West Papua, also known as Irian Jaya, is the eastern most province of Indonesia and occupies the western half of the island of New Guinea. An almost perfect artificial line arbitrarily separates the independent nation of Papua New Guinea in the east from Indonesian occupied West Papua. Indonesia has enforced a brutal, military rule over the people of West Papua since the 1969 United Nations backed Act of Free Choice (subsequently dubbed The Act of No Choice by its critics).
The New Guinea land mass is the second largest island on earth and one of approximately 20,000-30,000 archipelagos in the South Pacific. New Guinea is a land with over 800 distinct languages and is home to ancient cultures, including the oldest cultivating society. The indigenous people of West Papua are culturally and linguistically similar to their Melanesian brothers and sisters in Papua New Guinea and culturally and linguistically distinct from their Indonesian occupiers.
Spanning West Papua’s richly bio-diverse landscape are snow capped highland mountains, vast tracts of forest many still unexplored midlands, and prosperous coastal fishing lowlands. West Papua is abundant in natural resources, including one of the world’s largest gold mines, natural gas, oil, lumber, and fish. The exploitation of which, by foreign interests, began in the 1960s and continues today with little direct benefit being reaped by the people of West Papua.
The indigenous people of this forgotten land have been struggling for freedom from their Indonesian occupiers for over fifty years. Indigenous West Papuans are being raped, tortured and slaughtered and their exceptional natural surroundings are being destroyed. The future of this land and its people is at great risk.
In their efforts to resist this suffering, West Papuan leaders have been arrested, tortured, threatened with death, and, in some instances, even murdered, since their resistance is regarded as a crime by the Indonesian state. For this reason, some leaders who were involved in peaceful campaigns for freedom in West Papua, now live in exile where they continue to be involved in activism, education around the ongoing suffering of the people of West Papua, and encouraging the international community to participate in liberating the people of West Papua.
Life is difficult for the people of West Papua yet all they ask for is the freedom to speak one’s mind, live without fear, and the opportunity to legitimately choose their own government.