Pre-European History of Papua

        Despite scant records of interaction between the people of Papua and other Indonesian ethnic groups, trade and social contacts had already begun since the early centuries after Christ. The earliest record of the island dates back to the 8th century during the period of Sriwijaya, the first kingdom whose territory approximately covered the whole of the present-day Indonesia, with its capital in the vicinity of present-day Palembang, the capital of South Sumatra province. King Sri Indrawarman sent many gifts to the emperor of China, including some birds of paradise indigenous of Papua, which was then known as Janggi.

        Five centuries later, a Chinese traveler by the name of Chau Yu Kua visited the Nusantara (the old name for the Indonesian archipelago) island of Tung-ki. Experts believe that Tung-ki was the Chinese transliteration of Janggi. He noted that the people of the island had a close relationship with the people of the Molluca Islands.

        The second major archipelagic kingdom in Indonesia was Majapahit of East Java. During the reign of King Hayain Wuruk (1292-1521), many lesser kings of the archipelago came to the capital to pledge allegiance and form an alliance with the mighty king, including the kings of the Mollucas whose territory included the island of Papua. In 1365, Gajah Mada, prime minister to the court of Hayam Wuruk, commissioned a book on the history of Majapahit to the court-chronicler Prapanca. In the book titled Nagarakertagama, Prapanca wrote about places in Majapahit's eastern territories, including Papua. Evidently, by the mid 14th century Papua was an integral part of Nusantara.

        
First European Contacts

        The first Europeans to reach Papua were Spanish and Portuguese explorers in the 16th century in search of better trade routes to the famous Spice Islands. Alvaro de Saavedra, the first European to set foot on the northern shores of Papua on his way to Mexico, was sent by the Spanish governor in Tidore in 1529. But it was another Spanish seaman, Ynigo Ortiz de Retes, who landed on the island somewhere near the mouth of the Amberno River in north Papua in 1545, who gave the island the name Nueva Guinea. The Portuguese referred to the big island in the east by the name of Ilha de Papoia.

        Spanish control over the eastern islands of Indonesia was short-lived. After 80 years of war between Spain and Holland, a pact - the so-called Peace of Münster - was concluded in 1648, by which the Dutch obtained privileges and gained complete monopoly over all the Indonesian islands. In 1663 the Spaniards were driven out of the Mollucas by the Dutch and were forced to retreat to the Philippines. From then on, the Netherlands became the dominant European power in Papua. The Pact was later reiterated and reinforced by the Agreement of Utrecht (1714) and by the Agreement of St. Ildefonso (1797).

        
The Dutch Colonial Period

        During the 18th century, Dutch control over the island was indirect, through the Sultanate of Tidore, which became a Dutch vassal in 1779. The Sultanate status was later reinforced through the Netherlands Government Acts of 1814. In 1828, Dutch Commissioner A.J. van Delden, in a ceremony to officiate the Fort du Bus on the southern shore of the island, proclaimed it a territory of the Netherlands.

        The Netherlands' territories in the eastern islands were partly based on the sultanate's territorial boundaries that included many parts of West Papua. Recognition of Dutch control over these islands can be found in the London Agreement (1814-1824) that concluded the war between England and Napoleon's France. According to Article 6 of the Agreement, the British should return the eastern islands of the Indonesian archipelago, including West Papua, to the Dutch. This clearly indicates that at the beginning of the nineteenth century, West Papua had been considered internationally as an integral part of the Indonesian archipelago.

        However, in the early years of the 19th century, the Dutch colonial borders in West Papua were not very clear. The first efforts to draw the border of West Papua began in 1846 when the Dutch Governor General J.J. Rochussen issued a confidential decision that delineated the land boundaries of the Sultanate of Tidore on the island.

        According to the decision, the Sultanate's eastern boundary was at 140º east longitude in the north and 141º east longitude in the south. The boundary was later strengthened in 1895, when the Netherlands and Great Britain agreed that the Netherlands Indies eastern boundary was a line that began at 141º 1' 47" east longitude in the south, then following the Fly River basin northward until 141º east longitude. From there it followed a straight line up to the northern shore. This was published in the Netherlands Indies' State Gazette No. 220 and 221 of 1895. Confirmation of the boundary of Netherlands New Guinea is also found in the English Parliamentary Letters of July 1886, the "Correspondence respecting New Guinea". Today, the line separates Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

        
Papua and the Indonesian Struggle for Independence

        Papua, particularly the Digul Region, also played an important part in the national struggle for independence. It became a symbol of the Indonesian struggle against colonialism. In the late 1920s, about 823 Indonesians, along with 473 women and children, accused of taking part in an uprising against the colonial government in various parts of Indonesia, were forced into exile without trial in Tanah Merah, about 500 kilometers upstream of the Digul River. In those days the journey took three days by motorboat from the river's mouth on the southern shore to an area less than one square kilometer that was cleared from the surrounding wild tropical jungles dotted with malaria-infested ponds.

