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).