After the second world war, the Dutch government (at that time the colonial ruler of Dutch New Guinea) promised the Papuans an an independent state, installed a Papuan parliament and recognised the national Papuan flag and the Papuan national anthem. But the Papuans were betrayed by the world which at the time of the cold war, put the fight against communism before the right to self-determination of the Papuans. The referendum that was held under Indonesian control, was rigged by any legal standard imaginable.

After the fall of president Suharto in 1998, there appeared to be increasing room for the development aspirations of the people of West Papua. Under president Abdurrachman Wahid a dialogue developed which opened prospects for a peaceful solution. Under president Megawati Soekarnoputri that dialogue stopped short again, despite ardent efforts from the side of the Papuans to keep the dialogue going and to halt violence.

Initially, the international community supported the Papuan call for a dialogue, but under pressure of the Americans who want to make everything subordinated to the "war on terrorism", the international community seems to be less willing to insist on a dialogue between the regime in Jakarta and the people of West Papua. Is the world betraying the Papuans again? Will the struggle for human rights and self determination be overwhelmed by our fear for terrorism?

The massive People's Congress held in June 2000 in West Papua, marks a turning point in the Papuan resistance against the Indonesian administration. Since the Indonesian take over in 1963, the resistance consisted mainly of armed resistance groups attacking Indonesian army units with primitive weapons. For decades, underground armed resistance was the only opposition possible, as the regime of president Suharto reacted violently to any form of autonomous organisation. But after the fall of Suharto in May 1998, a democratisation movement came up throughout Indonesia. The Papuans used the newly found freedoms for organising a People's Congress which was attended by some 10,000 people. The Congress accepted a new political structure, the Dewan Papua, in which the executive tasks are with the Papua Presidium Council (PDP = Presidium Dewan Papua) and the legislative tasks with the Papua Panel, which consists of representatives from ten civic pillars (sectors) including women, students, traditional leaders and ex-political prisoners.

The Congress established four commissions that will advise the PDP on the rectification of history, the political agenda, the consolidation of Papua organisations, and on indigenous rights. The PDP was mandated to work with peaceful means for the restoration of Papuan sovereignty. The ongoing terror and human rights violations, which have claimed about 10,000 deaths in the past 40 years (according to Amnesty International), were an important motivation to opt for a peaceful path.

Strengthening of level of organisation
Through the new organisational structure a series of meetings and conferences have been organised for discussion of the problems and strategies and for the foundation of organisations aimed at strengthening the position of the people and at real development. After all the years of oppression, the people experience these public meetings where they can openly discuss the political situation and plan for their own future, already as a liberation. But at the same time people of West Papua are unaccustomed to taking the future in their own hands.For several decades they were not allowed to participate in deliberations and planning and again and again they were pushed back in the mud because they were seen as backward and primitive. The main challenge is boosting self-confidence and learning about universal human rights and indigenous (collective) rights. The desired and much needed local initiatives do not come about from one day to the other. It's a matter of time in which tangible improvement of the security situation and international recognition of, and support for the right to development are major elements.

The PDP also organised some big conferences. Important are the women's conference in July 2001 and the indigenous rights conference in February 2002. The first conference established the women's movement Solidaritas Perempuan Papua (SPP, Solidarity Papuan Women). The women's organisations set up earlier under the Indonesian system are elitist clubs that are mainly involved in charity; the positions in these organisations are divided on basis of the importance of the husbands. SPP is a women's movement with chapters in the 14 kabupaten (districts) and aims at strengthening the position of women through training and local organisations and also by questioning (traditional) male-chauvinist practices and by stimulating women to participate actively in political bodies.

The conference on indigenous rights decided on the foundation of an Papua Indigenous Council (Dewan Adat Papua) with representatives from the various tribal peoples, and an indigenous authority (Pemerintahan Adat Papua) which consists of intellectual representatives and has a co-ordinating role. The task of the council and the authority is to revive and empower the traditional institutions. For decades, the Papuan culture has been suppressed because, in the eyes of Indonesia, the 'primitive' Papuan culture didn't fit within a modern Indonesia; moreover Indonesia feared the power that can originate in a cultural self-confidence. The adat-branches are to make the Papuans proud again of their traditional heritage and to work towards restoration of Papuan sovereignty through empowerment of the traditional institutions. The communities are to take up their own development and to set up organs for security and order. A major feature of this strategy is that efforts are not directed at fighting Indonesian institutions, but that in fact a parallel civic society is being developed.

