Indonesia (West Papua)

Timeline

History of West Papua

• 1883 - Island of New Guinea is partitioned by three Western powers -- the Dutch claiming the western half; and the Germans and British dividing the eastern half into German New Guinea in the north and British Papua in the south
• 1949 - Netherlands East Indies becomes Indonesia but Dutch New Guinea (Papua) remains under Dutch control
• 1950s - President Sukarno maintains Indonesia's claim to all former territory of the Dutch including Dutch New Guinea
• 1961 - Dutch announce a decolonisation programme promising independence by 1970. Papuans ask to become an independent state. Sukarno issues commands to liberate Papua from Dutch control
• 1962 - There are low-level military incursions by the Indonesians, with the threat of a major military operation. The Dutch agree, under U.S. pressure, to transfer the administration of Papua to Indonesia through the U.N. Temporary Executive Authority
• 1963 - Indonesia takes control of the administration of Papua from the U.N
• 1965 - Free Papua Movement (OPM) is founded to resist Indonesian occupation
• 1967 - The mining company Freeport starts exploiting massive copper reserves in Mount Cartenz in the centre of the province
• 1969 - The Act of Free Choice. The territory, known by now as West Irian, votes to join Indonesia in a referendum sanctioned by the United Nations but shown later to be flawed. Armed resistance by the OPM continues and the government declares West Irian a Military Operations Area. Human rights groups say thousands of civilians are tortured, terrorised and killed
• 1970 - The government lifts restrictions on free movement into West Irian, massively increasing migration
• 1973 - The province is renamed Irian Jaya
• 1975 - Papua New Guinea (the other half of the island) achieves full independence
• 1977 - The Free Papua Movement (OPM) blows up an ore pipeline at the Timika mine. The army responds with Operation Tumpas (annihilation) in which attack jets fire on villages. At least 900, possibly thousands, of civilians die
• 1981 - A Dutch television crew films hundreds of people brandishing spears and shouting anti-Indonesian slogans. The army responds by bombing the Paniai basin in the Central Highlands, one of the most densely populated areas of Irian Jaya. An estimated 2,500 people are killed
• 1998 - The Fall of Indonesian dictator Suharto. A broad, civilian-based independence movement emerges. Papua ceases to be a Military Operations Area
• Soldiers open fire on civilians sleeping beneath a raised West Papuan Morning Star independence flag in the northwestern town of Biak, killing around 150 people

1999

• Feb - 100 provincial leaders (Team 100) ask President B.J. Habibie for independence for Irian Jaya
• Apr - Demonstrations are held against a government announcement that Irian Jaya is to be split into three provinces (the law is later delayed)
• Dec - 800,000 people gather at various sites in Irian Jaya to celebrate the national day of West Papua, as the separatists call the province. This is peaceful except in Timika, site of the Freeport mine, where the army shoots on the crowd

2000

• Feb - President Abdurahman Wahid permits, and funds, a Papuan National Congress. This leads to the creation of the Papuan Council Presidium (PDP) to lead the pro-independence movement
• May - A second Papuan congress calls on the government to recognise the independence of West Papua
• Jun - The government initiates a police and military crackdown. It sends in 25,000 troops between 2000 and late 2004
• Oct - Riots, shootings and beatings relating to the hoisting of the Papuan "Morning Star" flag cause tens of deaths in Wamena, the largest town in the central highlands of Papua
• Nov - Five PDP leaders are jailed

2001

• Apr-Oct - Nine people, including policemen, are killed in attacks on logging companies in the sub-district of Wasior by an unidentified group. During police reprisals one person dies, seven are killed, hundreds of villagers are displaced and dozens of houses destroyed
• Oct - Under a new Special Autonomy law, the province is renamed Papua and allowed its own flag and anthem. The law assumes Papua to be a single territorial unit and provides it with a vast share of resources from natural resources in the province. But the Free Papua Movement and the PDP reject the package, saying it doesn't go far enough
• Nov - Theys Eluay, president of the PDP, is abducted and killed

2002

• Jan - Special Autonomy comes officially into effect
• Aug - Two American teachers and their Indonesian companion are killed in an ambush outside the Freeport installation. The government blames breakaway Papuan rebels while others say it was the military

2003

• Foreign media are banned from entering Papua, although some foreign journalists have since entered after months of struggling and permit rejections
• Jan - President Megawati Sukarnoputri resurrects the 1999 plan to divide Papua and orders the province divided into three parts. This undercuts Special Autonomy and angers moderates, independence fighters and religious leaders
• Apr-May - Ten villages are torched in the central highlands, killing around 20 people. The Free Papua Movement blames Laskar Jihad, which has moved into Papua to confront and defeat Christian separatists and defend Muslim communities and the Indonesian state
• Aug - After fatal clashes in Timika the division into three provinces is postponed

2004

• The Indonesian constitutional court annuls the law dividing Papua into three, but accepts the establishment of West Irian Jaya province, in the westerly third of Papua
• Aug - Shootings by unidentified people lead to months of military operations in the district of Puncak Jaya in the Central Highlands. Thousands flee to the jungle, where at least 23 die from the lack of food, shelter and medicine. Homes and livestock are destroyed

2005

• Troops continue to arrive in Papua, with reports of widespread civilian displacement, arson, and arbitrary detention in the central highlands region
• Feb - The military attack 500 people in Yomdori District who are mourning the death of an independence leader
• Aug - A reported 10,000 Papuan protestors hold the largest-ever demonstration in the province over the failure of the government to implement Special Autonomy as mandated in the 2001 agreement. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono promises to seek a peaceful end to the conflict
• Oct - The government sets up the Papuan Peoples Council (MRP) in accordance with provisions in the 2001 Act on Papuan Special Autonomy

2006

• Jan - An Indonesian/U.S. investigation into the killing of two American schoolteachers concludes that Papuans were behind the shooting and declares eight men suspects
• Australia grants temporary protection to all but one of 43 Papuan asylum-seekers who arrive by boat, claiming that the military is committing genocide in the province
• Feb - Demonstrations in Timika against a clampdown on illegal gold-miners close the Freeport mine for several days
• Mar - Demonstrators kill five members of the security forces as they try to break up a demonstration in the capital, Jayapura, which is demanding the closure of the Freeport mine and the departure of Indonesian troops
• The government holds elections for the new province of West Irian Jaya, and also for the province of Papua

2007

• Communal tensions between Muslim migrants and Christian Papuans almost erupt into violence
• Oct - Tribal clashes near Freeport mine

2008

• Jul/Aug - Six people are arrested on treason charges after raising the Morning Star flag, symbol of the separatist OPM. A man is shot dead after a similar gesture
• Sep - OPM claims responsibility for a series of small bomb attacks near Freeport�s mine, calling for its closure
• Dec - Indonesia drops controversial plans to monitor HIV/AIDS patients by implanting them with microchips

Source: Reuters Alertnet

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