The airstrips are used to launch the process of 'transmigration' from Java and the general encroachment of the Indonesians. Today at least a third of the population is no longer indigenous and given that the authorities no longer need the missionaries for the past year they have stopped renewing their visas. The army has more efficient strategies of dealing with those who resist than the missionaries one of offering western material goods. Since then a small guerrilla army has managed to survive the onslaught of the Indonesian army. The OPM's structure reflects the society that spawned it and has very little hierarchy.
Regional commanders are many and due to lack of co-ordination their effectiveness is relative.
The movement has however shown itself capable of uniting an ethnically diverse community behind a single common objective and enjoys popular support. Also, what would be called in the west a 'cell like' structure ensures that 'leaders' cannot be taken out. These factors help to explain why the resistance has successfully continued for so long. But with their spears and bows and arrows they are little match for the Indonesians, one of the biggest and best equipped armies in the world. Figure one gives some perspective of the size of the army compared to other states in the region.