West Papua

The Western half of the Island of New Guinea is comprised of two Indonesian Provinces formerly referred to as Irian Jaya but now officially called Papua and West Papua respectively. Indonesian Papua is home to about 2 million people, just over half of whom are Indigenous Melanesians. The rest originate primarily from other islands in the Indonesian archipelago and have come seeking opportunities in the "wild east" of Indonesia either independently or through government sponsored transmigration schemes.

To speak about this global treasure in anything less than superlatives is difficult if not impossible. From lowland jungles to tropical glaciers Papua is a land of stunning natural beauty and rich, complex cultures. It is also one of the most biologically diverse regions on earth and home to some of the last great intact rainforests.

At the same time the complex and politically charged nature makes it very difficult to speak about West Papua in neutral terms. The evolution from its status as the former colony of Netherlands New Guinea to its current place in the Indonesian state is a long and complex one. The arrow straight north-south line that separates West Papua from neighbouring Papua New Guinea is a colonial era legacy. An arbitrary line that demarcated the Dutch held portion of the island from that claimed by Great Britain and Germany.

The line was drawn long before the outside world had any notion that the interior highlands were home to some of the world’s oldest agrarian societies. The boundary ignored existing natural and cultural boundaries just as the colonial regimes ignored the needs of IPapuans.

Regardless of what side one comes down on the political status of West Papua it is hard not to acknowledge the injustice wrought by years top-down development models that have ignored the needs of the poeple of the province. Indigenous Papuans remain among the most impoverished people in Indonesia despite the great wealth derived from resource extraction. Papuan forests fall to outside logging companies and are subsequently converted to palm oil plantations while industrial developments such as Freeport-McMoRan's massive Grasberg Mine, one of the world's largest gold mines and third largest copper mine, has a long history of paying the Indonesian military to guard its facilities, resulting in many reports of gross human rights abuses.

Like in Aceh on the other end of the Indonesian archipelago, prior to the peace accord that came in the wake of the devastating 2004 tsunami, authorities in Cental Indonesia, fearing the threat of separatist movements, have deployed large numbers of military personnel to Papua in an effort to protect national unity. Unlike Aceh, Papua has yet to benefit from a real peace accord that will allow the Papuan people to take their rightful place as full citizens. Laws such as Regulation 77/2007 have banned the display of cultural symbols such as the Bintang Kejorah or Papuan Morning Star Flag. In early January 2009 eleven men in Manokwari were sentenced to prison terms of three and three and a half years for displaying the flag while participating in peaceful demonstrations in March 2008.

In January 2008, the Manokwari area was rocked by a series of powerful earthquakes and aftershocks that devastated the infrastructure in and around the town of Kota Manokwari.