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| Giacomo Tognini |
One more long-running movement hopes to
join their ranks: the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP), which
seeks independence for the Indonesian-controlled western half of the island.
Unlike their neighbors in French New Caledonia and the Papuan island of
Bougainville, there is little prospect of a free vote for West Papuans.
In an unprecedented effort organized by
ULMWP leader Benny Wenda, activists in
West Papua and among the diaspora worked to collect 1.8 million signatures
throughout West Papua’s two provinces for an independence petition to be
presented to the United Nations last September. Despite receiving the backing
of over 70% of West Papua’s population, the effort to gain a seat at the UN
Decolonization Committee failed — it won the support of only eight countries,
all of them small Caribbean and Pacific island states.
“I think the Indonesian government will
increase its efforts to block the ULMWP,” says Jakarta-based Human Rights Watch
researcher Andreas Harsono. “This could range from increasing bilateral
cooperation with Melanesian states to threatening to boycott some businesses
over their support for West Papua.”
Indonesia’s Papuan provinces were
incorporated into the country in 1969, when Indonesian authorities held a
widely disputed referendum that ended seven years of UN administration
following the departure of the Dutch colonial regime. An on-and-off conflict
with local separatists of various stripes has endured since then, with the
Indonesian military accused of atrocities amounting to genocide against the
Papuan population.
Political Prisoners
The Indonesian authorities aggressively prosecute any actions deemed supportive of independence, including jailing activists for raising West Papua’s “Morning Star” flag. The election of Joko Widodo, commonly known as Jokowi, to the Indonesian presidency in 2014 raised hopes of a thaw in the conflict. He promised to lift restrictions that forbade journalists from visiting the region on the campaign trail, but those hopes have largely been dashed.
While he did lift the bans, it is still
difficult for reporters to access West Papua. Jakarta released several
high-profile prisoners that had been in jail for years, but authorities still
imprisoned up to 8,000 Papuans in mass temporary arrests over the last two
years. Political prisoners like 27-year-old Yanto Awerkion, who was arrested
last May in the coastal city of Timika while collecting signatures for the
ULMWP petition, remain in jail with uncertain prospects for release.
“Jokowi would probably like to see these
political prisoners released, but there have been more mass arrests,” says Dr.
Jim Elmslie, co-founder of the West Papua Project at the University of Sydney’s
Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies. Harsono agrees, pointing out that the
number of annual arrests has risen well into the thousands under the Jokowi administration.
War
& Peace
Activists fighting for independence in West Papua have operated under a variety of different armed and peaceful groups since 1969. While going through several periods of internal division, most have long operated under the umbrella of the Free Papua Movement, also known by its Indonesian acronym, OPM.
"Activists fighting for independence in
West Papua have operated under a variety of different armed and peaceful groups
since 1969"
The OPM’s armed wing, known as the
TPN-PB, has long engaged in a low-level insurgency against the Indonesian
military and police. Another target of its attacks has been the Phoenix-based
mining company Freeport-McMoRan, which operates the enormous Grasberg gold and
copper mine in the region’s western mountains. Indigenous Papuans living in
nearby towns have long protested that they see receive little of the lucrative
wealth produced, which instead finds its way to Freeport or officials in
Jakarta.
The armed conflict escalated towards the
end of 2017, when deadly clashes in November were followed by the Indonesian
military accusing the TPN-PB of occupying several villages near Grasberg one
month later. After the death of a leading TPN-PB commander in September, the
group released a formal “declaration of war” against Indonesia in February this
year.
“The TPN-PB stole two powerful guns from
the Indonesian military near the mine in 2016,” says Elmslie. “That’s when the
attacks started increasing, and after they declared war they blocked the road
leading to the mine in Tembagapura.”
Melanesian
Support
The leaders behind the petition campaign
brought together several disparate groups after the 2011 Papuan People’s
Congress, going on to form the ULMWP three years later and enabling them to
form a united front for the independence effort.
Its biggest platform for international
support has been the Melanesian Spearhead Group, a regional forum for
Melanesian countries. Citing the increased profile that MSG membership gave the
FLNKS, a pro-independence party in New Caledonia, the ULMWP was granted
observer status at the MSG summit in 2015 — but so was Indonesia, which became
an associate member.
After presenting the independence
petition to the UN, ULMWP leader Wenda renewed his efforts to gain full
membership at the MSG summit in Port Moresby last February. Wenda gave a speech
to leaders at the event, highlighting the movement’s progress on reforms
demanded by the MSG before granting full membership. But with the Indonesian
government placing its diplomatic weight behind regional allies like Fiji, the
membership application was shelved for the foreseeable future.
“The West Papuan people continue to
suffer brutality at the hands of oppressors every day,” said Wenda in a
statement released before his speech. “We call on Melanesian leaders to
acknowledge our political aspirations, to hear this cry for freedom.” (*)
Giacomo Tognini
www.atimes.com
