Salvaging Democracy for West Papuans in the Face of Australia-Indonesia Obstruction

Camellia Webb-Gannon

Introduction

This article argues that the democratic ideals espoused by Australia and Indonesia fall short in application to West Papua and West Papuans, and notes that such shortcomings are legitimated by mainstream media’s exoticist portrayals of West Papuans, particularly in Australia. The antidemocratic policies and processes of each government with regard to West Papua actually enable the (by and large) Map showing West Papua on the island of New “good” bilateral relations at the state level to Guinea in relation to Australia and Indonesia. remain intact. However, this article contends that democracy, as practiced by civil society actors at the grassroots and digital network West Papuans: cannibals or the sacrificed? level in Australia and West Papua, creates Who isn’t fascinated by a cannibal story - cracks in the official Australia-Indonesia state particularly one about a cannibal act relationship. Australian concerns overpurportedly planned in the past decade? In Indonesian human rights abuses in West Papua 2006, a weekly current affairs television show have traditionally been overlooked at the state hosted by a popular Australian network aired a level in favor of pursuing an amicable bilateral program introducing Wawa, a then six-year old relationship. boy its television crew met during a so-called first contact encounter with West Papua’s However by forging digital activist networks Korowai people. Wawa, the program alleged, locally and internationally—including building was facing imminent cannibalization by his West Papuan-indigenous Australiantribe for suspicion of witchcraft. A media fiasco partnerships, West Papuans are participating in followed in which the television network and its a grassroots democratization process with main rival raced to produce a “rescue Wawa” global outreach, refusing to be sacrificed on story. The rival’s controversial presenter was the altar of regionalrealpolitik . The article deported from West Papua for using a tourist visa, and Wawa was eventually taken from his concludes with a cautionary account of an home by the original network’s Sumatran tour apparent attempt by an opportunistic guide to live in Jayapura and, later, Sumatra. Australian political movement to hijack West Papuan democratization for its own ends, a Earlier this year, a staffer of the first- threat West Papuan and Australian civil society mentioned current affairs program informed activists are currently moving to contain. me that a follow up story on Wawa and the

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Korowai was being considered. The plan was to “First contact” tourism and journalism are take Wawa on a return visit to Korowai land, sensationalist, essentialist and, with regard to ask him to compare his new school and city life the Korowai, misleading – European with that of his village of origin, and assess missionaries have lived with the Korowai since how Korowai ways of life, including thethe 1970s and the Korowai are knowing, if far practice of cannibalism, had changed since from equal, agents in the marketing of their 2006. “culture” to outsiders. The removal of children from their families of origin by Western This program concept illustrates thejournalists chasing television ratings is of entrenched ignorance that pervades thecourse ethically highly dubious. Yet, despite the mainstream Australian imaginary of West informed criticism directed towards the current Papua and other parts of Melanesia.affairs program after its 2006 West Papua Anthropologist Rupert Stasch, the world’s foray, it has contemplated revisiting the Wawa preeminent scholar on the social relations of story. West Papua has, for a long time, the Korowai, visited Wawa’s people after the threatened the stability of the Australia- media maelstrom and, through conversation Indonesia relationship but Australian citizens with those who knew Wawa, found out that have pressured their government not to let the “there was a predictably wide gulf between the Indonesian government escape criticism for the representations that had circulated in the crimes its military forces commit in West international media and the boy’s actual history Papua. In portraying West Papuans as less than civilized, mainstream Australian media as understood by his kin and co-villagers (who 1 fabrications such as the “Wawa story” serve to were unaware of the media coverage)”. uphold Indonesia’s ongoing colonial occupation Further, “almost all persons [Stasch] spoke of West Papua. They also support an Australian with said that the exclusive reason the first film media-military complex—providing a veneer of crew’s guide had been approached by villagers justification for Australian training of about taking the orphan to town was so that he Indonesian security forces,3—which in turn would go to school, become literate in “keeps in check” the “violent” peoples of Indonesian, and return as a teacher, nurse, or 4 “Stone Age” Papua. Such portrayals feed into government official. These numerous persons one of two broad narratives that surround matter-of-factly denied […] suggestions that the military and government bilateral relations boy had been rumored to be a witch, or had between Australia and Indonesia in which West 2 been in danger of being killed” . Papua is treated by Australia as either a pawn or a liability. In the first narrative, that of “primitive and unpredictable Papuans”, the Australian public gaze is momentarily averted from the violence of the Indonesian military in West Papua, and the pressure on the Australian government to hold Indonesia accountable is relieved. The second narrative will be dealt with in the remainder of this article.

