Organisasi Papua Merdeka:
The Free Papua Movement Lives by Malcolm Gault-Williams West Papua — or Irian Jaya, as it has been renamed by the
Indonesian government — is Indonesia's 26th province, occupy-
ing the western half of the island of New Guinea. For the
people of West Papua, however, Indonesia is an occupying
power. Since the area is so little known, most non-Papuans are
unaware that West Papuans have been struggling for independ-
ence there ever since the mid-1960s, led by the Organisasi
Papua Merdeka (OPM — Free Papua Movement). 1 The OPM's basis for its claim to complete sovereignty for
West Papua "is out inalienable birth right which is firmly and
justly enshrined in the desires of the indigenous Melanesian
people of the territory as outlined in the New Guinea Council
resolution of 31 October 1961," stated OPM's Henk Joku, at
the first regional meeting of the World Council of Indigenous
Peoples (WCIP), Pacific Region, in June 1984, ". . . in con-
formation with [the] preamble and Article 1 of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations of
December 14, 1960." 2
Historical Background The people of West Papua are Melanesians. They are of the
same ethnic origin as the Papuans who inhabit the eastern end
of the vast island and the indigenous peoples of the Solomon
Islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and parts of Fiji. They have
many different languages — in West Papua alone there are at
least 750 languages. The one thing they all have in common
is their Melanesian way of life and culture. Of the five million
people living on the whole island, one-half live on the West
Papuan side. 3 The island of New Guinea is the second largest island in the
world after Greenland. It lies between the equator and 12°
latitude south between the Philippines and Australia. The island
is troplical, includes some of the largest tracts of unexplored
land area left on Earth, and has a wide range of different
physical conditions, ranging from the hot, swampy lowlands
to snow-covered mountains. West Papua itself is a land of high
mountain ranges, mangrove swamps, and jungles. It is domi-
nated by a great cordillera, running from east to west, comprised
of the massive Carstensz mountain range. One of the most
extensively and intensively cultivated regions is the Paniai re-
gion, generally referred to as the Central Highlands. This,
together with the Baliem Valley to the east, is the most densely
populated region. 4 In the days before foreign penetration, Papuans lived in
widely scattered hamlets, having little contact with the outside
world. The tribes in West Papua were in fact sovereign small tribal states
within which the group, which was an economic, political and
military entity, was kept up by the mutual link springing from the
fact of having common ancestors. Anyone who did not by virtue
of this mutual link belong to the group . . . was a foreigner who, if
he entered the territory of the tribal state without reasons acceptable
____________________
| 1 | Malcolm Gault-Williams, "West Papuans Fight for Independ-
ence — Free Papua Movement Leads Struggle against Indonesia's Re-
pressive Rule", The Militant, 9 January 1987 . Published by the
Socialist Workers Party, U.S.A. | | 2 | Henk Joku, "West Papua:"The Plea of the People of West Papua,
IWGIA Newsletter, No. 41 ( 1985 ), p. 136. Published by the Interna-
tional Work Group for Indigenous Affairs, Fiolstraede 10, DK 1171
Copenhagen K, Denmark. | | 3 | Fred Korwa, "West Papua:"The Colonisation of West Papua,
IWGIA Newsletter, No. 36 ( 1983 ). Fred Korwa is a member of the
Free Papua Movement. | | 4 | Ibid.; see also TAPOL, West Papua:The Obliteration of a People,
(London: TAPOL, the Indonesian Human Rights Campaign, sa Tre-
port Street, London SW 18 2BP, U.K., 1984 ). | -32- | 
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