In Port Numbay, West Papua, yesterday (August 15), indigenous people gathered to remember the New York Agreement, and how that agreement affected our indigenous people for the past six decades. Leading the meeting were Mr. Septinus Paiki and Pilipus Robaha.

Some West Papuan Representatives of the Indonesian State Intelligence Agency also attended. Mr. Paiki and Robaha took the opportunity to present to them the Washington Solution, which is our argument for a better and lasting peaceful solution to the ongoing conflict in West Papua that had claimed hundreds of thousand of lives.

Earlier this year, Mr. Paiki and brother Robaha visited Washington, D.C. for the Symposium on West Papua, in which the ‘Washington Solution’ was launched. They visited the United Nations, the US congress, and met with various leaders in US, including scholars who are working alongside West Papuan representatives in the US to bring the unresolved issue of West to the US Congress and the United Nations. They are now leading West Papuans back home in reminding Indonesia that it is time to allow West Papuans to vote for their own self-determination.

In the Washington Solution, we – the West Papua Human Rights Center – argue that the key to a lasting peaceful settlement of the conflict in West Papua is the US government. It was the US government that led the creation of the NYA to transfer West Papua to Indonesia as bargain to keep the Soviet Union away from the newly created country. Now that the Cold War is over, it is incumbent on the US government to take a leading role in correcting this six-decade old error.

You can download the Washington Solution (PDF format) by clicking the picture below.