West Papua: The Tragedy Continues

Markus Haluk, executive secretary of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua ULMWP.

Compared to the current conflict between Hamas and Israel in Gaza and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the plight of the West Papuans does not seem as grave as that of the Palestinians and Ukrainians.

But in reality, the crimes committed by the Indonesian state against the Papuans since 1963 are far worse. Over the past six decades, Jakarta has launched some twenty military operations resulting in the deaths of approximately 500,000 Papuans. Currently, there are approximately 75,000 internal refugees in West Papua and 50,000 refugees abroad.

Slowly but surely, the Indonesian government is eliminating us from our own ancestral land through the following seven policies:

1. Land expropriation, security for national strategic projects, construction of roads and defense infrastructure for the Indonesian military, torture and extrajudicial executions of civilians by security forces with complete impunity.

2. Criminalization and terror against Papuan political, religious, and traditional figures, human rights activists, and independent journalists. In West Papua, racism is institutionalized and the fundamental rights of indigenous peoples are violated. Freedom of expression is virtually nonexistent.

3. Complete Indonesian control over the regional government. Papuan officials are supervised by the Indonesian military, police, and intelligence services. The autonomy granted by former President Abdurrahman Wahid in 2001 was revised by the new Special Autonomy Law OTSUS-2. The "divide and rule" policy was implemented through new autonomous regions unilaterally created by Jakarta.

4. Demographic marginalization: The number of Indonesian residents from outside Papua continues to increase. The Papuan People's Assembly and the Regional Representative Council are increasingly dominated by non-Papuans.

5. Censorship and Disinformation: Almost all audio visual, print, and digital press are controlled by the Indonesian government. Coverage of Papua in mainstream Indonesian media is a one-sided version of Jakarta.

6. Systematic Impoverishment of Papuans: Indonesian and foreign investors and entrepreneurs are provided with a certain level of convenience, while bank loans to Papuan entrepreneurs are made difficult. The traditional economy is being replaced by a market economy. Customary land rights are ignored. Poor health practices are common, from forced birth control to criminal abortion. The AIDS rate in Papua is the highest in Indonesia, as are maternal and infant mortality rates, stunting, and malaria epidemics. Many premature deaths are due to food poisoning and expired medications. Drug and alcohol abuse are widespread among young Papuans. In the field of education, there are restrictions and arbitrary cancellations of scholarships for Papuan students abroad. Education is far from adequate: according to 2023 data, 693,000 children across West Papua are not in school!

7. Uncontrolled exploitation of natural resources: Massive deforestation, from 34 million hectares to only 15 million hectares remaining. West Papua's ecosystem has been destroyed by the agribusiness and mining industries, such as the Merauke National Strategic Project, which has consumed 2 million hectares of forest, the Freeport company, which manages the world's largest mine in Grasberg, the Wabu Block mining plan, Raja Ampat Regency Nickel, and many others.

West Papua is the only conflict zone in Indonesia that has not received serious international attention. Not as much as East Timor (1975-1999), which gained independence in 2002 thanks to UN intervention, or Aceh (1950-2005), which signed a peace resolution with the Indonesian government in 2005 thanks to Finnish mediation.

Faced with the murderous actions of the Indonesian government, we Papuans continue to ask ourselves: "How long will the international community ignore us?"

How shameful this indifference is, because we Papuans are facing grave threats of genocide, ethnocide, and ecocide. Within thirty years, we, two million West Papuans, risk perishing under Indonesian rule!

Markus Haluk