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History Papuans, the native people of New Guinea, are a Pacific Melanesian people, as are those of the Solomons, Vanuatu, New Caledonia and Fiji. Papuans have inhabited the Australasian continental island of Papua for over 40,000 years while Austronesians have been there for several thousand years. These groups have developed diverse cultures and languages in situ; there are over 300 languages and two hundred additional dialects in West New Guinea alone (See Papuan languages, Austronesian languages). On June 13, 1545 Ortiz de Retez, in command of the San Juan, left port in Tidore, an island of the East Indies and sailed to reach the northern coast of the island of New Guinea, which he ventured along as far as the mouth of the Mamberamo River. He took possession of the land for the Spanish Crown, in the process giving the island the name by which it is known today. He called it Nueva Guinea owing to the resemblance of the local inhabitants to the peoples of the Guinea coast in West Africa. Dutch control
Indonesian control and resistance The Morning Star flag was raised on December 1, 1961, an act which Papuan independence supporters celebrate each year at flag raising ceremonies as indicative of their national unity and commitment to independence. The date for independence of Netherlands New Guinea was set for 1970. Indonesia paratroopers mounted an invasion December 18, 1961, and though these troops were quickly arrested by the Papuan people, Indonesian efforts continued, going so far as to include a minor naval battle on January 19, 1962. Behind the scenes, the United States forced the Netherlands to surrender West New Guinea to Indonesia in August under terms negotiated in New York and specified in a document known as the "New York Agreement". The Australian government, which previously had been a firm supporter of the Papuan independence, also reversed its policy. (See U.S. Foreign Relations, 1961-63, Vol XXIII, Southeast Asia and ftp://ftp.halcyon.com/pub/FWDP/Oceania/jfkpapua.txt U.S. President letter) The agreement, ratified in the UN on September 21, 1962, stipulated that authority would transfer to a United Nations Temporary Executive Authority (UNTEA) on October 1, and that once UNTEA had informed the public of the terms of the Agreement had the option to transfer administration of the territory to Indonesia after May 1, 1963, until such time as an "Act of Free Choice" could determine the will of the people. Under Article 18 of the Agreement "all adults, male and female, not foreign nationals" were to be allowed to vote in an Act "in accordance with international practice". On May 1, 1963 UNTEA transferred total administration of West New Guinea to the Republic of Indonesia. Since the 1960s, consistent reports have filtered out of the territory of government suppression and terrorism, including murder, political assassination, imprisonment, torture, and aerial bombardments. The Indonesian government disbanded the New Guinea Council and forbade the use of the West Papua flag or the singing of the national anthem. There has been considerable resistance to Indonesian integration and occupation, both through civil disobedience (such as Morning Star flag raising ceremonies) and via the formation of the Organisasi Papua Merdeka (OPM, or Free Papua Movement) in 1965. The movement's military arm is the TPN, or Liberation Army of Free Papua. Amnesty International has estimated more than 100,000 Papuans have died as a result of government-sponsored violence against West Papuans, while others had previously specified much higher death tolls. After General Suharto replaced Sukarno as President of Indonesia, Freeport Sulphur was the first foreign company awarded a mining license, a 30 year license to mine the Timika region of Papua for gold and copper. In 1969, General Sarwo Edhi Wibowo oversaw the Indonesian conduct of the widely criticized "Act of Free Choice". Prior to the vote, the Indonesian military rounded up and detained for one month a large group of Papuan tribal leaders. The Papuans were daily threatened with death at gunpoint if the entire group did not vote to continue Indonesian rule. Assembled troops and two Western observers acted as witnesses to the public vote; however, the Western observers left after witnessing the first two hundred (of 1,054) votes for integration. With the U.S. embroiled in the Viet Nam War and concerns about the potential rise of Communism in Southeast Asia, the U.S. and other Western powers turned a deaf ear to protests over the circumstances surrounding the vote. The process was deemed to have been an "Act of Free Choice" in accordance with the United Nations requirements, and Indonesia formally annexed the territory in August. Dissenters mockingly called it the "Act of No Choice". In 1977, construction of the world's largest copper and gold mine (also the world's largest open cut mine) began. Under an Indonesian agreement signed in 1967 (two years before the "Act of Free Choice"), the US company Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. holds a 30-year exclusive mining license for the region from the official opening of the mine in (1981). Locals made several violent attempts to dissuade the mine owners, including blowing up a pipeline that July, but order was quickly restored. The 1990s saw Indonesia accelerate its transmigration program, under which 1.2 million Javanese and Sumatran persons streamed into Papua over a ten-year period. Nearly all of these migrants were Muslims, coming into an area that, prior to Indonesian rule, had been almost entirely populated by Roman Catholics, Protestants and people following tribal religions. The transmigration's purpose is to tip the West Papuan population from the heavily Melanesian Papuans toward a more Asian "balance," thus further consolidating Indonesian control. A separatist congress in 2000 again calling for independence resulted in a military crackdown on independence supporters. In 2001, a now-majority Islamic population was given limited autonomy. An August 2001, US State Department travel warning advised "all travel by U.S. and other foreign government officials to Aceh, Papua and the Moluccas (provinces of North Maluku and Maluku) has been restricted by the Indonesian government". During the Abdurrahman Wahid administration in 2000, Papua gained a "Special Autonomy" status, an attempted political compromise between separatists and the central government that has weak support within the Jakarta government. Despite lack of political will of politicians in Jakarta to proceed with real implementation of the Special Autonomy, which is stipulated by