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The Kingdom of the Netherlands effectively wiped their hands
of the people and lands of the western half of New Guinea
island when they ceded sovereignty over the territory to the
United Nations Temporary Executive Authority on 1st October,
1962.
Indonesia took independent control of the territory and of
its people from the UN on May 1st, 1963. Even token if ineffective
international supervision ceased from this date.
In 1969, the Indonesian government, who had by that time a
tight military control of West Papua, began the process of
being seen to fulfil the clause in the New York agreement
stipulating that the Papuan people would have the chance to
vote for or against integration with Indonesia. A so-called
"referendum" took place, which was ironically or cynically
termed by the Indonesian administration, an "Act of Free Choice".
Just
1,022 hand-picked people, out of a population of some one
million people, participated in the Act: a public declaration
of loyalty to Indonesia.
The United Nations record states, in the report of the Secretary-General's
Special Representative, Mr. Fernando Ortiz-Sanz, in November
1969:
"I regret to have to express my reservation regarding
the implementation of article XXII of the Agreement, relating
to 'the rights, including the rights of free speech, freedom
of movement and of assembly, of the inhabitants of the area'.
In spite of my constant efforts, this important provision
was not fully implemented and the Administration exercised
at all times a tight political control over the population."
A Blind Eye
A blind eye was turned to this so-called "referendum" by the
international community and by most countries at the United
Nations - a "referendum" which did not permit one-person one-vote,
and where those who did vote did so in a climate of fear.
The Ghanaian delegation to the UN, under Mr. Akwei, called the
process "a travesty of democracy and justice". Mr. Akwei
went on to say:
"We cannot claim for ourselves what we refuse
to extend to others because to do so would be to establish
double standards."
Brian May, then a reporter for AFP, Agence France Presse, termed
the process "The United Nations fiasco". The journalist
Hugh Lunn later wrote:
"I witnessed that event (the Act of Free Choice
in 1969) and saw the hypocrisy of world politics and felt
the numbing sadness of a people being taken over by another
race."
On
November 19, 1969, the report of the Act of so-called "Free"
Choice was 'noted', but not considered, by the UN General
Assembly.
With that, West Papua was dropped from the agenda of the UN,
and into silence; its people at the mercy of the brutal Indonesian
military, with the eyes of the world averted.
Go East
If the United States people went West, destroying the peoples
and cultures of the Native North Americans, the Indonesian
people are now going East threatening the very survival of
the Papuan people. The Indonesian military has been responsible
for the deaths of tens of thousands of people to date in West
Papua; the military continues to kill Papuans in West Papua.
Javanese and other Indonesian settlers continue to take their
land. International forestry and mining companies also take
the Papuans' land to make money for themselves and their foreign
investors.
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