1962: The New York Agreement
The New York Agreement (NYA) was the most cruel agreement ever perpetrated on our indigenous West Papuan people. It is the basis of the sham referendum of the 1969 ‘Act of Free Choice’ election and the very reason West Papua is being occupied by Indonesia today. Today, we look back at this agreement, its impact on our lives, and how it violated everything we know about international laws, and our argument entitled the Washington Solution.
The NYA was an agreement hatched by foreigners to control our indigenous people in complete violation of the International Human Rights Convention. In 1948, the United Nations Human Rights Council was created, and its charter is graced with “rights” and protection of all people of the world without exception.
Article 3
Everyone has the right to life, liberty and the security of person.
Article 4
No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.
Article 5
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.[1]
Yet, in 1962, the power brokers of the UN were willing to violate this Human Rights Charter in pursuit of political power and global influence. Using the UN institutions and Human Rights apparatus, they threw away West Papuan rights to self-determination and handed over West Papua to Indonesia. They essentially participated in the enslavement of an entire nation.
The NYA was a conclusion in search of an argument
The overall objective of the NYA was to transfer West Papua from one colonial power, the Netherlands, to another, the Republic of Indonesia. The word “transfer” (from the Netherlands to the Indonesian government) is mentioned more than twenty times in the NYA. The word “transfer” has a different meaning from “election” and they knew it. So, apparently, the principal objective of the NYA was to make sure Indonesia was in control of West Papua. Everything after that was simply a ruse. They cared more about preventing the Soviet Union from taking over Indonesia than the rights of West Papuans.
The conspiracy
In 1969, the UN powerbrokers agreed that West Papua would be unquestionably transferred to Indonesia, but the question was how they should do it without the appearance of violating the ‘rights of West Papuans.’ To enable this, these UN power brokers misled the West Papuan people and all UN members by pretending to hold an election in which West Papuans would vote for their own self-determination. As planned, the UN observers and security forces in West Papua turned everything to do with that election to the Indonesian government. In other words, the country that wanted West Papua in the first place was now in charge of the election that would determine the outcome.
In spite of the fact that the Indonesian government rounded up 1,025 to vote in favor of the integration of West Papua and Indonesia; and in spite of troublesome evidence that the election was rigged from the start, the UN envoy certified the election, and West Papua was removed from one colonial power and handed over to another colonial power, Indonesia.
West Papuans rejected the election
For half a century, West Papua has been asking and demanding the UN take a look at the case of the sham referendum of 1969 – arguing that if the election was so corrupt, Indonesian occupation of West Papua should be revoked giving way to a new election.
In 1988, Dr. Thom Wainggai brought up the fact that the NYA was a violation of West Papuan human rights and their right to self-determination. He also argued that the Indonesian government agreed to merely administer West Papua for two decades after which the West Papuan people would vote for their own self-determination. And because he challenged the legality of the NYA and the sham election of 1969, he was arrested by Dictator Suharto, charged, and sent to prison for twenty years, where he died in 1996, eight years into his twenty-year prison term.
Looking back
61 years on, and the UN has yet to acknowledge its participation in the trading of West Papua people in exchange for keeping the Soviet Union away from direct control of the Southeast Asian nation of Indonesia. They refused to even consider West Papua as a colonized people who are entitled to self-determination. Of all the democratic countries that sold West Papua to one of the most repressive regimes in Southeast Asia, none of them is willing to take responsibility for their crimes against West Papuans; instead, they are still funding the Indonesian military, a military that murdered half a million West Papuans over the years.
To this day, West Papuans are educated about their past and why things are the way they are today. They understand now they are victims of the Cold War.
As Americans, Australians, Europeans, and Brits complained about China’s treatment of their minorities—the Uighurs, the Tibetans, and now Taiwan—they must look in the mirror and see their own reflections. When Indonesia attacked West Papuan villages where children, women, and old people lived using banned explosives, the condemnations disappeared as fast as they appeared. But somehow, the condemnation of Ukrainian bombings has filled all their media since the attack on Ukraine started. They were quick to condemn Israel for bombing Palestinian villages, while the over one hundred West Papuans slaughtered in 2019 were never reported in Western media. They aren’t important to the world, apparently!
A few years ago, Indonesia was also allowed to become a member of the Human Rights Council, alongside China. And while these countries are known for their attacks on civil rights, they never faced censorship, just promotions and pat in the backs. However, a petition signed by an overwhelming number of West Papuans was rejected by the UN. Whose interest are they representing?
Regional betrayal
West Papuans have always looked to the Pacific region, particularly the Melanesian Bloc, of which West Papua is an ethnic member, for support. Since the founding of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG), the organization’s main objectives have always been to promote and protect Melanesian cultures. Over the years, however, MSG has lost much of its credibility as its leaders began taking money from the Indonesian government. Today, Indonesia is an Associate Member of the MSG, using some bogus ethnic claims they know very well are fabrications, while the real Melanesians—the West Papuans—are being sidelined and treated with contempt by the only Melanesian organization in the world.
Even the Pacific Islands Forum, Indonesian money has completely silenced those countries that used to support West Papua. Of the 16 or so countries that have openly supported West Papua in the past, only one country remains committed to supporting West Papua: The Republic of the Marshall Islands. We are grateful for them, and we also thank those NGOs in various countries in the Pacific that are speaking up for West Papua.
The Washington Solution
In our Washington Solution, we believe that the United States of America is the only answer to our struggle for independence. Without the US leadership role in the transfer of West Papuans to Indonesia in the 1960s, West Papua would have been an independent democratic country. Given that the Cold War is gone and the threat of Communist expansion worldwide through military conquest has been eradicated, it is incumbent on the US government to make things right and settle the dispute between our indigenous West Papuans and Indonesia. It is time to correct the mistakes of the NYA, return the two sides to the negotiating table, and revisit the Rome Agreement (RA). In the Rome Agreement, Indonesia and the Netherlands agreed to allow Indonesia to administer West Papua for 25 years, at which time the West Papuan people would vote for self-determination. It was an agreement that Indonesia deliberately violated and the Netherlands willingly overlooked.
West Papua will never rest until their rights are granted and protected!
Free West Papua
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Temporary_Executive_Authority