This
is the flag of West Papua, which in 1962 Indonesia invaded and
now occupy illegally under International law albeit with the tacit
support of the USA, Britain and Australia; Jakarta has renamed
it as "Irian Jaya".
Under International law it is the human right of every person
to seek self-determination through peaceful means. However, if
West Papuans hold a peaceful protest for independence or even
so much as have this flag, they are tried for treason by the Indonesian
invaders and can be jailed and tortured for 20 years.
Some facts about West Paupa which speaks volumes;
1) West Papuans are of Melanese decent and therefore of different
origin to the bulk of Indonesians; Indonesia therefore has no
historical claims to West Papua except that it was a former Dutch
colony like most of Indonesia.
2) Without Papuan support during WW2, which took thousands of Imperial
Japanese armed forces lives, it is probable the Japanese would
have been able to invade Australia. In any event, the toll against
the Japanese greatly degredated their military strength and saved
thousands of American, British and Australian lives. The allies
refereed to Papua as their greatest ally. The Indonesian state
as it was then of parts of Java and Sumatra and lead by Hatta
and Sukarno were axis (Japanese) allies.
3) Before Indonesia invaded West Papua, the country had achieved
independence from its former Dutch colonial masters and was functioning
as a credible, legally autonomous state.
4) The USA and its allies were aware of the massive gold, oil,
gas and copper resources in West Papua, the West papuans and the
Dutch were not. The USA's, Britain's and Australia's major corporations
such as Freeport, Rio Tinto, British Petroleum, BHP Billiton,
etc. make billions out of West Papua with a seeming exclusivity
agreement with Jakarta. Tax revenues from Irian Jaya (West Papua)
account for more than one sixth of the total tax revenues received
by the Indonesian Government.
5) Since invading West Papua, Indonesian forces have murdered
at least one sixth of the population.
6) In 1961 Sukarno blackmailed US President Kennedy into supporting
their unlawful claim to West Papua by claiming his nation would
become communist if the US did not. In 1962 Indonesia invaded
West Papua, which with only local tribesman with spears and arrows
to defend their country, the Indonesians succeeded. In 1963 the
USA forced The Dutch / Netherlands to officially recognize West
Papua as Indonesian or the Dutch would lose their post-war reconstruction
aid. The Dutch conceded only on the basis the West Papuans would
be granted a fair referendum on whether they wanted Independence
or not. Indonesia having secured International approval immediately
murdered all the former members of the West Papuan Government
and other local pro-Independence leaders they could get their
hands on. In 1969, after 8 years of International pressure, the
Indonesian military conducted what is a widely accepted sham referendum
not of the who West Papuan population, but of 1022 hand picked
Indonesian collaborators and sympathizers.
7) In 1965 / 1966 Suharto lead a US backed military coup which
deposed democratically elected Sukarno. In 1967 the US Freeport
company secured an exclusive 30 year license to mine the gold
and copper reserves of West Papua.
8) As well as generating massive tax revenues for Jakarta, the
foreign corporations which exploit West Papua's natural resources
also pay large sums of protection money to the Indonesian military,
who in turn murder West Papuans.
9) Very few foreigners outside of those working in West Papua
are allowed to this area; human rights monitors, western media,
even foreign politicians who do not have pronounced loyalties
to Jakarta (such as American Democrats) are all denied access.
Foreign workers are not allowed outside their work area or compounds.
10) Indonesia "convinced" Australian leader John Howard
to send further West Papuan asylum seekers back to Indonesia for
assessment of their claims, and to support the integrity of the
Indonesian state including West Papua. The Australian Prime Minister
turned on the very people that saved his own country from invasion
by the Japanese.
For more information on the fight to free West Papua, please
visit Free
West Papua. Please do not support anything Indonesian until
West Papuans are free as per their International legal rights.
At last there is encouraging news in that the main independence
seeking tribal leaders of West Papua have finally agreed to put
past rivalries behind them and work together to petition the international
community into demanding their legal right to succession from
Jakarta. Of course the Indonesian government and military are
not happy about this, and since this news there has been an increase
in rapes and murders, all certain to have been conducted or orchestrated
by the TNI (Indonesian military).
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