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This second narrative presents Indonesia as a “normal”5 country – that is, democratizing, not Wawa in 2006 subject to military excesses, and accountable to

2 13 | 47 | 1 APJ | JF the rule of law. The Indonesian government West Papuan natural resources, wreaks havoc frequently asserts that these apparenton the environment and local communities, yet attributes also extend to its rule in West Papua. yields negligible benefits to Papuan people7. Yet, upon examination, they appear to be observed more in the breach than otherwise. The Australian government’s willingness to pay lip service to Indonesian claims, for the sake of harmonious relations with Jakarta, silences West Papuans’ grievances at the official, bilateral level.

The Australia-Indonesia relationship itself is often portrayed as one incrementally strengthening due to Indonesia’s supposedly increasing democratization. What is rarely considered, however, is the extent to which Australian democratic principles are applied to, and what relationship the democratic credentials of either government has with, the Freeport’s Grasberg mine in West Papua. Image credit: Radio New Zealand International political plight of West Papuans. Each of these concerns has important implications for the civil societies and governments of bothAnd the Indonesia military operates with near countries, as well as their bilateral relationship. impunity in West Papua. In December 2014, Indeed, it appears that it is mutual complicity four unarmed West Papuan youth were killed in the antidemocratic processes being enacted and 17 more injured in Paniai when the in Indonesia and Australia with regard to West Indonesian army and police opened fire on a Papua that tends to strengthen the bilateral group of protesters. Although an investigation relationship at the state level. Simultaneously, into this massacre was opened, it has been that “good” relationship is threatened by the compromised by police involvement. Military alternative processes of digital networking and and police violence has also been a mainstay grassroots democratization which ignore state around Freeport’s mines in Timika since the borders and bring civil society in Australia and company began operations in the 1970s as West Papua closer together. security forces vied with each other for lucrative “protection” contracts for the For example, much has been made ofcompany. There is strong evidence suggesting Indonesia’s democratization since the fall of that security forces also orchestrate violent Suharto in May 1998, and the implementation conflict around the mine (for example, of electoral reforms from 1999 onward.ambushes along the road leading to the mine) However, democratic reforms have had a and then blame such violence on the guerilla- limited reach in West Papua. For example, in led Free West Papua movement, legitimating 2003, the province of Papua was divided into their own presence in the process8. two, “Papua” and “West Papua”, by the central government, contrary to local wishes and High hopes were held for democratic national law. Local Papuan political parties are improvements in West Papua when Joko banned6. The Freeport mine (see Figure 3), Widodo became Indonesia’s president in 2014. controlled by an American company that pays In his most recent visit to the region, Widodo huge royalties and taxes to Jakarta, exploits released five political prisoners and announced

