West Papua: raising the Morning Star in an 'Act of Free Choice'

The 1st of December was West Papuan National Day or National flag day. Forty-six years ago on the December 1, 1961, in the then Dutch colony of West New Guinea, the West Papuan flag, or Morning Star, was flown for the first time officially beside the Dutch Tricolor. At that ceremony, as the Morning Star flag was raised, Dutch and Papuan military and police saluted and accompanied by a marine band playing the national anthem, “My Land Papua”.

The Dutch were finally about to give the West Papuan people their freedom. However, it is one of the great tragedies that at their moment of freedom it was cruelly crushed and West Papua was basically handed over to Indonesia in 1963.

After six years administration of the province, Indonesia held a sham referendum called the Act of Free Choice under UN supervision. Only 1,022 handpicked voters - one representative for approximately every 700 West Papuans - were allowed vote, and under coercion, voted to “remain with Indonesia”. The Papuans call this the “act of no choice”.

The policy of the new Labor Government on the issue of West Papua will differ little from that of the Howard government. We will still hear the mantras from the Department of Foreign Affairs of “we recognise Indonesian sovereignty over West Papua” and “we support the autonomy package as the best way forward for the West Papuan people”.

The government might have changed but the Jakarta lobby still holds sway in Canberra. The problem for Canberra is that the West Papuan people disagree. West Papua will eventually become one of Australia’s biggest foreign policy issue.

Historical background

To understand the present conflict in West Papua we must understand its history. Like many of the conflicts around the world, the conflict in West Papua can trace its origins to the boundaries that were drawn up by the former colonial powers in New Guinea.

We could say the modern history of West Papua began when the island was partitioned by three Western powers, the Dutch claiming the western half in 1828, while the Germans and British divided the eastern half into German New Guinea in the north and British Papua in the south (1884). Eventually the eastern half became the independent nation of Papua New Guinea in 1975.

The Papuan people of Dutch New Guinea (also called Netherlands New Guinea or West New Guinea) were to have a different fate. The Republic of Indonesia was created in 1949 when the Indonesian people won their struggle for independence against their former colonial masters, the Dutch. West New Guinea, due to its distinct Melanesian population, was retained as a colony by the Dutch and during the 1950s, the Dutch government prepared the territory for independence.

However, President Sukarno continued to claim that West New Guinea should be part of Indonesia and when his demands were not met, armed conflict ensued in 1962.

Under pressure from the United States to come to terms with Indonesia, the Dutch agreed to secret negotiations and in August 1962, an agreement was concluded in New York between the Netherlands and Indonesia. Under this agreement, the Dutch were to leave West New Guinea and transfer sovereignty to UNTEA (the United Nations Temporary Executive Authority). After seven months the UN transferred power to Indonesia with the provision that a referendum be held to determine Papuan preference, for independence or for integration with Indonesia.

From the moment Indonesia took over the administration from UNTEA, the oppression of the West Papuan people began.

As to the so-called Act of Free Choice in 1969: a UN official, a retired undersecretary-general, who handled the takeover said: “Nobody gave a thought to the fact that there were a million people who had their fundamental human rights trampled,” and “It was just a whitewash. The mood at the United Nations was to get rid of this problem as quickly as possible.”

The UN accepted the results of this farce but the West Papuan people did not. They continue to call for a true act of self determination.

Australian involvement

As to Australia’s involvement - originally we supported the Dutch in trying to hold onto West New Guinea, as we preferred another colonial power to act as a buffer zone between Australia and any potential invader from the north. However, once the US decided to back Indonesia, Australia followed suit. In fact, Australia actively supported the Indonesian takeover.

At a request from Indonesia two West Papuan leaders, Clemens Runawery and Willem Zonggonao, were removed by Australian officials from a plane just weeks before the UN supervised vote (in Australia’s then colony of PNG). They were on their way to the UN in New York carrying testimonies from many West Papuan leaders calling for independence. Because of Australia’s involvement, they never had a chance to plead their case.

Human rights abuses

Since Indonesia took over control of West Papua as many as 100,000 people are believed to have lost their lives in the conflict. Those who have followed the actions of the Indonesian military in East Timor will not be surprised at such a high figure. A report about the activities of the Indonesian military (TNI) in East Timor (released in 2006) documents how the TNI used napalm, chemical weapons and starvation as a weapon against the East Timorese people. Some of the same military that operated in East Timor are now in West Papua.

There are ongoing human rights abuses in West Papua and the situation is deteriorating. There appears to be a systematic campaign by the military and police to intimidate any individual or organisation whom the military and police deem to be separatists. For all the talk about Indonesian being a democracy the TNI itself has not reformed. Numerous reports, including the US State Department's 2005 Human Rights report, support this. The Human Rights report states that "Security forces continued to commit unlawful killings of rebels, suspected rebels, and civilians in areas of separatist activity, where most politically motivated extrajudicial killings also occurred".

Flag raisings

The West Papuan people raise their flag as an act of celebration but also as a protest against the injustices they suffer under Indonesian rule. Except for a small period of openness when President Wahid came to power in October 1999, the Morning Star flag has been banned.

Two of the most famous West Papuan political prisoners are Filep Karma and Yusak Pakage. On December 1, 2004, they were arrested for being part of a rally where the Morning Star flag was raised. In May 2005, a court sentenced Filep Karma to 15 years in prison and Yusak Pakage to 10 years in prison on charges of treason against the state. Amnesty International considers both Filep Karma and Yusak Pakage to be prisoners of conscience who have been detained solely for the peaceful exercise of their right to freedom of expression.

Earlier this year eight West Papuans were arrested (later released) at the end of a four-day Papuan Tribal Congress meeting in Jayapura. Police made the arrests simply because the Morning Star flag was used in the opening ceremony by a group of traditional dancers from Manokwari.

The West Papuan people face great challenges: ongoing human rights abuses; the exploitation of their natural resources with little or no benefit to themselves; the danger of becoming a minority in their own land as the result of migrants arriving daily; and a possible HIV-AIDS epidemic.

We all want to have good relations with our neighbours but good relations with Jakarta should not be at the expense of the West Papuan people who are struggling for their right to self-determination. The majority of the Australian people also believe in the same right. A news poll commissioned by businessman Ian Melrose, showed that 77 per cent of Australians believe that the West Papuan people have a right to self-determination. Hopefully the new government will take the issue of West Papua seriously instead of just hoping it will disappear.

Australian governments of all persuasions have believed that a stabilised region to our north is our best defence. Kevin Rudd gave a talk in July to the Lowy Institute on the very subject called Fresh Ideas for Future Challenges: A New Approach to Australia's Arc of Instability. In discussing Australian-Indonesian relations, however, there was no mention of West Papua. Yet it is the Indonesian military that are one of the main destabilising factors in West Papua. The activities of the military, their involvement in human rights abuses and resource extraction will lead to the very instability the government is trying to avoid.

If ever an issue needed “fresh ideas” it’s West Papua. A good start for the Rudd Government would be not only to raise the abuses being committed by the TNI in West Papua with Jakarta, but to also urge the Indonesian Government to enter into a dialogue with the West Papuan leadership. This is all the West Papuans are asking for: a dialogue to try and solve the many issues of concern in the territory.

We know from history that dialogue is the beginning of the political resolution of such conflicts. To quote from Nelson Mandela, “One of our strongest weapons is dialogue”.