Indonesia took over the territory May 1, 1963. Two years later, Indonesia itself was taken over in the cataclysmic military coup that put still-reigning General Suharto in power. Journalists were excluded from the meeting, although leaked U.N. and diplomatic reports convey its coerced, uninformed and undemocratic nature. Angered by this betrayal and receiving no support from the international community, West Papuans began to organize guerrilla resistance under the Organisasi Papua Merdeka, the Free Papua Movement. But the OPM knows West Papua s jungles and mountains far better than ABRI does and continues to control significant areas in the bush.
Casualties are hard to estimate, but the pattern is familiar.
They have their own agricultural systems. They say West Papua has little people and is practically empty. The multinationals are being allowed to come in. Papuans have no place in this development process. They are considered backward and primitive, and they become second-class citizens in their own country.