3 13 | 47 | 1 APJ | JF that the ban on foreign journalists visiting West been rolled out in other parts of Indonesia, the Papua would be lifted. However West Papuan Australian government has legitimated the activists claim that the release of the five charade that those same processes are prisoners, who were required to ask for reaching West Papua. In fact, Australia has clemency, was tokenistic since some 500 more maintained a “pragmatic complicity”13 in protesters were subsequently arrested in May Indonesia’s treatment of West Papua since and June this year9. Papua observers in Indonesia invaded the territory in 1962 (shortly Indonesia, such as Andreas Harsono of Human after West Papua’s previous colonizers, the Rights Watch, also doubt the President’s power Dutch East Indies, had made preparations with to carry out a dramatic reversal to theWest Papuans for an independent West Papua), longstanding international media blackout on and has done little to protest the litany of West Papua kept in place by 18 central human rights crimes committed by the regime. government agencies whose permission is These include widespread instances of torture required to visit the territory and who profit and rape of West Papuans, forced removal from 10 from their visa vetting role . Scholar of Papua, traditional lands, environmental devastation, Budi Hernawan, observes that Widodo is curtailment of civil and political rights, rapidly losing credibility within his ownstarvation, assassinations and government. The military is agitating for a disappearances14. Such concerted violence has presidential decree to mandate control of stemmed from Indonesian expansionist and public order by the army and for anresource exploitation endeavors in West Papua, amendment to the law that requires such a attempts to eradicate West Papua’s 11 decree in the first place . In other words, independence movement (formed in protest to according to Hernawan, the army is working Indonesian occupation and fuelled by ongoing towards bypassing Presidential checks and Indonesian violence), and longstanding racism balances in order to once more practice, against West Papuan people. unfettered, the fomentation of conflict that justifies its existence in the far reaches of In 1962, when West Papua’s future political 12 Indonesia—particularly West Papua . status was under negotiation, Australia’s external affairs minister Garfield Barwick asserted that it was not in Australia’s strategic interest to counter Indonesia’s expansionary designs on West Papua; Australia would be better served forging diplomatic ties with a non-communist Indonesia15. The Australian government therefore supported the US- brokered 1962 New York Agreement that bequeathed the territory to Jakarta, and the subsequent rigged 1969 Act of Free Choice that formalized West Papua’s ongoing annexation by Indonesia.

Despite the fact that West Papua’s status as Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo part of Indonesia has been contested ever since, Canberra's position has been Australian democracy and West Papua unwavering. As recently as 2006 Australia and Indonesia negotiated the Lombok Treaty which In recent years, as democratic processes have contained a “Papua Clause” committing the

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Australian government to “not in any manner The combined efforts of the Indonesian and support or participate in activities by any Australian governments to whitewash ongoing person or entity which constitutes a threat to brutalities in West Papua are under constant the stability, sovereignty or territorial integrity pressure, however. Moreover, since most of the other Party, including by those who seek Australian statements regarding relations with to use its territory for encouraging orIndonesia are prefaced with references to the committing such activities, includingAustralian national interest, Indonesia knows separatism, in the territory of the other Australian policy on West Papua is strategically Party”16. Signing this agreement signalled the and, at times, legally contingent. Indeed, Australian government’s willingness to curtail precedents exist for Australian support of the democratic freedom of its own citizens to human rights and self-determination in support persons involved in West Papua’s contested Indonesian territories. In addition to independence struggle; this, in order to assure Australia’s about face from support for Indonesia of its unconditional recognition of Indonesian sovereignty in East Timor in 1999 Indonesian sovereignty over West Papua. to rejecting it, Australia also recognized 43 West Papuans who arrived in Australia in 2006 When Mako Tabuni, a West Papuanas legitimate asylum seekers and granted them independence activist, was murdered in the temporary protection visas, prompting Jakarta street in Jayapura in 2012, eyewitnesses and, to recall its ambassador from Canberra in later, Australian investigative journalists, protest. asserted that the murder was committed by the partly Australian funded and trainedThere have been other hints that Canberra's Indonesian anti-terror police squad,continued acquiescence over West Papua has Detachment 8817. The following year three West its limits. After allegations emerged in 2013 Papuan men climbed the walls of the Australian that Australia had been spying on Indonesian consulate in Bali immediately prior to an officials, and Indonesia responded by anticipated visit by Australian Prime Minister threatening to cease cooperation on managing Tony Abbott, seeking refuge and calling for the “people smuggling”, Abbott reminded Jakarta release of political prisoners in West Papua. that Australia had attempted to dissuade Australian academic Clinton Fernandes, who Australian-based West Papuan activists from was on the telephone to the consulate at the traveling by boat to West Papua, effectively time of the incident, overheard an Australian implying that Australian support for Indonesian voice threatening to bring in the Indonesian sovereignty over West Papua was tied to military and police to remove the Papuan men. cooperation from Indonesia on issues of The latter were forced to flee the consulate, Australian national concern20. fearful for their lives18. All of this demonstrates that, at a state level, In the aftermath of this incident Abbott stated both Australia and Indonesia are willing to his desire to convey "in flashing neon lights" exaggerate the bona fides of Indonesian that attempts to “grandstand” againstdemocracy in West Papua and collude to cover Indonesia by involving Australia were "not up direct violations of democracy and human welcome". Asserting, as Australian leaders rights in the territory. As a result neither regularly do, that Australia respectedcountry is acting altruistically with regard to Indonesia’s territorial integrity andWest Papua. Indonesia is vested financially in sovereignty, Abbott added, following the lead of occupying West Papua, and Australia is vested Indonesian leaders, that “the situation in West financially in appeasing Indonesia and thus Papua was ‘getting better, not worse’”19. condoning its occupation of West Papua21.

