healing — Nov 1, 2018

Ron Healing tells of the history of colonisation and exploitation of the West Papuans which has rendered them poverty-stricken in their own land.

For years, West Papuans have struggled to retain their sovereignty under Indonesian rule. This struggle is taking place in our own backyard — and with West Papuans forgotten and unsupported by the rest of the world. Intense mining operations, transmigration policies, underdevelopment as well as brutal suppression have left West Papuans with few resources. But now growing international attention is putting the spotlight on the human rights violations and the tragic history of this country. It is sparking support from many New Zealanders including parliamentarians.

Slide into Indonesian Control

West Papua occupies the western part of the island of New Guinea. It shares a border with Papua New Guinea in the eastern part. Indigenous Papuans are Melanesian and have inhabited the region for at least 40,000 years. 

When the Dutch East Indies broke up in 1949, West Papua was the only region not incorporated into the newly independent Indonesian Republic. In 1961 the Dutch established the West New Guinea Council and, recognising Papuans right to self-determination, submitted a plan proposing that the land be placed under United Nations administration. The plan failed to gain the necessary support of the UN General Assembly. 

On 1 December 1961 the West New Guinea Council voted for a name change to West Papua and selected the Morning Star flag and a national anthem. The Council passed resolutions supporting the Dutch plan for self-determination. But later that month, Indonesian President Sukarno despatched hundreds of paratroopers to claim West Papua for Indonesia. Then, in August 1962, the Dutch and Indonesians signed the New York Agreement which gave the United Nations temporary oversight of West Papua before transferring control to Indonesia seven months later — with provision for Papuan independence. 

Indonesia took control of West Papua in May 1963 after the UN withdrew and banned all political parties and activities. The military killed thousands of Papuans. When President Suharto came to power in 1967, brutal anti-communist massacres and human rights abuses continued. And Suharto signed a concession granting USA mining company Freeport mining rights over 250,000 acres of Papuan land for a period of 30 years. This forced the resettlement of indigenous Papuans and has caused widespread environmental destruction. 

Pope Francis warned: “The human environment and the natural environment deteriorate together; we cannot adequately combat environmental degradation unless we attend to causes related to human and social degradation. In fact, the deterioration of the environment and of society affects the most vulnerable people on the planet” (LS par 48). 

The terms of the New York Agreement, “The Act of Free Choice”, explicitly required Indonesia to guarantee freedom of speech, movement and assembly for all in return for sovereignty. This was not followed — Papuans were given neither freedom nor choice. A mere 1,022 Papuans participated in the “consultation” — all handpicked by the Indonesian authories. And with a background of carefully orchestrated brutality, coercion, violence and death threats, the outcome was a foregone conclusion. When the Indonesian report was presented to the UN General Assembly, several countries condemned it and unsuccessfully called for another “consultation”. Chakravarth Narasimhan, former Under Secretary-General of the UN, declared the process a “whitewash” — to no avail.

In their distress, Papuans formed the pro-independence Organisasi Papua Merdeka in 1965. The Indonesian military retaliated with executions, torture and incarceration throughout the 1970s. Meanwhile, the government instituted a transmigration policy appropriating large tracts of Papuan land on which to resettle migrants from Eastern Indonesia. This resulted in the loss of between 2,500 and 13,000 Papuan lives. These migrants have changed the demographics and the Indonesians are now in the ascendency in the coastal areas and dominate the economy. Papuans still endure serious human rights violations — killings, torture and unlawful arrest. It is a conservative estimate that 100,000 Papuans have been killed by the Indonesian Military Forces since 1963. 

Exploiting Natural Resources 

West Papua is extremely rich in natural resources — it has an abundance of gold, copper, oil and gas. The Grasberg Mining complex in Papua is the world’s largest gold mine and second largest copper mine. The main shareholder, US mining company Freeport-McMoRan, contributed US$1.5 billion to Indonesian State Funds in 2014 but is doing untold destruction to the Papuan environment. BP began producing LPG in 2005 and is poisoning the land and waterways. Deforested land is now being appropriated for palm oil plantations. 

Francis wrote to all people: “It is essential to show special care for indigenous communities and their cultural traditions. They are not merely one minority among others but should be the principal dialogue partners, especially when large projects affecting their land are proposed. For them land is not a commodity but rather a gift from God and from their ancestors who rest there, a sacred space with which they need to interact if they are to maintain their identity and values. When they remain on the land they themselves care for it best” (LS par 146).

But in Papua the indigenous people are dying because of widespread corruption and exploitation. Logging and plantation companies substantially underpay for the land they acquire. For example, Kaya Lapis Indonesian Group, one of the largest logging and plantation companies in Indonesia, paid indigenous Moi landowners 65 cents per hectare for land that, once developed, is likely to be valued at $5,000 a hectare. They paid $2.80 a cubic metre for timber that was sold at $875 a cubic metre. 

To our shame, New Zealand imports rain forest timber and palm oil and in doing so we contribute to the oppression of the Papuan people. 

Despite the wealth of natural resources in their land, systematic exploitation and persecution has contributed to West Papua today having the highest poverty and illiteracy rates in Indonesia. This is compounded by extremely high child malnutrition rates and a major shortage of doctors and medical supplies. 

Growing International Concern 

The United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) now has observer status at the Melanesian Spearhead Group made up of Fiji, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front of New Caledonia. Indonesia has associate status and contributes funds to its operations.

South African Nobel Peace Prize recipient Archbishop Desmond Tutu has long supported West Papua’s case for self-determination. But for decades the New Zealand Government has turned a blind eye to Indonesia’s treatment of West Papua. Some parliamentarians are now reconsidering this stance. As the world awakens to the slow genocide occurring in West Papua, Papuans remain strong in their aspirations for freedom and justice for their tortured homeland. The fraudulent “Act of Free Choice” is a deep and burning grievance for the Papuan people. 

Pope Francis understands the desire for self-determination and calls on the world’s people to honour it: 

“The world’s peoples want to be artisans of their own destiny. They want to advance peacefully towards justice. They want their culture, their language, their social processes and their religious tradition to be respected. No actual or established power has the right to deprive peoples of the full exercise their sovereignty… For ‘peace is founded not only on respect for human rights but also on respect for the rights of peoples, in particular the right to independence’” (Paraguay, 11 July 2015).

Tui Motu magazine. Issue 232 November 2018: 6-7

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