In 1788, indigenous people in Australia faced the first wave of European migration. Believing the entire continent was “terra nullius”, an empty land free to be colonised by those who claimed and held it, free settlers with the help of convict labour were quick to establish the new colony. By and large, resistance from indigenous people was dealt with harshly. Either deliberately, through massacres, land theft backed up by superior violence, poisoning, and incarceration; or unintentionally through disease, alcoholism, neglect, and institutional racism; resistance was swept away and the indigenous population decimated. The 500 plus indigenous nations that existed in 1788 now number around a 100. Of those, many have lost much of their language, culture, and identity. Two hundred and sixteen years later many people I know – indigenous and non-indigenous alike – feel passionately that had they been alive then, knowing what they know now, they would have done all they could to stop the violence.

A 2004 report by researchers at Yale University found that acts by the Indonesian government, “taken as a whole, appear to constitute the imposition of conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the West Papuans.” The rate of that process is taking place at an alarming pace. In Australia, British invaders were armed with muskets and bayonets. In West Papua, the denial of self-determination, the subjugation of an entire people, and the exploitation of their land, is enforced by helicopter gun ships and fuelled by the insatiable appetite of global markets. Indonesian settlers are rapidly displacing the indigenous population in the relentless search for land and resources. West Papua is Indonesia’s frontier and it is being opened up and held through violence, in the same way that the American and Australian frontiers were hundreds of years ago. It is what independent film maker and long-term West Papua watcher Mark Davis calls “a secret story”. A story that Indonesia and her political and corporate allies have being trying to suppress from the rest of the world. It is an occupation in which the Australian government and Australian corporations are deeply implicated.

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I am in a village deep in the highlands where the tropical jungle rises up to meet the clouds; a hidden place, several days hard walk for a white man from the nearest town. A river, deep and fast flows through the village. Beside the river at the edge of a clearing is a church, neatly painted with red trimming. In front is a garden of flowers penned in by a fence built of rock and roughly hewn wood. It is a picture that would not be out of place somewhere in Europe, except that everywhere there are pigs, and men clutching bows and arrows wearing nothing put penis gourds, and women singing who look up shyly from sweet potato gardens dug into impossibly steep slopes. One of the men comes up to me. He reaches out, softly shakes my hands and greets me with the ubiquitous “wa wa wa wa …” of the Dani, the oldest continually cultivating society on the planet.

That night, under the cover of darkness a meeting is called by the elders. It is cold and we huddle around a fire in a traditional meeting house to keep warm. My friend, an activist with DEMMAK – a loose network of highland tribes whose English translation is the highland penis gourd alliance – and I have managed to give the military the slip. Officially we are deep in forbidden territory in the heart of a jungle war zone. But for now I am transported to another world. Inevitably, as what happens everywhere in West Papua, when West Papuans know Indonesians are not watching or listening, the conversation turns to merdeka – freedom.

West Papua is a Melanesian nation in waiting, currently occupied by Indonesia, who gained sovereignty of the former Dutch colony after a widely condemned and fraudulent referendum known as the 1969 Act of Free Choice. West Papuans, bristling with righteous indignation, call it the Act of No Choice. It is not hard to understand why. The Indonesian government advised and assisted by the United Nations, who participated and sanctioned the process, press-ganged 1,022 tribal elders, less than 1% of the population, to vote on the question of independence or integration. In reality there was no vote. An Indonesian general spoke. This was followed by a few rehearsed speeches welcoming Indonesia. Finally every single participant raised his hands in support, before the whole sorry stage-managed circus moved on to the next venue.

The terms of the Act of Free Choice were set down in the 1962 New York Agreement which stipulated that all parties, the Dutch, Indonesia and the United Nations, had to fully guarantee the rights, including the rights of free speech, freedom of movement and assembly of the Papuans. In addition, the New York Agreement specified that all adult Papuans had the right to participate in act of self-determination in accordance with international practice. Tragically the international communities actively choose to stand aside as the West Papuan’s fundamental democratic and human rights were violated. This still appears to be of little concern to international elites. One British diplomat at the time explained the betrayal of the international community with the words: “I cannot imagine the U.S, Japanese, Dutch, or Australian governments, putting at risk their economic and political relations with Indonesia over a matter of principle involving a relatively small number of very primitive people.” The United Nations undersecretary at the time, C.V. Narasimhan, whose key responsibility was to oversee the implementation of the New York Agreement, recently said that the Act of Free Choice “was just a whitewash. The mood at the UN was to get rid of this problem as quickly as possible….nobody gave a thought to the fact that a million people had their fundamental rights trampled.”