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Nevertheless, there is hope that significant Timor)—has emerged over the past two years, shifts in Australia’s approach to West Papua most dynamically in the initiative of the West might be possible. At present though, it Papua Freedom Flotilla26. This project has appears that the strength of Australia-involved two maritime missions, with West Indonesia ties in relation to West Papua is in Papuan and Aboriginal activists using inverse proportion to the degree of democracy Aboriginal “passports” and West Papuan and human rights respect afforded West “visas” in an effort to carry water from Lake Papuans and their Australian supporters. Eyre to West Papua—a form of nonviolent direct action highlighting West Papua’s violent Grassroots democracy and digital networks occupation and symbolizing Oceanic indigenous articulations. By contrast, transformative democratization, in essence coordinated purposeful action by and for the affected people, is occurring at grassroots activist and digital network levels, linking West Papuan, other Melanesian, and Australian civil society communities in solidarity against state-centric oppressive concepts of sovereignty. This is expressed in a burgeoning genre of West Papua independence music being created by West Papuans and their Melanesian and Australian supporters and distributed digitally via YouTube, Soundcloud, iTunes, Bluetooth and SD cards through ever expanding digital networks22. While evidently the digital revolution has not impacted all populations equally, it has had the effect of spreading music, foundational to Melanesian cosmology and the life force of West Papua’s independence movement23 widely and lifting the regional profile of the West Papuan struggle. Moreover, social media has also elevated the perceived urgency of the struggle in mainstream Australia and internationally, propelling the circulation of mobile phone videos such as those depicting the torture of West Papuans24, and attracting the intervention of internet activist hacker group Anonymous on 25 Freedom Flotilla poster featuring West Papuan, behalf of West Papuans . Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags

A grass roots activist movement—recognizing a shared history between indigenous Papuans Two other events are notable with regard to and indigenous Australians of settler colonial West Papuan-oriented activism in Australia. In violence and cohabitation of the prehistoric April 2014 an office opened in Perth to carry continent Sahul (a Pleistocene era landmass out the work of Oxford-based West Papuan that included mainland Australia, Tasmania, refugee and independence activist Benny New Guinea, Seram and possibly the island of Wenda and his Free West Papua campaign27.

