Legal Basis
Political
Consideration
Anthropological
Historical Basis
Geography
Human Rights
Perspectives
Democratic Basis
Environmental Consideration
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Legally, West
Papua has never been part of Indonesia until today.
- First of all, the United Nations' Resolution 2504
(XV), 1969 has no legal basis, because the report by the UN
Secretary-General and Indonesia to the UNGA were not discussed or
questioned as normally. The UNGA took note the reports and issued the
resolution. This resolution has no legal basis.
- Secondly, there has never been any law passed at the
Indonesia's legislation confirming in particular that West Papua is
legally annexed by Indonesia and part of Indonesia. Indonesia did so
for East Timor, but this never happened for West Papua.
- Third, Papuans were totally excluded from involvement
in the signings of the New York Agreement and Rome Agreement as well
as meetings between Indonesia and the Netherlands in relation to West
Papua. Legally, Papuans never made any agreements with anyone
whatsoever. In other words, the dealings made between the Netherlands,
Indonesia, U.S.A. and U.N. on West Papua's future totally excluded the
inalienable rights of the Papuans to self-determination. They legally
violated the international standards of practice on
self-determination.
- Fourth, Indonesia did not comply to or obey most of the articles in the agreements
between Indonesia, the Netherlands, U.S.A. and the U.N. in implementing
the agreements mentioned above. In other words, the legal
process of Indonesia's occupation in West Papua is unlawful and
undemocratic, therefore, it needs re-examining.
- Indonesia claims West Papua as part of Indonesia due
to the Dutch Colonial Map, but there is no legal basis for this claim
because: (1) During the Indonesian independence, Indonesia was legally
not under the Dutch but Japan, therefore, Indonesia could not
legally make this claim; (2) In the Netherlands Constitution, West
Papua was not part of the Dutch Indies, but it was a separate region
with special status as a Province, similar to that of Suriname's; (3).
(Back Contents Table)
In Summary, Indonesia is illegally occupying West Papua since 1963, and
therefore, we are demanding the world politicians to revisit the processes
of West Papua re-colonisation by Indonesia.
Politically,
West Papua is absolutely not an integral part of Indonesia since the
beginning until today. West Papua is purely a re-colonised territory
and people.
- First, West Papua was not involved in
the war for Indonesian independent such as those done by people from
the archipelago from Acheh to Molucas. West Papua was invaded
militarily in 1963 and annexed in 1969 after 24 years of Indonesia's
independence. Until today, there is no Papuan who can
claim or who has been awarded as the National Hero for Indonesia's
independence. Also West Papua was annexed after almost 20 years of
Indonesian independence.
- West Papua is purely a victim of the Cold-War Era when the U.S.A.
was protecting the Pacific Region from the influence of communism. The
OPM was successfully banned and the U.S.A. supported the obliteration
of the OPM members because Indonesia told the world that OPM is a
communist organisation, part of the Indonesia's Communist Party. The
was the main reason why Australia was told not to say anything about
the re-colonisation. Even until today, the U.S.A. still monitors
Australia's position on West Papua politics. The Cold War Era is over,
and now Papuans are not fighting for or against communism, we are
fighting for our inalienable rights to self-determine our future.
(Back Contents Table)
Human Rights
Even before occupying West Papua, Indonesia has been using
"intimidation" and "murder" as its ways to calm down
the aspirations of the Papuans to be independent. Many cases indicate
Indonesia's violations of human rights far before it legally stepped into
the country, but we would like to tell you a number of them.
- Indonesia initiated, planned and carried out the largest
social-engineering project in human history until today, supported by the World Bank,
called "TRANSMIGRATION." So
many implications of this programme that cause a great pain in our
hearts when we try telling them one by one. But in brief, they
involved: (1) pushing away tribal people
from their lands for the sake of settling the transmigrants; (2)
Giving no respect and compensation to the tribal people, but
they were told to get away and asking nothing for their lands.