Every single West Papuan I have ever met over several trips into the country, in both remote villages and in the cities and towns, feels that the international community simply abandoned West Papua. The colonial apparatus remained. White colonists walked away and brown colonists walked in.

In remote villages in West Papua people re-tell the history and ask how many pigs they have to kill before the UN comes back. Back in the highland village, an elder hops up to speak. “I am old” he says, “but I want my children to know freedom”. He tells how in 1978 and 1979 his peers were rounded up by the Indonesian military, herded into helicopters and dropped into the Baliem River. “The river flowed red with the blood of my people” he says. The exercise was called Operasi Koteka. Koteka in Bahasa Indonesia means tail. Its racist connotation is that those who wear it are barely an evolutionary step from monkeys. One of the purposes of Operasi Koteka was to advance the Dani on the road to civilization by persuading them to give up wearing the penis gourd and to don western clothes. Visibly pained, the old man continues speaking: “the same thing is still happening now. All around us sadistic killings are taking place. Are we animals or are we human beings?” The old man sits down. He is wearing a penis gourd.

Jakarta’s determination to continue to hold West Papua (formerly called Irian Jaya) is propped up in Australian diplomatic circles by what has been increasingly known as the “Jakarta lobby”. Characterised by pragmatic policy goals driven by a desire to advance Australia’s national interest in Indonesia, the Australian government – both Labour and Liberal – continually uphold the mantra of Indonesia’s territorial integrity. The problem for Jakarta is that what is understood as the “national interest” continually shifts.

For 24 years the Australian government supported Indonesia’s oppressive rule in East Timor, even giving de jure recognition of Indonesian sovereignty in the face of over ten United Nations sanctions calling for Indonesia’s withdrawal. Former Foreign Minister, and Indonesian apologist, Gareth Evans said that Indonesia’s occupation of East Timor was “irreversible”. Yet by 1999, as tens of thousands ordinary Australians poured onto the streets in an overwhelming show of solidarity for the East Timorese, Australia lead an international peacekeeping force in East Timor. Australian forces then went on to direct post-conflict peace building following the Indonesian military’s led devastation of East Timor.

Still smarting from Australian lead foreign intervention in East Timor, many Indonesian military officers, political elites, and intellectuals, don’t trust the Australian government’s intentions towards West Papua and fear the rise of popular support taking root. Many Indonesians seriously believe that the Australian government’s number one foreign policy goal in relation to Indonesia is to support independence in West Papua: after all the Australian government changed its policy over East Timor, why not West Papua? Certainly during the 1950s, the Robert Menzies government leaned towards supporting self-rule in West Papua. In 1957 they signed a joint treaty with the Dutch pledging economic and political cooperation on both halves of the island, with the view to eventual unification. By 1969, however, the Australian government had undertaken a 180 degree policy back flip. Championing West Papua’s integration with Indonesia, Australian authorities in Papua New Guinea were cracking down on West Papuan dissidents and refugees.

According to government documents now released, during the 1960s the Australian government assisted Indonesian military operations with information, training and technology to wipeout the pro-independence movement in West Papua. Reports of gross human rights violations were repressed by the Australians and Patrol Officers in Papua New Guinea were ordered to send refugees back, at gunpoint if necessary. In 1968, Gordon Jokel, Australia’s ambassador to Indonesia at the time, and John Gorton, the Prime Minister, even went as far as carrying out a request from Adam Malik, Indonesia’s foreign minister, to arrest and jail West Papuan pro-independence democrats, Wim Zongganau and Clemens Runawery. Running from the Indonesian military, the pair fled into Papua New Guinea. From PNG they organised to make their way to the United Nations to alert the world to the travesty of justice that was taking place. As they climbed aboard the plane ready to leave Manus Island for New York, an Australian government car pulled up and an “authoritarian type” ordered the two men down. ASIO interviewed them, then “they put us in jail” said Mr. Zonggonau.

Those West Papuans that did participate in the Act of Free Choice were “indoctrinated by military officers and told that if they didn’t vote for Indonesia they would have their tongues cut out” said Mr. Zongganau, who now lives in exile in Papua New Guinea. Following the Act of Free Choice, the Australian government continued to work hard to kill West Papuan’s dreams of freedom. In the lead up to the United Nations General Assembly meeting to discuss the results of the Act of Free Choice, Australian officials lobbied hard to silence several countries, such as Malta and several West African Nations, that raised concerns about the conduct of the vote.