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Soon after, in June 2014, the author attended initiatives can reach the halls of power, if not the opening of the Federal Republic of West yet the decision-making chambers. Papua’s Department of Foreign Affairs Immigration and Trade office headed up by Australian academics—some of whom are Foreign Minister, Jacob Rumbiak, a former affiliated with the West Papua Project at The West Papuan political prisoner living in exile in University of Sydney—have also been involved Melbourne. The office was located in an with West Papuan efforts to make their political architecturally slick, eco-friendly complex in presence known in the Melanesian region, Melbourne’s central business district and its assisting the United Liberation Movement for opening was officiated by various localWest Papua (ULMWP) to develop its latest government officials, indigenous Australian submission for membership to the Melanesian leaders, and a university representative. Both Spearhead Group (MSG). The MSG, a political of these offices were established inbloc comprised of the four Melanesian contravention of the Lombok Treaty and remain countries – Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, the in operation, demonstrating that grassroots, Solomon Islands, and Fiji—was formed in 1986, people-led movements can thrive in thein part to lobby France for New Caledonian independence. As such, the indigenous Kanak interstices of top down, anti-democratic power. independence party, the Kanak and Socialist Supporters of the West Papuan rightsNational Liberation Front (French:Front de movement in Australia include artists,Libération Nationale Kanak et Socialiste, academics, people of faith, lawyers andFLNKS), has been an integral member of the environmental and indigenous rights activists MSG from its inception. And West Papua has who are often loosely aligned with the several for several years sought membership on the city-based Australia West Papua Associations same basis. A limited victory was celebrated in and who work in tandem through these June 2015 by West Papuans and their networks. In July 2013, the West Papua Project supporters when West Papua was granted at The University of Sydney produced a citizens observer status in the MSG, although at the same meeting Indonesia was granted associate tribunal, the first of its kind in Australia, membership, a higher level, which somewhat weighing evidence and hearing testimonies dampened West Papuans’ celebrations. from survivors of the 1998 Biak Massacre in which Indonesian security forces murdered up These community-initiated activities of West to 200 West Papuans peacefully demonstrating 28 Papuans in Australia, and of Australians on the West Papuan island of Biak . working in solidarity with them, demonstrate that steps toward positive change in West The Indonesian military has never been held Papua are being pushed from the bottom up accountable for this massacre, and notable rather than the top down. These actions in Australian legal personalities, concerned Australia and West Papua suggest possibilities academics from institutions across Australia, for a brighter, more democratic future for West and other activists cooperated in an effort to Papuans, in spite of Indonesian and Australian bring a degree of justice and closure to the government efforts to stymie them. victims even in the absence of a legal remedy. In March 2015, several of the tribunal team led Reclaim Australia and the Free West Papua by Justice John Dowd and academic Eben Party Kirksey presented the evidence brief to Liberal, Labor and Greens party politicians in federal A sobering phenomenon has recently cast a parliament and met with a favorable tripartisan shadow over the usually progressive Australia- reception, further evidence that smallWest Papua solidarity movement. A political

7 13 | 47 | 1 APJ | JF party calling itself the Free West Papua Party Papua37) that the West Papuan independence has been launched from Perth29, which appears movement is garnering increasing international to be capitalizing on the Free West Papua awareness. Campaign “brand” created by dynamic West Papuan activist Benny Wenda. The party Yet despite this forward momentum, West combines anti-Islamic ideology and unrealistic Papua is in the grip of a serious demographic goals,30 claiming to possess “the potential to crisis. A history of Indonesian state-sponsored quickly free West Papua through the next transmigration and continuous, rapid and Federal Election”31. In July 2015 its leader spontaneous migration from other parts of delivered a speech at an ultra-nationalist Indonesia to West Papua, coupled with high Reclaim Australia rally purporting to support mortality and morbidity rates for West Papuans 38 West Papuan freedom in an era of Islamization. compared with non-Papuans has meant that Campaigning for West Papua at such events indigenous West Papuans, since 2010, have conveys the impression that the fight for the become a demographic and cultural minority in independence of West Papua is primarily their homeland39. Even though many West religious (i.e. a Christian versus MuslimPapuans campaign for a referendum on struggle), which it is not, although at times it independence, in statistical terms, if this does assume a religio-cultural tone. In fact, becomes an option for them as it did for the many West Papuans, including someEast Timorese in 1999, it is unlikely to deliver independence leaders, are Muslim32. Both the result hoped for by indigenous Australian supporters of West Papuan rights independence-seekers. The future is likely to be and West Papuans residing in Australia have bloody, as West Papuans have demonstrated moved quickly to distance themselves from the since the 1960s that they will not back down, Free West Papua Party and its ideological even in the face of military terror, from their tenets and implications33. pursuit of independence.

