More on the Indonesian atrocities against West Papuan citizens and first peoples.
Please follow the link through to the Paul Gregoire interview with academic Jason McLeod.
For music buffs the link to the cd & booklet on Bandcamp is at the bottom of the article.
"The We Have Come to Testify CD and booklet are available for download here."
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A lot of this is very familiar from the East Timor struggle and their battle for independence from Indonesia, who invaded and took over as colonisers in 1975 when Portugal relinquished sovereignty. Then Indonesia waged a brutal war in 1999 after the East Timorese voted for independence during which the UN had to send in peacekeeping troops, mainly from Australia & N.Zealand I believe. They only gained full independence in 2002, but after Indonesia had used slash and burn tactics to destroy much of the country and it’s already impoverished economy,
Marionville
Level 10
Oct 13, 2019
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West Papua is an ethnically and physically disparate country to The Indonesian archipelago. The reason for Indonesian interest was primarily due to American desire for profit from the gold, silver and copper reserves discovered in 1936 and now extracted from the Grasberg Mine.
@FrayedBear I’m aware of the geography...and the history. I was merely making the comparison in terms of brutality, Historically West Papua has been part of Indonesia going back to before the Dutch colonised the region naming it all the Dutch East Indies...after the Dutch left the Indonesian archipelago in 1963 they held onto the western half of Irian Jaya (or Papua)... of which West Papua is the most westerly of three provinces. It wasn’t until 1977 that the Dutch handed the three provinces back to Indonesia, but on the understanding that there would be a referendum on autonomy. West Papua is supposed to be an autonomous province .
@Marionville They are not the same race of people as Indonesians. There was never a true referendum. Indonesia migrated about a million from Indonesia to West Papua.
It is one of the grossest recent colonialisations in recent history though soon to be overtaken by Syria.
@FrayedBear I know that they are not the same race of people...but the point I make is that colonisation by Indonesia has been going on for centuries, and they treated the East Timorese brutally too, and they were newly colonised by Indonesia. I understand about the mining etc.
@Marionville Indonesia also claims Australia is theirs.
@FrayedBear Have they ever invaded?
@Marionville No. Illegal fishers, people smugglers and rape of Aboriginals.
@Marionville They still claim it on their maps.
@FrayedBear The Brits grabbed it first!
@Marionville We all know and have a public holiday supposedly to celebrate it.