Vol. 80/No. 25 July 11, 2016
West Papua: ‘We demand our dignity and our rights’
“There is no freedom of speech and assembly in West Papua,” Yoman said, describing the detention of some 1,000 demonstrators by Indonesian police May 2 in Jayapura, the largest city. Defending the suppression of the protests, Police Chief Insp. Gen. Paulus Waterpaw told the Jakarta Post June 15, “We have never permitted them … because their ultimate goal is to separate.”
These are “the biggest demonstrations yet,” chair Maire Leadbeater of West Papua Action Auckland told the audience of 80 people. The ongoing protests are intended to show support for the bid by the United Liberation Movement for West Papua to be admitted as a full member of the Melanesian Spearhead Group when it meets in July. The Spearhead Group is made up of the governments of Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and the pro-independence Kanak Socialist National Liberation Front of New Caledonia. Currently the Liberation Movement has observer status while the Indonesian government is an associate member.
West Papuans have resisted since Jakarta seized the territory in 1963 after the Netherlands government was forced to cede this last piece of its Asian empire. Indonesian control was formalized in a United Nations-endorsed referendum in 1969 with only 1,026 hand-picked voters. Since then the Indonesian military and police have killed, detained and tortured thousands in a drive to enforce Jakarta’s rule.
As it has opened West Papua to exploitation of the island’s rich natural resources, Jakarta has encouraged the “transmigration” of workers, farmers and businesspeople from Indonesia. As a result, said Yoman, “West Papuans are becoming a minority in our own country. We have become marginalized, powerless and landless. Only Indonesian history is taught.” Native Papuans account for around half the population of 3.6 million.
Tribal peoples have been forced from their traditional lands to make way for forestry ventures and huge gold and copper mines run by multinational companies under agreements with the Indonesian government.
The Grasberg mine, the largest, is owned by Freeport-McMorRan and Rio Tinto, based in the United States and Australia respectively. A majority of its 20,000 workers are unionized. Around one-third are indigenous Papuans. A three-month strike in 2011 won wage increases of 40 percent. Freeport-McMoRan holds concessions on almost 6 percent of the total land in West Papua.
The indigenous people of the territory are divided into hundreds of tribes speaking more than 250 languages. “We can’t speak to each other so we use the Indonesian language,” Yoman said. “It is good for us.”
Jakarta’s attempts to foster divisions between the newer arrivals, who are Malay in nationality and predominantly Muslim, and the indigenous Melanesian people, who are predominantly Christian, have met with only limited success. Many support the fight for independence, Yoman said.
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