Further, indigenous Australians are protesting When the Suharto-era general and notorious against the Reclaim Australia movement34. If strongman Prabowo Subianto was Widodo’s what Reclaim Australia supporters are really challenger for the position of Indonesian trying to do is “reclaim” Australia for a majority president leading up to the last election, “caucasian [sic] and Christian”35 population predictions for the status of West Papuans (and those with “assimilationist” aspirations), should his campaign be successful were then it hardly seems appropriate for an“apocalyptic”40. Yet Widodo’s apparent inability Australian political party to drag indigenous to stand up to pressure from military forces West Papuans into the movement. Finally, as lobbying to sit above civilian authority may still previously mentioned, indigenous Westhave apocalyptic consequences for West Papuans and indigenous Australians arePapuans should the military subsequently be already working together in a dynamicgiven freer reign in West Papua. If the result of movement to recognise indigenous sovereignty increased militarization in West Papua is a in their respective lands with the Freedom showdown like that of East Timor’s 1991 Santa Flotilla initiative. This is an internallyCruz massacre in which 250 protesters were organized, organic movement that represents a murdered, international civil society pressure positive reclamation and an indication, among might occasion a multilateral intervention. others (for example the progress made within Although the second of these possible futures is the MSG, the tabling of West PapuanWest Papuans’ most immediate hope for grievances at the Pacific Islands Forum36, and independence, both are grim. Their most the rise of Pacific-wide solidarity for West promising option, and the one in which most

8 13 | 47 | 1 APJ | JF efforts are currently being channelled, is the Comments by Adam Stott, Peter King and strengthening of grassroots democraticMichael Webb helped to improve an earlier networks and forging of regional solidarity. version of this manuscript, for which I am most Time, however, is of the essence. Demographic grateful. transition in West Papua is the key challenge. Camellia Webb-Gannon is a Research Fellow Conclusion with the Digital Humanities Research Group at Western Sydney University and is the This article has attempted to demonstrate that Coordinator of the West Papua Project at The it is important that the Australian public not University of Sydney. Her PhD in Peace and take too narrow a view of Australian national Conflict Studies from The University of Sydney interest – the Australian government has examined the dynamics of unity and conflict already made that mistake with regard to West within West Papua's independence movement. Papua. Indeed, the Australian government Recent research considers the impact of digital should remember that what it considers to be technologies and the arts on human rights in its best interest can change dramatically and advocacy as well as local interpretations of rather suddenly, as its 1999 intervention into Melanesian indigenous rights, Melanesian self- East Timor revealed. The Australian public determination movements, and concepts and would do well to follow the lead of indigenous mechanisms of justice in Oceania. West Papuans and indigenous Australians in lobbying the Australian government andRecommended citation: Camellia Webb- demonstrating to mainstream media that Gannon, "Salvaging Democracy for West democracy in Indonesia and in Australia should Papuans in the Face of Australia-Indonesia not be solely for the benefit of privileged Obstruction", The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 13, ethnicities and the already rich. Rather, Issue 47, No. 1, November 23, 2015. democracy ought to encompass politico-legal ethics and processes that facilitate theRelated articles meaningful self-determination of each society’s most vulnerable groups. A healthy relationship • Camellia Webb-Gannon and Jim Elmslie, MSG between the two countries—one that valued Headache, West Papuan Heartache? democracy in each—would acknowledge both Indonesia's Melanesian Foray in law and in practice the traditional custodians of the various territories comprising the two • David Adam Stott, Would An Independent countries. It would be committed to fostering West Papua Be A Failing State? peaceful explorations of self-determination engaging indigenous peoples as primary actors. • David Adam Stott, Indonesian Colonisation, It would consider unacceptable the circulation Resource Plunder and West Papuan Grievances of tired, clichéd and frankly dehumanizing portrayals of West Papuans as cannibals, as Notes subjects for entertainment on Australian 1 television. Given the tragedy of Australia’s own Rupert Stasch, 2014,‘Powers of Stolen Generations from indigenous people, Incomprehension: Linguistic Otherness, further Australian media interventions in the Translators and Political Structure in New life of Wawa, an already traumatisedGuinea Tourism Encounters’, Hau Journal of indigenous child, should certainly be off limits. Ethnographic Theory 4:2.

Acknowledgements 2 Ibid.