law, the region was divided into two provinces: the province of Papua and the province of Irian Jaya Barat, based on a Presidential Instruction in January 2001, soon after President Wahid was impeached by the Parliament and replaced by Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri. The division of the province has neither directly cancelled the Law of Special Autonomy of Papua nor engaged ongoing protest in the region. There was brief consideration of dividing the territory into thirds, but the plan was quickly abandoned. In January 2006, 43 refugees in a traditional canoe landed on the coast of Australia with a banner stating the Indonesian military was carrying out a genocide in Papua. They were been transported to an Australian immigration detention facility on Christmas Island, 2600 km north-west of Perth, and 360 km south of the western head of Java. On March 23, 2006, the Australian government granted temporary protection visas to 42 of the 43 having determined all 43 were bona-fide refugees. A day later Indonesia recalled its ambassador to Australia. Regions
Geography A central East-West mountain range dominates the geography of New Guinea, over 1600 km in total length. The western section is around 600 km long and 100 km across. Steep mountains 3000 to 4000 m and up to 5000 m high along the range ensures a steady supply of rain from the tropical atmosphere. The tree line is around 4000 m elevation and the tallest peaks are snowbound year round. Both north and west of the central ranges the land remains mountainous — mostly 1000 to 2000 m high — and covered by thick rain forest with a warm humid climate year round. The third major habitat feature is the south east lowlands with extensive wetlands stretching for hundreds of kilometers. The province has 40 major rivers, 12 lakes, and 40 islands. The Mamberamo river, sometimes referred to as the "Amazon of Papua" is the province's largest river which winds through the northern part of the province. The result is a large area of lakes and rivers known as the Lakes Plains region. The famous Baliem Valley, home of the Dani people is a tableland 1600 m above sea level in the midst of the central mountain range; Puncak Jaya (formerly Carstensz Pyramid) is a mist covered limestone mountain peak 4,884 m above sea level, the highest point in Indonesia. The border with Papua New Guinea mostly follows the 141st meridian, with one section defined by the Fly River. This border is largely unguarded, and has seen a dramatic amount of refugees and illegal aliens cross over to PNG to flee the Indonesians. There are no reliable estimates on how many have crossed. Demographics The combined population of the Indonesian provinces of West Irian Jaya and Papua, constituting all of Western New Guinea, was estimated to be 2,646,489 in 2005. The two largest cities in the territory are Sorong in the northwest of the Bird's Head Peninsula and Jayapura in the northeast. Both cities have a population of approximately 200,000. As in Papua New Guinea and some surrounding east Indonesian provinces, a large majority of population is Christian. In the 2000 census 54% of West Papuans identified themselves as Protestant, 24% as Catholic, 21% as Muslim, and less than 1% as either Hindu or Buddhist. There is also subsantial practice of animism among the major religions, but this is not recorded by the Indonesian census. Tribes Western New Guinea is home to around 312 different tribes, including some uncontacted peoples. The following are some of the most well-known: Ecology A vital tropical rainforest with the tallest tropical trees and vast biodiversity, Papua's known forest fauna includes marsupials (including possums, wallabies, tree-kangaroos, cuscus), other mammals (including the endangered long-beaked echidna), many bird species (including birds of paradise, casuarius, parrots, cockatoos), the world's longest lizards (Papua monitor) and some of the world's largest butterflies. The island has an estimated 16,000 species of plant, 124 genera of which are endemic. The extensive waterways and wetlands of Papua are also home to salt and freshwater crocodile, tree monitor, flying foxes, osprey, bats and other animals; while the equatorial glacier fields remain largely unexplored. In February 2005, a team of scientists exploring the Foja Mountains discovered numerous new species of birds, butterflies, amphibians, and plants, including a species of rhododendron which may have the largest bloom of the genus. Ecological dangers include deforestation at an alarming rate; the spread of the exotic Crab-eating Macaque (monkey) which now threatens the existence of many native species; pollution such as Grasberg mine dumping 190,000 tons of copper and gold tailings into the rivers system each day. Culture West Papuan culture was forcibly repressed under the forty years of Indonesian rule since 1963. Only in 2001 was Papua Province granted special autonomy by the Indonesian government, opening the possibility of developing indigenous cultural production and arts venues. However, in March 2003 John Rumbiak, West Papua's famous human rights investigator, stated that Papuan culture "will be extinct," within 10 to 20 years if the present rate of assimilation in the region continues. The Indonesian government states that the special autonomy arrangement specifically addresses the ongoing preservation of Papua culture, and that the transmigration program was "designed specifically to help the locals through knowledge transfer". In some parts of the highlands, the koteka is traditionally worn by males in ceremonial contexts. Despite government efforts to suppress it, the use of the koteka as everyday dress by Dani males in Western New Guinea is still very common. Postage stamps During the 1960s, the region had its own postage stamps. The first were overprints reading "UNTEA" (United Nations Temporary Executive Authority) applied to the stamps of Dutch New Guinea, issued in 1962. There are four slightly different types of overprint, three types applied locally, and a fourth made in the Netherlands and sold by the UN in New York City. These were superseded on 1 May 1963 by stamps of Indonesia overprinted "IRIAN BARAT" and a series of six commemoratives whose designs included a map of Indonesia stretching "from Sabang to Merauke" and a parachutist landing in New Guinea. These, as were later issues in 1968 and 1970, were inscribed both "IRIAN BARAT" and "REPUBLIK INDONESIA". The last issue specifically for the territory consisted of two depicting birds (Black-Capped Lory and Bird of Paradise), issued 26 October 1970. See also Notes | ||||||||||||||
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