User:Teliusyikwa

The Free Papua Movement Lives

West Papua - or Irian Jaya, as it has been Renamed by the Indonesian government - is Indonesia's 26th province, occupy - ing the western half of the island of New Guinea. For the people of West Papua, however, Indonesia is an occupying power. Since the area is so little known, most non-Papuans are unaware that West Papuans have been Struggling for independ - Science there ever since the mid-1960s, led by the Organization Papua Merdeka (OPM - Free Papua Movement). 1

The OPM's basis for its claim to complete sovereignty for West Papua "is out inalienable birth right which is firmly and justly enshrined in the desires of the indigenous Melanesian people of the territory, as outlined in the New Guinea Council resolution of 31 October 1961, "stated OPM's Henk Joku, at The first regional meeting of the World Council of Indigenous Peoples (WCIP), Pacific Region, in June 1984, "... In con - formation with [the] preamble and Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations of December 14, 1960. "2

Historical Background

The people of West Papua are Melanesians. They are of the same ethnic origin as the Papuans who inhabit the eastern end of the Vast island and the indigenous peoples of the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and parts of Fiji. They have many different languages - in West Papua alone there are at least 750 languages. The one thing they all have in common is their Melanesian way of life and culture. Of the five million people living on the whole island, one-half live on the West Papuan side. 3

The island of New Guinea is the second largest island in the world after Greenland. It lies between the equator and 12 ° south latitude between the Philippines and Australia. The island is troplical, includes some of the largest tracts of unexplored land area left on Earth, and has a wide range of different physical conditions, ranging from the hot, swampy lowlands to snow-covered mountains. West Papua itself is a land of high mountain ranges, mangrove swamps, and jungles. It is Domi - nated by a great cordillera, running from east to west, comprised of the massive Carstensz mountain range. One of the most extensively and intensively cultivated regions is the Paniai re - Gion, generally referred to as the Central Highlands. This, together with the Baliem Valley to the east, is the most densely populated region. 4

In the days before foreign penetration, Papuans lived in widely scattered Hamlets, having little contact with the outside world.

The tribes in West Papua were in fact small tribal sovereign states within which the group, which was an economic, political and military entity, was kept up by the mutual link springing from the fact of having common ancestors. Anyone who did not by virtue of this mutual link belong to the group. . . was a Foreigner who, if   he entered the territory of the tribal state without acceptable reasons