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3 Hayden Cooper and Lisa Main, 2012,peoples – the Amungme and Komoro tribes – ‘Australia Faces Links to West Papua Torture’, have lost ancestral lands of sacred, economic, ABC’s 7:30. and social significance, resultant internecine violence abounds, and the military and police 4 Other examples (not Australian) of such media wage an ongoing war over ‘security’ contracts portrayals of West Papuans include thefor the mine (see Coca and Wenda, this note). following: Carl Hoffman, 2014, Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism and Michael 8 For an excellent exposition of the politics of Rockefeller's Tragic Quest for Primitive Art, security around Freeport, see Eben Kirksey and Text Publishing; Milt Machlin, 1972,The Andreas Harsono, 2008, ‘Criminal Search for Michael Rockefeller, Putnam; Collaborations? Antonius Wamang and the Robert Norton, 2015, ‘Ambushed: Escaping the Indonesian Military in Timika,’ South East Asia Cannibals of West Papua, Indonesia’, Yahoo Research 16:2, pp. 165-197. Travel; and Paul Raffaele, 2006, ‘Sleeping with Cannibals’, Smithsonian Magazine. 9 ‘May 2015: While Jokowi Releases Five, Nearly 500 are Arrested’, Papuans Behind 5 Andrew MacIntyre and Douglas E Ramage, Bars. 2008, ‘Seeing Indonesia as a Normal Country: Implications for Australia’, Australian Strategic 10 Andreas Harsono, June 12, 2015, ‘Jokowi, Policy Institute. Human Rights in Indonesia and Peace in West Papua’, Special Forum hosted by the Centre for 6 Jason MacLeod, 2010,‘Papuan Struggle Peace and Conflict and the Department of Enters New Phase’, Open Democracy. Indonesian Studies at The University of Sydney. See also Coca, above n. 7. This curtailment of political freedom extends into all provinces of Indonesia with the11 Budi Hernawan, November 3, 2015, ‘The Rise exception of Aceh which alone has been able to of Pacific Solidarity for West Papua,’ Special successfully lobby (as part of its 2005 peace Forum hosted by the Centre for Peace and negotiations with Jakarta) for the formation of Conflict Studies at The University of Sydney. its own political parties. 12 Ibid. 7 Freeport is Indonesia’s largest revenue contributor – in 2014 alone it paid the13 Stuart Rollo, 2013, ‘Ending Our Pragmatic Indonesian government US$1.5 billion in tax Complicity in West Papua’, The Drum. (Nithin Coca, 2015, ‘West Papua: Mining in an Occupation Forgotten by the World’, Equal 14 See John Wing and Peter King, 2005, Times). It operates the world’s largest gold ‘Genocide in West Papua? The Role of the mine and third largest copper mine in Timika, Indonesian State Apparatus and a Current West Papua, and the untold environmental Needs Assessment of the Papuan People’, devastation it has wreaked during its tenure in Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, The West Papua prompted the NorwegianUniversity of Sydney; government, in 2008, to divest AU$1 billion Jim Elmslie and Camellia Webb-Gannon, 2013, from Rio Tinto, Freeport’s partner in West ‘A Slow-Motion Genocide: Indonesian Rule in Papua (Benny Wenda, October 12, 2011, West Papua’, Griffith Journal of Law and ‘Everyone profits from West Papua, except for Human Dignity 1:2, pp. 142-166; Elizabeth West Papuans’, The Guardian). Papuan miners Brundige, Winter King, Priyneha Vahali, are paid unconscionable wages, the local Stephen Vladeck and Xiang Yuan, 2004,

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‘Indonesian Human Rights Abuses in West 24 Asian Human Rights Commission, 2010, ‘The Papua: Application of the Law of Genocide to Indonesian Military Ill-treat and Torture the History of Indonesian Rule’,Allard K Indigenous Papuans'. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic 25 Yale Law School. Papua Merdeka, 2014, ‘Anonymous Message to the Indonesian Government About West 15 Richard Chauvel, 2012,‘50 Years On, Papua Genocide’, YouTube. Australia’s Papua Policy Is Still Failing’, Inside 26 Story. See the Freedom Flotilla website.

