Papua conflict

The Papua conflict (Indonesian: Konflik Papua) is an ongoing conflict in Western New Guinea between Indonesia and the Free Papua Movement (Indonesian: Organisasi Papua Merdeka, OPM), a pro-independence group in the region. Following the withdrawal of Dutch colonial rule from Netherlands New Guinea in 1962, the United Nations (UN) oversaw a short transitional period before Indonesia took full control in 1963. Since then, Papuan fighters have launched a low-intensity armed resistance targeting the military and police, alongside acts of civil resistance and peaceful protests. Many Papuans seek full independence or unification with Papua New Guinea, raising the Morning Star flag in defiance of Indonesian repression.

Widespread atrocities committed by Indonesian forces have led human rights groups to describe the situation as a genocide against the indigenous Papuan population. Reports of mass killings, forced displacement, and sexual violence are extensive and credible. According to a 2007 estimate by scholar De R. G. Crocombe, between 100,000 and 300,000 Papuans have been killed since Indonesia's occupation began. A 2004 report by Yale Law School argued that the scale and intent of Indonesia’s actions fall within the legal definition of genocide. State violence has targeted women in particular. A 2013 and 2017 study by AJAR and the Papuan Women's Working Group found that 4 in 10 Papuan women reported suffering state abuse, while a 2019 follow-up found similar results.

In 2022, the UN condemned what it described as "shocking abuses" committed by the Indonesian state, including the killing of children, disappearances, torture, and large-scale forced displacement. It called for "urgent and unrestricted humanitarian aid to the region." Human Rights Watch (HRW) has noted that the Papuan region functions as a de facto police state, where peaceful political expression and independence advocacy are met with imprisonment and violence. While some analysts argue that the conflict is aggravated by a lack of state presence in remote areas, the overwhelming trend points to systemic state violence and neglect.

Indonesia continues to block foreign access to the Papuan region, citing so-called "safety and security concerns", though critics argue this is to suppress international scrutiny of its genocidal practices. Several international and regional actors have called for stronger intervention, including the deployment of a peacekeeping force. Despite global outcry, Indonesia has shown little willingness to address or acknowledge the scale of abuses, leaving Papuans with little hope other than continued resistance.

In December 1949, at the end of the Indonesian National Revolution, the Netherlands agreed to recognise Indonesian sovereignty over the territories of the former Dutch East Indies, with the exception of Western New Guinea, which the Dutch continued to hold as Netherlands New Guinea. The nationalist Indonesian government argued that it was the successor state to the whole of the final Dutch East Indies territories and wanted to end the Dutch colonial presence in the archipelago. The Netherlands argued that the Papuans were ethnically different and that the Netherlands would continue to administer the territory until it was capable of self-determination. From 1950 onwards, the Dutch and the Western powers agreed that the Papuans should be given an independent state, but due to global considerations, mainly the Kennedy administration's desire to keep Indonesia on their side of the Cold War, the United States pressured the Dutch to sacrifice Papua's independence and transfer the territory to Indonesia.

In 1962, the Dutch agreed to relinquish the territory to temporary United Nations administration, signing the New York Agreement, which included a provision that a plebiscite would be held before 1969. The Indonesian military organised this vote, called the Act of Free Choice in 1969 to determine the population's views on the territory's future; the result was in favor of integration into Indonesia. In violation of the Agreement between Indonesia and the Netherlands, the vote was a show of hands in the presence of the Indonesian military, and only involved 1,025 hand picked people who were "forced at gunpoint" to vote for integration, much less than 1% of those who should have been eligible to vote.^{[citation needed]} The legitimacy of the vote is hence disputed by independence activists who protest the military occupation of Papua by Indonesia. Indonesia is regularly accused of human rights abuses, including attacks on OPM-sympathetic civilians and detaining those who raise the Morning Star flag under accusations of treason.

As a result of the transmigration program, which since 1969 has included migration to Papua, about half of inhabitants of Indonesian Papua are migrants. Interracial marriages are increasingly common and the children of trans-migrants have come to see themselves as "Papuan" over their parents' ethnic group. As of 2010, 13,500 Papuan refugees live in exile in the neighbouring Papua New Guinea (PNG) and fighting occasionally spills over the border. As a result the Papua New Guinea Defence Force (PNGDF) has set up patrols along PNG's western border to prevent infiltration by the OPM. Since the late 1970s, the OPM have made retaliatory "threats against PNG business projects and politicians for the PNGDF's operations against the OPM". The PNGDF has performed joint border patrols with Indonesia since the 1980s, although the PNGDF's operations against the OPM are "parallel".

Prior to the arrival of the Dutch, two Moluccan principalities known as the Sultanate of Tidore and the Sultanate of Ternate claimed dominion over Western New Guinea. In 1660, the Dutch recognized the Sultan of Tidore's sovereignty over New Guinea. It thus became notionally Dutch as the Dutch held power over Tidore. A century later, in 1793, the United Kingdom attempted a failed settlement near Manokwari. After almost 30 years, in 1824 the United Kingdom and the Netherlands agreed to divide the land; rendering the eastern half of the island as being under British control and the western half would become part of the Dutch East Indies.