Dialogue with Jakarta
President Wahid, who had supported the Papua Peoples' Congress with a donation of one billion rupiah (equivalent to about onehundredthousand Euro), had been sympathetic towards PDP's call for a political dialogue on the problems and aspirations in West Papua. But while Wahid did everything to keep the communication with the Papuans going and to seek solutions to the conflict, the political hawks and the army followed a different agenda. Immediately after the final session of the Peoples' Congress, general Rusdihardjo, commander in chief of the Indonesian police, announced that extra police troops would be sent to West Papua because "what they are doing in Papua, verges on rebellion". The commander of the army unit Kostrad, general Wirahadikusuma, judged that the developments in Papua were a threat to the Indonesian state. The Indonesian parliament, the DPR, declared: "The result (of the congress) is seen as a separatist action since it is in defiance of the law and should be labelled as treason". Parliament called on the government to take convincing and harsh action to secure the unity of the state. But Wahid, a convinced democrat who pursued peaceful solutions for political conflicts, declared that the government would continue its policy of avoiding oppressive action against separatists in Papua and that it would allow the hoisting of the Papuan flag, the Morning Star. If the government would resort to violence in the many cases of unrest, the president said, the energy of the security forces would be quickly exhausted.

The special session of the National Consultative Assembly (MPR) in August 2000, which tried to undermine the position of president Wahid, marked the beginning of the return to harsh measures against independence activities in West Papua. Criticism was heaped on Wahid for the symbolic gestures he had made: approval for hoisting the Morning Star flag, recognition of the name Papua for the province, and financial support for the Papua Peoples' Congress. This time, Wahid survived the special MRP-session but he had to accept a bigger role of the security forces and the political hawks.

The change in policy was immediately felt. Everywhere in West Papua, security forces were active in lowering Mornings Star flags. Many people were killed, injured or arrested. The actions of the Indonesian army in the mountain town of Wamena in October 2000 made headlines in the world news. Two Papuans were shot dead while soldiers removed the flag. Angry civilians started to attack Indonesians. In the subsequent battle, fifteen people got killed, Papuans and Indonesian immigrants. More and more troops were send to West Papua and in several places outside the capital Jayapura, people were shot during clashes around flags.

On December 1 of that year, the PDP organised a flag hoisting ceremony in Jayapura. Thanks to the PDP's diplomatic deliberations with the Indonesian authorities and thanks to the presence of foreign journalists, the security forces didn't intervene. But a week after, violence erupted in Jayapura too. After the murder of two policemen and a security guard, allegedly by a group from the central highlands, the police attacked several dormitories and maltreated the inhabitants. Three students were killed and dozens were put in jail. The PDP declared that vice-president Megawati Soekarnoputri should be held accountable for the road of confrontation taken by the government.

In August 2001, president Wahid was impeached and succeeded by vice-president Megawati. She presented a programme, which emphasised the preservation of national unity. She announced that she herself would supervise "the efforts to bring peace to the restive provinces of Aceh and Papua where the separatist unrest is increasing". She apologised to both the provinces for the decades of human rights violations but at the same time she warned that they would never achieve independence. PDP-chairman Theys Eluay was not moved by the apologies. "Indonesia is obliged to apologise. We have not been the ones who were wrong", he said. Tom Beanal, the vice-chairman of PDP, declared: "Mega has to understand the seriousness of the case of Papua. She has to enter into a dialogue to rectify the history of Papua". He was not optimistic that the case of Papua would be solved under Megawati. "I fear that Mega is too intimate with the army and will be persuaded to use force". Indeed, after one year, Mega has not shown any interest in a political dialogue with the Papuans. Her government appears to have opted for the hard line to get rid of (political) conflicts.

Political assassination
Several weeks after Megawati had been installed as president of Indonesia, PDP-chairman Theys Hiyo Eluay was murdered on November 11, 2001. The shock and dismay were immense. Almost at once, the predominant conviction was that the Indonesian army was involved in this political assassination. On October 12, five thousand people joined in the procession carrying Eluay's body to the building of the former New Guinea Council were it was placed in state. On November 13, about ten thousand people walked behind the body of the dead leader along the 45 kilometre road from Jayapura to Sentani, Eluay's hometown. The people were singing patriotic songs and shouted 'Merdeka! (independence), Merdeka!' and carried Morning Star flags. Around ten thousand people attended the funeral on November 17. Taha Al Hamid, secretary-general of PDP, declared at Eluay's grave that Papuans wanted the government to recognise their right to live their life. "A guarantee from the government to protect us is more important than the promised autonomy", Al Hamid said. "How can we live a normal life if our right to live is not recognised?"

