Thursday 12/10/2000
Sydney Morning Herald

Editorial
Killings in Papua

The deaths of at least 30 people in West Irian last week point to the lack of progress in Jakarta's efforts to come to terms with Papuan nationalism. The immediate cause of latest deaths, like others in August, were clashes officially related to Papuans' defiance of the Indonesian edict forbidding the flying of the Morning Star flag of Papuan nationalism. But the violence has to do with much more than illegal flag flying. The latest incident was in Wamena, an isolated town deep inland about 290 kilometres south-west of the provincial capital Jayapura - and more than 3,500 kilometres from Jakarta. The early casualty list suggests the nature of the conflict - six indigenous Papuans and 24
migrant settlers killed; 45 others, including four police officers, wounded. Wamena is far from any of Irian Jaya's main mining operations. Last week's incident there follows a similar one more than six weeks ago in the oil town of Sorong, on the coast in the far west, on the very beak, as it were, of the bird-shaped island of the whole of geographical Papua New Guinea.

The rise of Papuan nationalism is caused not so much by a sudden spontaneous desire for unity by the many disparate tribal groups within Irian Jaya, but by external forces driving these groups together. These external forces are not trouble makers bent on undermining Indonesian authority in West Irian. They are the result of policies made in Jakarta, in particular the transmigration policy. Under this, Indonesians from Java and Bali are resettled in less crowded regions. From Jakarta's viewpoint, this makes sense. West Irian is three times the size of Java but has only about 2.5 million people. As a result of transmigration, however, perhaps only 55 per cent of Papua's population now are indigenous Melanesians. The rest are new arrivals, including many migrants from trading communities in South Sulawesi.

The question for Jakarta is how to deal with the rise in Papuan nationalism. To ignore it while pursuing other policies - such as transmigration - which fan Papuan nationalism does not make sense. To attempt to suppress it by force does not make sense, either, for much the same reason, that force will be met by ever greater resistance.

There seems no doubt that if a referendum were held in West Irian, like the one held in East Timor last year - that is, excluding new arrivals - there would be an overwhelming vote for independence. Of course, no such referendum will be offered by Jakarta. Instead, President Wahid is seeking to reduce the intensity of the pro-independence movement by a combination of accommodation and firmness. As a token of this, Jakarta has attempted to defuse the flag issue by allowing the Morning Star to be flown as long as it is alongside the Indonesian red and white, and on a shorter flagpole. It has also allowed the province to be called Papua.

More dramatically, in May and June, Jakarta allowed a pro-independence Congress of the Papuan People to be held in Jayapura. It was a free and open gathering. The congress passed a resolution declaring that Papua had been independent since it was declared a West Papuan state in 1961. It demanded Jakarta recognise its independence. It also declared that the "act of free choice" conducted in 1969, which led to Papua's becoming part of Indonesia, was unrepresentative. Jakarta, naturally, has ignored these demands.

The independence movement in Papua has, however, not been entirely futile. It has added to the pressure on Jakarta to define a new federalism that will accommodate its, and other similar, demands, such as those in Aceh and Maluku. Jakarta rejects independence but talks of autonomy. It promises laws that from January will divert up to 80 per cent of the revenue from mines and oil fields to regional governments. In Papua's case this would mean tax revenues from the huge Freeport copper and gold mine, oil fields and a huge, offshore gas deposit. From Jakarta's point of view, such an arrangement should more than satisfy all demands for autonomy. But as the recent events in Papua have shown, it will take more than vague promises to quell the anger of local Papuans who feel that their very existence is threatened by outsiders.
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