Imagine going out on a shopping trip, when you get home, your house is in flames and without even a second to contemplate your situation you are taken into custody, tortured, and thrown into a dirty dilapidated cell, left to rot. You sit there wondering “what did I do to end up here?” But you know the answer is that, to the government, you are an “undesirable” in your own country. For the native people of Western New Guinea, this scenario is a reality they must live in every day. Western New Guinea has had a long history of being abused and despite the countless amounts of human rights violations committed against the Papuans, their struggle has gone largely ignored from global governments.
To fully understand the abuse occurring in Papua, you need to understand its history. 1898 Western New Guinea was formally colonized by the Netherlands. In 1961 the Dutch helped Western New Guinea declare its independence. however, another former Dutch colony, Indonesia, felt they should own all other countries in the Asia-pacific region that had earned their independence and began invading Western New Guinea. In 1962 the US organized the New York Agreement to give Western New Guinea to the UN out of fear of the USSR which became involved in the conflict. In 1963 the UN gave control of Western New Guinea to Indonesia, mind you, all of this happened without any consultation with Western New Guinea. After 7 years of abuse from Indonesia, the UN voted on ‘The Act of Free Choice’ which decided whether Western New Guinea should be free or remain a part of Indonesia. Once again, the people of Western New Guinea had no hand in their own fate and according to investigation by Dr. John Saltford of the Department of the Public Record Office, the vote was not democratic. In Saltford’s 2002 book he explains how Indonesia used hand-picked Papuans who were threatened with intense intimidation tactics to speak about how much they wanted to join Indonesia. The vote resulted in Indonesia keeping Western New guinea.
Over the last 60 years of Indonesian control, the west Papuans have endured extreme torment. The Free West Papua Campaign has reported that, “Over the last fifty years Indonesia has carried out a social engineering project … by relocating hundreds of thousands of people from across Indonesia to live in camps cut into the forests of West Papua.” the Indonesian government is destroying Western Papuan villages through bombings and burnings and displaces them so they can do what they want with the Papuans land. But what are they doing with that land? Indonesian companies are destroying 300 hectares of land a year for logging and palm oil plantations, destroying the land that is so important to Papua and its people. Besides the destruction of their country Indonesia is also committing countless human rights violations against the Papuan people. the Indonesian government commonly uses torture to suppress the people of western new guinea as well as rape as a form of torture. In addition, both Sydney university and yale conducted studies showing that Indonesia has committed a significant genocide on the indigenous West Papuans. The Indonesian government has tried very hard to keep all of these human rights violations underground by suppressing the Papuans freedom of expression by putting them in poorly kept prisons where they are denied any form of medical care and arresting internation journalist who try to cover the issue even denying access to organizations like the red cross
As a country based on the idea of protecting the freedoms of all people, we have a responsibility to help the people of Western New Guinea, yet the US does hardly anything to aid them and protect them from gross human rights violations. Internation conflict often feel so out of hand for most people so what can you do to help the people of west Papua? First, if you have the means to, donating to organizations like the Free West Papua Campaign helps a lot but the most important part is spreading the word. Indonesia’s greatest weapon in stopping Wester New Guinea’s freedom is restricting their expression to the rest of the world. Tell your friends and family about, or petition and write letters to government officials, or even join a demonstration. The best thing we can do is to make the problem too loud to ignore for the people in power like they have been for the last 60 years.
