| Home > South-East Asia >> West Papua | |
West Papua independence bid continues decades after 1969 UN backing
Courier Mail - January 14, 2017
In July 1969, hundreds of stoic Papuans stood and listened, sweating in the jungle heat. Standing witness were Reuters journalist Hugh Lunn and a Dutch newspaper colleague, Otto Kuyk.
Those gathered were there to hear about the Act of Free Choice, a long-promised, UN-backed vote to allow all the Papuan people a say in their independence.
What they instead heard were the first murmurings of a broken promise that, to this day, plays an enduring role in the bond between Australia and its nearest neighbour, Indonesia.
Just how pivotal played out in curious fashion last week when the TNI, the Indonesian armed forces, announced it had suspended all military ties with Australia.
Indonesia's program of transmigration has seen the Melanesian population in West Papua fall to 50 per cent, meaning support for separation is no longer in the majority.
A member of Indonesia's special forces, Kopassus, training at Perth's SAS barracks months earlier, took offence at course material for suggesting West Papua was part of Melanesia.
The suspension seemingly caught Canberra and our military brass off guard, even though they had spent months secretly trying to cool tensions.
Lunn, one of Queensland's most-loved authors and a former Courier-Mail journalist, was not the least bit shocked by Indonesia's reaction. Neither were a host of Australia's top Indonesia watchers and members of the Free West Papua campaign.
A minor spot fire, the suspension was reversed within 24 hours. While it reflects the internal power struggle between the military and President Joko Widodo, at its heart was the touchy subject of West Papuan independence and the "long shadow" of East Timor.
"I'm always upset about it," Lunn says of West Papua, a position he's held for 48 years.
Following stints in London, Singapore and Vietnam, where he witnessed the 1968 Tet Offensive, Lunn was Reuters' correspondent in Indonesia in 1969. He and Dutchman Kuyk were the only Western reporters of the ground for the month-long, independence vote.
"When I heard they were conducting an Act of Free Choice, I thought it would be done in a democratic way and that everyone would get a vote," he recalls.
Instead, out of a population of 800,000, Indonesia selected 1025 Melanesians for the vote under the Indonesian consensus system of "musyawarah". The UN oversaw the sham poll but ignored blatant voter intimidation.
Lunn saw Indonesian soldiers bash Papuans and throw them in the back of army trucks. "People like me said 'hold on, that's not democracy'," he recalls.
Lunn complained about the violence and intimidation to a UN official, but was told Papua was "like a cancerous growth on the side of the UN that needed to be removed".
"I had a Papuan crying on my shoulder one night. He said 'Is the UN going to save us?' and I said 'forget about it, you're going to be part of Indonesia' and he burst into tears."
The tears have rolled ever since – human rights violations, documented atrocities, thousands dead, disappearances and the 2001 murder of revered Papuan leader Theys Eluay have peppered the Papuan independence struggle.
The armed resistance of the Free Papua Movement (OPM), uprisings and rebellions have given way in recent years to peaceful resistance. The often-fractured resistance movement has largely coalesced around the United Liberation Movement for West Papua, which formed in 2014 and includes exiled Papuan leaders such as Benny Wenda. It has started a regional and international diplomatic push with some success.
Professor Jason McLeod, from the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney, says the movement is becoming more organised and strategic.
"The West Papuans are absolutely determined they will get their freedom and a chance to fairly and freely determine whether they want to be part of Indonesia or not," McLeod says.
But that determination is unlikely to count for zip with a cautious Australian Government, largely thanks to our critical role in East Timor regaining its independence from Indonesia in 1999.
Bilateral relations remained poor until 2006, when the Howard government signed the Lombok Treaty, under which both countries pledge to respect each other's sovereignty.
And Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says: "Australia remains committed to the territorial integrity of Indonesia, including the Papuan provinces, as expressed by the Lombok Treaty between Australia and Indonesia."
Victoria University Indonesian expert Dr Richard Chauvel says no matter how often Australia expresses respect for Indonesian sovereignty, it will always be met with distrust. "In Indonesian eyes, the unstated response is 'that's exactly what you said about East Timor'," he says.
Chauvel notes the suspension of military training by TNI commander Gatot Nurmantyo last week "reminds us, yet again, of the long shadow of East Timor".
"We as Australians tend to forget the sensitivities around East Timor. No country likes to lose provinces. The suspicion of any Australian interest in West Papua goes back to that."
West Papuan dreams of independence may remain just that, according to another keen Indonesian watcher.
Deakin University Professor of International Politics Damien Kingsbury cites a key difference to East Timor: It was forcibly annexed in 1975 and never internationally recognised as part of Indonesia, unlike West Papua.
"Under international law, West Papua is part of Indonesia," Kingsbury says. "The circumstances in which that happened are hugely problematic, but it was recognised by the UN."
Indonesia's program of transmigration has seen the Melanesian population in West Papua fall to 50 per cent, meaning support for separation is no longer in the majority.
About a quarter of Indonesia's Budget stems from West Papua's lucrative natural resources, including gold and copper. The TNI remains committed to retaining West Papua as a province, by force if necessary.
Kingsbury says while Melanesians are definitely second-class citizens in their own land, the obstacles to independence can't be easily traversed.
"What they need to do is to aim for something that is achievable – a 'land of peace'. Independence is not a likely outcome. The negotiations need to be around improving the social, economic and political circumstances of Melanesian West Papuans that makes a difference to their lives on the ground. Fifty per cent of something is better than 100 per cent of nothing.
"The Act of Free Choice... should not have been recognised but it was and has now been recognised for four decades. It's going to be extraordinarily difficult to change that."
See also:
 |
West Papua West Papua Links Statements and Press Releases on West Papua Indoleft Archive Indonesia links Indonesia News Digest News services on Indonesia Publications & videos on Indonesia Reports & articles on Indonesia Statements & press releases on Indonesia