More than a year and several investigation commissions later, the assassination of Theys Eluay has not been solved. It's true that seven members of the elite army unit Kopassus have been accused and are to be tried before a military tribunal, but hardly anyone believes that they have acted on their own initiative. The major question that probably will be hushed up, is who has commissioned the assassination of the PDP-chairman. The question of who has masterminded the murder should also be answered, but the answer appears to speak for itself: Theys was a charismatic figure with many supporters and he knew how to create attention, also from the international media, for himself and for the independence aspirations of the Papuans. Eluay knew how to make Indonesia look foolish and how to tarnish Indonesia's reputation.

Violence and intimidation
PDP's call at Eluay's grave for recognition of the right to live may look trite in the 21st century but is in every way relevant in the light of continuing and increasing violence. The people in West Papua are living more and more in an atmosphere of intimidation and violence. Since the assassination of Eluay in November last year, many indigenous and political leaders and human rights defenders have received death threats. Also, dozens of 'mysterious' killings happened. On the island of Biak, twelve people died under suspicious circumstances last August. One morning, the body of a truck driver was discovered along the road, two girls aged 13 and 14 were found - raped and murdered, also on the beach bodies were discovered. The inhabitants say these are murders ordered from above; the police say these are accidents which don't need further investigation. There was talk of masked men threatening people. Women were scared to go to their fields outside the village. The marketplace closed early so that people could get home before dark. At night, nobody took a taxi or dared to go outside without company. In the villages people took turn in patrolling. There were meetings where people told each other not to get paralysed by fear, but also not to resort to violent retaliation. Because that was supposedly the intention behind these murders: intimidation and provocation, which would give the military an excuse for a military operation.

Over many years there have been strong suspicions and also evidence that the Indonesian army (TNI) is involved in actions from terrorist groups in the Indonesian republic. The most shameless example was in 1999 after the referendum in East Timor when militias paid by TNI waged a terror campaign. TNI is said to be involved in the training and transportation throughout Indonesia of fighters from the fundamentalist Laskar Jihad. These fighters have wreaked havoc in Maluku and Poso and are now in West Papua. Although Laskar Jihad announced after the bomb attack in Bali (12 October 2002) that it would disband, since then hundreds of Laskar Jihad have entered West Papua. The local human rights organisation Elsham reported that on October 26, 300 members arrived in West Papua from Ambon. According to Elsham's estimates there are about three thousand Laskar Jihad fighters in towns like Sorong, Manokwari and Jayapura. There are more reports of groups and infiltrators working to create division between different groups of the population. The PDP is playing a major role in preventing violent responses from the people. They are anticipating "Jakarta's" intentions of creating a horizontal conflict (between groups of the population) in West Papua in order to divert the attention of the people from the vertical conflict (between the people and the government). It appears logical to create a horizontal conflict in West Papua in the shape of a religious conflict; the majority of the Papuans is Christian and most Indonesian immigrants (transmigrants) are Muslim. In anticipation of a religious conflict, the various religious leaders in West Papua are having regular consultations and are making joint statements against the human rights violations and against the practice of impunity. On September 21, the international day for peace, leaders of the main religions in West Papua (Catholics, Protestants, Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus) organised a prayer march in Jayapura. 1500 people joined the march, which lasted for four hours. The march was divided over five 'stops'; at every stop there was a 25 minutes ceremony of prayer and appeal for peace by one of the religious leaders.

The PDP as well emphasises time and again, that the conflict in West Papua is not based on the presence of different groups. The Peoples' Congress declared in 2000 that problems should be solved in a peaceful way and that the civil rights of any inhabitant of Tanah Papua, including minority groups, should be respected and guaranteed.

The secretary-general of PDP, Taha Al Hamid, is a Muslim and the Papua Panel has reserved seats for representatives of Indonesian immigrants. Many Indonesian immigrants identify with the Papuans and are supporting the quest for secession.

International attention
Through the Peoples' Congress in June 2000, the Papuans have decided, in line with the democratisation movement in Indonesia, to bring the political conflict to the negotiation table. The quest for a peaceful dialogue matches with the international agenda to focus on conflict prevention and conflict transformation. The PDP received international recognition for the proposed peaceful road. One month after the Peoples' Congress, PDP-members were invited for the 32nd annual meeting of the Pacific States (Pacific Islands Forum). The final communiqué called for an end to the human rights violations and for an open dialogue between the Indonesian government and the Papuans.

At the Millennium Summit in September 2000, the Pacific states Nauru and Vanuatu called upon the United Nations to recognise that the decolonisation of West Papua has been an unlawful process and that the Papuans have never exercised their right to selfdetermination. After consultation with the PDP, the New Zealand government offered to mediate for a peaceful solution provided that both parties would accept the mediation. But the New Zealand minister Goff observed: "It's unlikely at this point that the Government of Indonesia would ask for outside intervention".