27 16 Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Free West Papua Campaign, April 25, 2014, 2006, ‘Agreement Between the Republic of ‘Free West Papua Campaign to Open New Indonesia and Australia on the Framework for Office in Perth, Australia’, Free West Papua Security Cooperation (“The Lombok Treaty”)’. Campaign.

28 17 Hayden Cooper and Lisa Main, 2012, See the Biak Massacre Citizens Tribunal ‘Australia Faces Links to West Papua Torture’, website. ABC’s 7:30. 29 Free West Papua Perth Australia, May 6, 18 Clinton Fernandes, 2013, ‘West Papuans in 2015, ‘Membership for Free West Papua Party’. the Consulate’, Right Now: Human Rights in 30 Australia. Suresh Rajan, July 21, 2015, ‘“There Are Many Causes I Would Die For. There Is Not A 19 Lauren Wilson, October 8, 2013,‘Abbott Single Cause I Would Kill For”. Mahatma Warns West Papuan Activists, The Australian. Gandhi”, The Stringer, http://thestringer.com.au/there-are-many-cause 20 Michael Bachelard, December 6, 2013, ‘Lines s-i-would-die-for-there-is-not-a-single-cause-i- Crossed on Indonesia-Australia Spywould-kill-for-mahatma- Agreement’, The Sydney Morning Herald. gandhi-10650#.VflmKnvffkB.

21 As mentioned in note 7, the Indonesian 31 See the “FWPP Response to the West Papua economy relies heavily on revenue raised Solidarity Movement Rejection of Reclaim through Freeport’s mines in West Papua. In Australia Public Statement”. 2013, Australia’s two-way trade with Indonesia 32 amounted to nearly $3.7 billion, and its Indigenous West Papuans are predominantly investment in Indonesia was “$10.9 billion, up Christian but a Papuan Muslim minority resides from $6.2 billion in 2012. Indonesianprimarily in the western coastal regions of investment in Australia was around $959 West Papua in Fak Fak, Sorong, and million in 2013” (Australian Government Manokwari (cities with a long history of trade Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, n.d., with other parts of Muslim Indonesia), and, to a ‘Indonesia Country Brief’). lesser extent, in the eastern cities of Merauke and Jayapura. Independence leader Thaha Al 22 Many of these songs have been collated on Hamid, originally from Kaimana on the west the author’s YouTube channel. coast of West Papua but now residing in Jayapura, is Muslim. The number of indigenous 23 Julian Smythe, 2013, ‘The Living Symbol of Muslim Papuans is difficult to ascertain given Song in West Papua: A Soul Force To Be that Papuan censuses are infrequent and Reckoned With’ Indonesia 95. unreliable.

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33 A statement by activists to this effect with the here); and calls in October 2015 by Tonga’s signatures it has acquired has been posted to prime minister at the United Nations to take the Australia West Papua Association blog site. action on West Papua (ABC News, October 1, 2015, ‘Tonga’s Prime Minister Calls on UN to 34 Amy McQuire, August 4, 2015, ‘Father of the Take Action on West Papua’, ABC News. Aboriginal Flag Slams Reclaim Australia for “Idiotic” Appropriation’, New Matilda. 38 Susan Rees, Remco van de Pas, Derrick Silove and Moses Kareth, 2008,‘Health and 35 See the home page of the Reclaim Australia Human Security in West Papua’, The Medical website. Journal of Australia, 189 (11): 641-643.

36 Pacific Beat, September 7, 2015, ‘West Papua 39 Jim Elmslie, 2010,‘West Papuan Human Rights and Climate Change Top Pacific Demographic Transition and the 2010 Islands Forum Agenda’, ABC News. Indonesian Census: “Slow Motion Genocide” or Not?’ CPACS Working Paper 11/1, Centre for 37 Examples include protests for West Papuan Peace and Conflict Studies, The University of independence by New Zealand based activist Sydney. collective Oceania Interrupted (view their website here); the recent launching of a pan- 40 Sally White, July 8, 2014,‘Prabowo an Pacific solidarity group for West Papua by ‘Apocalypse’, Jokowi a False Promise: West Benny Wenda in London (view his website Papuans Opt Out’, Crikey.