The Struggle for Self-Determination in West Papua (1969–present)

The Struggle for Self-Determination in West Papua (1969–present)

Jason MacLeod traces the West Papuan struggle for self-determination back to the 1969 “Act of Free Choice”, which he describes as a sham referendum in which Indonesian authorities hand-picked just over a thousand participants and forced their consent through intimidation and violence. He identifies five grievances that reinforce each other: the disputed history of sovereignty, human rights abuses by the state, economic exploitation, migration from other parts of Indonesia that drives competition over land, and institutional racism.

MacLeod draws on the research of John Saltford and a study commissioned by the Dutch government, the leaked footage from 2010 showing soldiers torturing Papuans, estimates that more than 100,000 Papuans have died since 1963 and the military’s business interests in the territory. He describes how, after Suharto fell in 1998, resistance shifted from scattered armed groups to a mass nonviolent civilian movement, from the Team 100 meeting with President Habibie and the raising of the Morning Star flag to the protests against the 2001 Special Autonomy law and the 2010 occupation of the provincial parliament by some 25,000 people.

He concludes that the core grievances remain unresolved, so mobilisation will continue. Any dialogue must include many Papuan voices, because the movement is decentralised, and resistance has to target the sources of Indonesian state power, including the security forces, international isolation and divide-and-rule politics.

Full article

Read the full article on the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict

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