After the arrest and imprisonment of five PDP-members in December 2000, a spokesman for the American State Department criticised the imprisonment of the five Papuans, saying such detentions "should have no place in today's open and democratic Indonesia".

The Dutch government also showed confidence in the path of a peaceful dialogue pursued by PDP and expressed its worries concerning the realisation of the dialogue. In July 2001, again a period of serious human rights violations, the Dutch Foreign Minister replied to questions from Parliament: "These incidents […] are a serious threat to the dialogue between the Indonesian government and the Papua Presidium".

After the assassination of PDP-chairman Theys Eluay (November 2001), the whole world expressed its sorrow. Many governments and institutions demanded a thorough and independent investigation and for the perpetrators to be brought to justice. The European Parliament was not satisfied with the final Indonesian conclusion that members of the army's special forces Kopassus were involved in the murder "without disclosing the motive for the killing or the names of those who gave the order to assassinate him". In an EP-resolution of May 2002, the Indonesian government is called upon to "establish a credible, legal and independent inquiry team of international human rights experts to investigate the involvement of state institutions in the assassination of the Papuan leader and tribal chief Theys Eluay and to bring the perpetrators to justice".

Interests versus rights
However, after the bomb attack in Bali (12 October 2002), there are different sounds. There is less attention for the internal conflicts in Indonesia, for the army's excesses and for human rights violations. In the war against terrorism, Australia is seriously considering collaboration with Kopassus, the special forces of the Indonesian army. Kopassus was involved in the assassination of Theys Eluay, and Kopassus is suspected of being behind the attack in the mining town of Timika in West Papua (31 August 2002) in which one Indonesian and two American teachers were killed.

The Australian minister of defence argued that accusations of Kopassus involvement in crimes against dissidents in East Timor and West Papua should be put aside in the interest of the war against terrorism. The United States Ambassador to Australia, Tom Schieffer, too, has hinted that ties to Indonesia's controversial Kopassus force may be necessary to fight terrorism in the South Asia region. "I think that all of us have to examine what's in the interests of our own countries." he said (ABC Radio Australia News, 12 Nov 2002).

In the 1960s, at the time of the Vietnam war and the cold war, it was in the US interest to keep president Suharto's Indonesia within the Western hemisphere. As a present for its loyalty, Indonesia received the Dutch colony New Guinea which was preparing for political independence as West Papua. For Robert Kennedy, then US minister for foreign affairs, there was no doubt: one hundred million Indonesians in the Western camp were more important than the right to self-determination for one million 'primitive' Papuans.

In the 1990s, international attention was focused on conflict prevention and conflict resolution. The United Nations discussed the inevitable tension between sovereignty and intervention, in other words the right of the international community to intervene in internal conflicts when serious human rights violations or genocide is taking place. This discussion was abruptly cut off after the terrible attack on the American Twin Towers in September 2001. The US government has repeatedly declared that human rights are subordinated to the war against terrorism, an argument that is eagerly repeated by the leaders in Jakarta. The Indonesian minister Wirayuda brushed aside criticism on the new anti-terrorism laws by saying: "Why should we bother about human rights?" (Jakarta Post, 8 Nov 2002). Indonesia is the country with the largest number of Muslims and both Australia and the US put Indonesian participation in "the war against terrorism" before (peaceful) solutions for the conflicts in that country. West Papua is in danger to be sacrificed for the second time in the interest of US foreign policy.

The big question is how far the European Union is willing to go along with this American policy. Since president Megawati came to power, the Papua Presidium Council, the PDP, has not achieved anything concerning the dialogue with Jakarta because the government is simply not reacting to the call for a peaceful, political dialogue on the conflict.

Inside West Papua, the PDP is broadly supported for its non-violent path; also the armed resistance groups under the umbrella of Organisasi Papua Merdeka, the liberation movement of the first hour, have announced a cease fire. But how long can people restrain themselves in a situation where militia and army units can commit violence and murders with impunity? The Indonesian authorities are currently investigating "subversive and state-hostile" activities of PDP. Imprisonment of Papuan leaders who are pursuing a path of peaceful dialogue, may mark the end of the non-violent path of the Papuans who are fighting for "rectification of history" and against the integration into the Indonesian republic.

The European Union could make a major gesture by offering mediation for a peaceful solution and by recognising the PDP as the legitimate representative of the Papuans in a dialogue with Jakarta. The conflict in West Papua has no connection with international terrorism (although it has with state terrorism) and therefore should not suffer from it.

Evelien van den Broek