Indonesia calls this a 'no-man's land' and they did whatever they
wanted on Papua Land; (3) Legally, tribal
people have not been recognised as the inhabitants of the lands but
the government took them and gave them to the transmigrants; (4)
Transmigrants themselves suffered a lot for being transported
from far away islands in Java, Bali and Lombok and trying to survive
in a new land; (5) Many transmigrants
suffered from diseases caused by the re-settlement but government
purposefully planned this to happen; (6) Transmigrants are called
'social rubbish' of their original villages, they are dumped into new
areas, and let them there. Government has nothing to do with their
future, either they die, fail or successful depend on themselves. This
has caused enormous cultural shocks and emotional depressions.
- Besides violating the rights of the Papuans on our lands, we are
also killed through various programmes that Indonesia calls it 'for
the sake of development.' (1) Sago Plants
as the staple food of the Papuans are cut off and replaced by massive
rice plantation programmes under Government Development Schemes; (2)
All Papuans are forced to consume rice rather than Sago or other
staple foods in Papua; (3) Further
research and developments of Papuan staple foods have been
deliberately ignored; (4) Other
staple foods, mainly in the highlands like pigs are poisoned with
various diseases, and until today there has been no investigation on
what caused the deaths of thousands of pigs in the highlands. We
strongly suspect Indonesia is injecting the diseases in its efforts to
finally obliterate Papua as a people and as a country; (5)
We, the Papuans know that destroying our foods
means killing us as Papuans, this is a violation of our right to live
as Papuans.
- Family Planning Programme has been
successfully implemented throughout the country, by limiting the
number of children for one family by only two per family, whereas in
other parts of Indonesia, this programme have not been very successful
or deliberately ignored. Even though Indonesia drops in more people
from outside, it also controls the birth of the Papuans. This is
purely a violation of our right to live freely as human beings.
- Development Programmes. Papuans have been
pushed away in various development programmes. Many people in the
government offices, in projects, in business offices, and in military
have been all occupied by the Indonesians. Frankly,
the term "development" in West Papua means further
destruction of the environment and obliteration of the Papuans. This
year, Indonesia is launching what it calls "Autonomy
Package" for West Papua, but this is purely an effort to further
destroy the Papuans and our land's resources.
- The people's mobility is totally restricted. We must bring a Travel
Permit to move from one village to the other and we must report to the
nearest police or army post about our visit to certain villages. Even
students who go back to their home-villages are not allowed to do so
without Travel Permit from the Police. Why
should we bring permit to move around in our own land? Is this a
violation of our right to live freely?
- Since the declaration of Papua as Military Operation Zone (DOM),
hundreds of thousands of us died already, and yet the world does not
know what is actually happening deep in the jungles and in remote
villages of West Papua. (1) Our girls are raped brutally, (2) There
have been a continues practices of tortures ,
arbitrary arrests, imprisonments without trial, and massacres. These
clearly indicate that Indonesia has no political will to take West Papua
as an integral part of Indonesia, but merely holding it for the benefits
of foreign powers to exploit the human and natural resources and finally
to obliterate the people from their land. In other words, Indonesia is
still practicing the colonial way of dealing with indigenous people: take
away the resources, wipe out the people, and conquer their territory.
(Back Contents Table)
Anthropologically, West Papuans are not Indonesians,
ethnically Papuans are totally different from the Indonesians, therefore,
it fulfills the UN's pre-requisite for establishing a new country.
There is not much to say about this but as a matter of fact, Indonesians are
ethically Proto-Malays and Papuans are Melanesians, we are ethnically
different and therefore it is reasonable to live as two different
countries.
Historically, West
Papuans had no relations with Indonesians in any way. Only Tidore
Sultanate had a connection to the Papuans in Raja Ampat (westernmost part
of the Island near Molucas) but there is no other tie with West Papua and
other Indonesian kingdoms like Majapahit, Sriwijaya, and Gadjah Mada.
There is no historical link whatsoever indicating Papua as part of
Indonesia.