Today, Australia’s Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, goes to great length to “reaffirm to the Indonesians [Australia’s] commitment to Indonesia’s territorial integrity.” At a recent ministerial meeting with Indonesian officials, Downer “made the point that we strongly support Irian Jaya remaining part of Indonesia, we don’t give any comfort to those who seek independence of Irian Jaya”.

Indonesian leader, Megawati Sukarnoputri, has tackled resistance in West Papua through brutal repression, covert military operations and the division of Papua into three provinces, a move that has generated intense anger amongst Papuans. This presidential instruction to divide Papua directly contradicts Jakarta’s prior Special Autonomy policy in the restive province. The cornerstone of Special Autonomy is an Indigenous Upper House known as the Majelis Rakyat Papua, mandated, amongst other things, to approve or reject any moves to divide Papua. The division of Papua, however, has proceeded without the MRP being established. Human Rights activists in the territory’s leading human rights NGO, the Institute for the Study and Advocacy of Human Rights in West Papua, believe Megawati’s move is a blatant attempt to “divide and rule”. The Australian government wholeheartedly supported Special Autonomy because it allowed them to sidestep the issue of independence, but have been largely silent over the division of West Papua.

But the Australian government is actively involved in West Papua, not on behalf of the aspirations of the people of West Papua, but to advance the concerns of Australian corporations. During the last few years the Australian ambassador in Jakarta met regularly with several Indonesian ministers and public servants on behalf of BHP Billiton to assist the company to open a nickel mine on Gag Island in West Papua. A key purpose of the meeting was to lobby Indonesian officials to overturn progressive environmental legislation protecting Gag Island and its fragile environment from open pit mining. BHP Billiton has so far failed to consult neighbouring island communities who will be effected by the mine, refused to rule out contracting the Indonesian military to provide security, and in apparent disregard of the areas world heritage values, is proposing to dump toxic tailings into the ocean. In other words, the Australian government will obstruct and deny the West Papuan people’s legitimate right for self-determination on the one hand, but actively support corporations to maximise profit at the expense of the environment and local West Papuan communities on the other. West Papuans are well aware of the irony: self-determination for big business, and the obstruction of self-determination for indigenous communities living under the gun.

But largest and most destructive mining operation in West Papua is a gargantuan gold and copper mine near the troubled town of Timika. The Freeport mine is owned by U.S Company, Freeport McMoRan. Its largest partner is Anglo Australian giant, Rio Tinto, a company that is trying to paint itself as the leader in world’s best mining practice. Local West Papuan leader Chief Tuarek Narkime has confronted Freeport/Rio Tinto over its environmental and human rights record. Addressing the company in December 1994, he cursed the land’s mineral wealth and the suffering it had brought: “Gentlemen I am angry with God. Why has He created such beautiful mountains, valleys and rivers, rich with minerals and placed us – the indigenous peoples – here in this place that attracts so people from around the world to come, exploit our resources and kill us?”

The Indonesian military that protects the mine, and Freeport Rio Tinto’s private security personnel, have killed over 220 people in and around the mining concession site. No-one has been held to account and last year the company was forced by shareholder activists in New York to disclose that for the last two years it has paid the Indonesian military contributions of up to U.S $9 million. Indonesian president Megawati Sukarnoputri’s former Defence Minister, Juwono Sudarsono, recently conceded that the military incited unrest at Freeport and that the payments were much higher than those recently admitted by the company. Indonesia’s National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) have concluded that human rights violations “are directly connected to the TNI [Indonesian military]…acting as protection for the mining business of Freeport.”

To extract the gold and copper, the company is literally moving an entire mountain. This mountain is the indigenous Amungme’s people’s ancestral grandmother and the rivers are her milk. Freeport has cut off her head and is now digging out her stomach. Her remains are strewn over the landscape. Rock waste fills two highland valleys and toxic tailings are dumped into the Aghawagon, Otomona and Ajikwa rivers at the staggering rate of more than 200,000 tonnes per day. In the process, over 100,000 square kilometers of rainforest have been wiped out.

