Papua: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions

Papua: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions



Papua (successively known as West New Guinea, West Irian, West Papua, Irian Jaya, and Papua): Sukarno’s failure to gain control of Dutch-controlled western half of island of New Guinea at independence made its recovery top domestic and foreign policy priority. Indonesian troops sent there 1961, and, with help of Kennedy administration in U.S., Dutch were pressured to turn territory over to UN 1963. U.N. administered vote on self-determination, called Act of Free Choice, conducted 1969 among just over 1,000 representatives hand-picked by Indonesia under flagrant intimidation by security forces. Vote was unanimously in support of integration with Indonesia. Small, poorly armed guerrilla group, called Free Papua Movement or OPM, has been fighting for independence ever since, but much larger part of population supports non-violent efforts to get same result. Special autonomy package for Papua, passed by Indonesian parliament 2001, was undercut by decision of Megawati government January 2003 to divide Papua into three provinces – Papua, Central Irian Jaya, and West Irian Jaya -- as way of weakening support for independence. Slow implementation of the Special Autonomy plan led to some tensions in 2004 and 2005, and was accompanied by an increasing military presence.