Department of Foreign Affairs Immigration and Trade
Pig, symbol of justice and peace in West Papua
An engaging photograph, a short story, and two fascinating ABC-Radio interviews about the importance of pigs in the religious and social life of the highlanders of West Papua.
West Papua’s return to the UN: fulfilling Hammarskjöld’s legacy
This memorial for Dag Hammarskjöld and his 1961 Decolonisation Program for West Papua explores a complex global story of two UN peace-keeping undertakings in 1961 organised by the UN Secretary-General. The first inserted a UN peace-keeping military force into the Democratic Republic of Congo to de-escalate conflict over the new state’s mineral resources. The second was designed to deliver the West Papuans their right of self-determination and to prevent Indonesia from invading and taking over the Non-Self-Governing Territory. What was the outcome? First, the Secretary-General lost his life. Second, the new state of Congo nose-dived from a new democracy to a long-standing authoritarian state. Third, the Non-Self-Governing Territory of Dutch New Guinea (West Papua) was passed to Indonesia, an Asian state on the verge of political and economic collapse.
What is the United Liberation Movement for West Papua?
"United Liberation Movement for West Papua ~ its mission, activities, achievements" was presented by Jacob Rumbiak to the International League of Peoples Struggle Webinar on 28 July 2020.
Dutch guerilla’s memoir of WWII in Netherlands (West) Nieuw Guinea
'We fought in the Jungle: my guerrilla struggle in New Guinea in the Second World War' is the English translation of em>Vij Vochten in het bos a WWII memoir by Sergeant Maurits Christiaan Kokkelink, which was published in Amsterdam in 1956 but never reprinted, and was found in a second-hand bookstore in Ljouwert, capital of the far northern province of Friesland.
West Papua increases its legal arsenal with publication of ‘State responsibility in international law’
This legal paper affirms that States have a responsibility to protect all those within their territory; that third States have a right and obligation to complain of wrongful acts committed by a sovereign State; and finally, that sovereignty comes under question where a people within a sovereign state are subject to alien subjugation or serious violations of their human rights. The 24,000 word paper (100 x A5 pages) is downloadable (below) and can be quoted providing the usual creditations are incorporated.
Federal Republic of West Papua publishes important new book
This book traces the shift in international law during the twentieth century from states' rights to people's rights, and how the norms of jus cogens (rules that cannot be derogated from) have broadened to include self-determination, genocide, slavery, torture, murder and the disappearance of individuals. It brings together all the UN resolutions, and principles, and rules that have been applied, or ignored, in the case of West Papua’s occupation, and analyses the relationship between occupied West Papua and international law. The booklet (160 x A5 pages) is downloadable (below) and can be quoted from providing the usual creditations are incorporated.
3rd Papuan National Congress, Declaration
On 19 October, Prokorus [normally spelt Forkorus] Yaboisembut was elected President
of West Papua, and the evangelist Edison G. Waromi was elected Prime Minister.
Following the elections, Prokorus Yaboisembut read out the Declaration of a new
state—the Federal State of West Papua, the symbol of the state—the Mambruk Bird, the
currency—the guilder, the national anthem—Hai Tanahku Papua, the national
languages—Pidgin, Indonesian Malay, Papuan languages, and English, and the
geographic territory.
The Declaration stated: “On this day, 19 October 2011, we proclaim the full
independence and sovereignty of our state, and therefore the State of Indonesia must
speedily end its occupation of Papua. All components of the leadership elected at the
Third Papuan People's Congress shall immediately discuss the basic principles of the
State of West Papua”.
West Papua’s Right to Self-Determination
In this five-thousand word paper for the 2001 Festival of Ideas in Adelaide, Jacob Rumbiak examines three international agreements and three Indonesian regulations, via which over-rode Dutch-funded self-determination policies and projects, and the West Papuans right to be consulted, and independence, were consciously ignored.
Reflections from behind the Iron Bars of Indonesia
A moral appeal on behalf of the Jayapura Five, first published in West Papua Media.