The 100% owned Australian company, International Purveying Incorporated, based in Cairns, consolidates and supplies the mine with most of its needs. Every ten days everything from four wheel drives, massive mining grinding balls, fruit and vegetables, and beef from Queensland and Northern Territory cattle stations is shipped into the mine on IPI’s boat, the Java Sea. The goods are transported to Amapare, the port that supplies the mine, then carted to first world supermarkets carved out of the jungle in the clean white satellite town of Kuana Kencana, home to the large ex-pat population. Cairns benefits from a conservatively estimated A$50-70 million dollar injection from the mine, but the company refuses to buy sweet potatoes and vegetables from indigenous women living in poverty in towns like Timika and smaller villages around the mine.

Faced with this grim reality, many Australians would be horrified to realise that they are personally funding repressive mining in West Papua. Australian companies raking in massive profits, extracting resource wealth in West Papua, represent about 8.5% of the top 200 companies listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. That means if you have your superannuation invested in a non-ethical super fund, you may have a stake in exploitation in West Papua.

Australian vested economic interests in Indonesia and West Papua are protected by the Indonesian military. The Indonesian military in turn is trained by the Australian Defence Forces, and armed by Australian corporations like Australian Defence Industries. Australian union labour from the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union staffs ADI and the Maritime Union of Australia ships the weapons and loads the boats to Freeport. Australian government agencies like the Export Finance Insurance Corporation help finance the operation, underwriting Australian big business in Indonesia and, if needed, loaning the Indonesian military money for weapons, as they did in 1998. Economic exploitation and human rights violations in Indonesia operate hand in glove. Australian government support of the Indonesian military continues despite the Indonesian military’s notorious human rights record, including the abduction and murder of West Papuan independence leader Theys Eluay and ongoing military operations in Acheh and West Papua.

In the meantime, the situation in West Papua continues to decline. Timbul Silaen, a man accused of gross human rights violations when he was Police Chief in East Timor, has been appointed Police Chief of West Papua. In another worrying development, notorious East Timor Aitarak Militia leader Eurico Gutteres, has moved to West Papua and is establishing a militia group, Front Pembela Merah Putih – The Red and White Defenders Front. Gutteres was sentenced for his role in militia attacks that slaughtered hundreds of East Timorese pro-independence supporters during East Timor’s independence ballot in 1999. Gutteres is still free, pending an appeal but given the high level political support he enjoys in Indonesia, it is unlikely that he will ever go to jail. The military also has close links to members of the supposedly disbanded Muslim militia group, Laskar Jihad whose training in Sorong, West Papua, has been well documented. The Indonesian military has also established another militia group, Barisan Merah Putih (The Red and White Front) in Wamena. When I was there recently, Indonesian men in civilian clothes routinely patrolled the streets with automatic weapons, human rights activists were regularly intimidated, and local people were too afraid to leave their homes at night. In April 2003 the Indonesian military launched a military operation in the highlands in retribution for an attack on an arms depot in Wamena. Hundreds of villages, schools, health clinics, and churches were burnt to the ground, gardens destroyed, women raped, and countless men, women and children terrorised. Just before he was murdered by Kopassus while he slept in his bed, then had his dead body displayed to the public like a hunting trophy, local leader Yustinus Murip from Yalengga village in the highlands was seen on SBS Dateline program, pleading for the United Nations to return to mediate peaceful dialogue between Indonesia and West Papua to resolve the conflict. The Australian government and Australian corporations are much more deeply involved in the denial of human rights, exploitation and violence in West Papua than many people realise. The Australian government’s short term political goals may change, but the underlying strategy, to advance the economic interests of corporate and political elites, and if necessary protect those interests with military force, remains.

The Indonesian military is hell bent on wiping out resistance in West Papua. In the face of overwhelming odds the West Papuan people are determined to be free. But it is a determination tempered by the grim recognition that theirs is also a struggle for survival and the most fundamental right of all – the right to life.

However, because Indonesia is critically dependent on the diplomatic, corporate and military support of key allies like Australia, well-organised and strategically applied solidarity campaigns can make a real difference. To be effective, these campaigns need to be designed to induce and compel key constituencies – the ones Australian elites depend on to withdraw their support for the occupation. Because of the way West Papua is a nexus of human rights, indigenous, environmental, democratic, and corporate concerns, solidarity will also benefit other interlinked struggles. Freedom in West Papua will take time. There will be a cost. Without a doubt it is immensely difficult and will require us to draw on deep reserves of persistence and determination. But freedom can be won.

Alex Rayfield is a researcher and activist with the Australian West Papua Association. Email him on [email protected].

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