Moreover, West Papuans were not involved in the
struggles for establishing an independent Indonesia. It was annexed after almost 20
years. This clearly shows that West Papua was re-colonised by a modern
colonial power, i.e., Indonesia under the modern imperialist agenda, i.e.,
to exploit the resources in West Papua. (Back
Contents Table)
Geographically there
is no connection whatsoever to claim that West Papua is previously or
currently an integral part of Indonesia.
- West Papua is in the Pacific Region,
- Previously, the Papua Island was connected to
Australia Continent.
- The distance between Indonesian archipelago and West
Papua is reasonable to say that West Papua is not part of Indonesia.
-
(Back Contents Table)The
Issue of Democracy and West Papua Struggle for Independence
As far as Democracy is concerned West Papuans, in many
occasions, had democratically indicated our wills to be independent.
- On December 1, 1961, the representative of the
Papuans declared Papua as a country and as a people will become
independent by July 1970. This was not respected by the first
Indonesian president Sukartno by launching his Triple Command of
People, in which he first said, "Dismiss the Papua
Country."
- On June 4, 2000, (after 30 years), the Papuans
gathered again at the Papua Congress II 2000 and declared West Papua
as an independent country but Indonesia once again ignored the demand.
- Until today, Indonesia rejects to meet the Papua
Presidium Council (PDP) which was democratically elected by the
Papuans at the Papua Congress II 2000.
- One of the characteristics of democracy is DIALOGUE,
and Papua Congress II 2000 demanded Indonesia to begin talks and
dialogues between Indonesia and the PDP but until today, Indonesia has
not yet shown its will to resolve the case. Even today, February 22,
2001, the Minister of Defense announced his government's decision not
to hold any kind of meeting with the leaders of independence movement
in Acheh and Papua. This is obviously a violation of human rights and
democratic principles. (Back Contents Table)
In Summary, the wish of the Papuans to
be independent has been so far channel through democratic representatives
and practices, but Indonesia has been ignorant and even massacres more
people in West Papua until today.
Environmentally, Papuans
can claim that we are the best protectors of the natural environment in
West Papua and we can do our best to preserve the original natural
ecosystem and ecology, ONLY when we have the right to do so. We will have
the right when West Papua is independence, but it is only a daydreaming to
think that we can protect the environment when Indonesia is around.
In the future, West Papua can provide
oxygen, impenetrable original forests, wild flora and fauna, and it
can become the world's open laboratory for environmental studies. TPN/OPM
can guarantee you that we can do this very well and very easily after
Indonesia is out from this land.
Environmentally, only in West Papua you
can see the Glaciers in Tropical Forests and never melted in any season.
- We are the best protectors of the natural environment
in West Papua because the fact says so. All resources taken out
nowadays had been well-protected by tribal people of West Papua.
- We are the best protectors because the natural
environment and the land are ours; to make use and to preserve
them not only for us but also for our future generations. No
environmentalists or conservationists can claim that they can do
better that us, Papuans because we are the owners, we care more than
anyone else.
- Far before legally annexing West Papua into
Indonesia, it had already signed various concessions and agreements
for exploitations of natural resources from West Papua. Even until
today, not more than 10 Javanese Generals had divided up the island
into regions for themselves, for lodging, mining, and any activity
they want to carry out in their region. (Back to Table of Contents)
FINALLY, WE COME TO THE CORE QUESTION
"WHY CAN'T YOU ALLOW US TO BE
INDEPENDENT? IS THERE ANY REASON AT ALL FOR LETTING US
WITH INDONESIA UNTIL TODAY?
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The Original Morning Star Flag
firstly hoisted by Ferry Awom in Manokwari 1963, Given to PDP at Papua
Congress II 2000 in Port Numbay
Papua Congress II 2000 was attended by Foreign Observers from Embassies in
Jakarta , Journalists and NGOs.
Papua Congress II 2000
declared and re-claimed Papua Independence and told Indonesia to get out
from Papua
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