        Later, Indonesian student leaders such as Sutan Sjahrir and Muhammad Hatta (with whom Soekarno in 1945 proclaimed Indonesia's independence) found their way to Tanah Merah. There, Hatta wrote his famous book "Alam Pikiran Yunani" (The World of Greek Thoughts) in which he discussed the ideas of freedom and democracy. In some ways, the label "ex-Digulist" had become a "proof" of their struggle for Indonesian independence. All of these have strengthened the emotional ties between Papua and the other Indonesian islands.

        
The Restoration of West Papua into Indonesia:

1945-1949

        After Japan surrendered, the Netherlands returned to Indonesia as part of the allied force deployed in Indonesia. They ignored the fact that the Indonesian people had exercised their right to self-determination and were ready to re-impose colonial rule over the Indonesian archipelago. An armed conflict between Indonesia and the Netherlands ensued and it only ended when the parties concluded a peace agreement at The Hague in 1949 in which the Netherlands recognized and accepted the independence and sovereignty of Indonesia.

        Two days after Soekarno and Mohammad Hatta proclaimed Indonesia's independence on August 17, 1945, the Committee for the Preparation of Indonesia's Independence announced the division of Indonesia into eight provinces: Sumatra, West Java, Central Java, East Java, Lesser Sunda, Maluku (Moluccas), Sulawesi (Celebes) and Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo). West Papua was part of the Maluku Province, which during the time of the Netherlands Indies was a residency (an administrative unit of the colonial government). Hence, since the very beginning West Papua was never regarded as being separate from the rest of Indonesia.

        In his radio address to the nation on August 23, 1945, President Soekarno reiterated that West Papua was part of the new republic. He said: "My people! In Sumatra, in Java, in Borneo, Sulawesi, Lesser Sunda, Moluccas - from Aceh to Merauke!" Undeniably, the territory of the Republic of Indonesia covers the whole of the Netherlands Indies, including West Papua. During this period, the slogan "from Sabang (the northernmost tip of Sumatra) to Merauke (southernmost town of the Dutch East Indies in the Island of Papua) was commonly used to describe the nation's territory.

        This period also witnessed efforts by the Dutch to artificially separate West Papua from the rest of Netherlands Indies. In July 1946, the Dutch Colonial Government - which had just returned from exile in Australia - sponsored a conference, the so-called Malino Conference, in Makassar, South Sulawesi. The conference was a conscious effort by Lieutenant Governor General H.J. van Mook to circumscribe the weight and scope of the new Republic, by making it only a state in the proposed Unitary States of Indonesia along with the States of East Indonesia and Kalimantan. The term "Malinosasi" or "Malinonization" was then often used among the Republicans to describe this divide et impera policy of the colonial government.

        Mr. Frans Kaisiepo, a native Papuan leader appointed by the colonial government to represent Papua, rejected van Mook's proposed federation and instead delivered his own proposal of changing the name of the territory from "Nederlands Niew Guinea" into Irian. Irian derived from the native language of Biak Island in Northern Papua, which means "sunrays that disperse sea mists". It alludes to the "hope" of Biak fishermen at sea to reach Papua Island beyond the horizon.

        The colonial government was not happy with Kaisiepo's actions. In the follow-up conference in Denpasar in December 1946, a Dutchman was sent to represent the Papuan people, despite repeated appeals by the Papuan people to the Resident of Papua, Mr. J. van Eechoud. On December 12 1946, Papuan leaders: Marthen Indey, Corrinus Krey and Nicolas Youwe dispatched a telegram to the Lieutenant Governor General stating that West Papua cannot be separated from the Republic of Indonesia.

        The Lieutenant Governor General in the meantime quietly sowed the seed of the Dutch's latter claim that Papua was separate from Indonesia by establishing a separate Papua residency from the Residency of Moluccas. This made Papua a "separate" political entity. During subsequent conferences in Pangkal Pinang and in Denpasar, Lieutenant Governor General van Mook resisted all efforts to include Papua Island in the State of Eastern Indonesia. Other Indonesian participants overwhelmingly opposed this position.

        In the end, however, van Mook himself admitted that it was "decidedly, not the intention of the Dutch Government to exclude New Guinea from Indonesia." Thus started a long and violent dispute between Indonesia and the Netherlands over the status of West Papua.

        Yet, during the series of negotiations between Indonesia and the Dutch Government that led to the Round Table Conference in December 1949, the Dutch Government acknowledged that Indonesia comprised the entire territory of the Netherlands East Indies, including West Papua. Article 3 of the Linggardjati Agreement (1947) stated that:

        "The United States of Indonesia shall comprise the entire territory of the Netherlands East Indies."

        On January 17, 1948, the Renville Agreement, reached under the auspices of the United Nations Good Offices Committee, stated inter alia:

        "Sovereignty throughout the Netherlands East Indies is and shall remain with the Kingdom of the Netherlands until, after a stated interval, the Kingdom of Netherlands transfer its sovereignty to the United States of Indonesia"

        Once again, it was explicitly stated that the Netherlands East Indies would be replaced by a new sovereign and independent state of Indonesia.

Round Table Conference, December 1949

        After years of difficult negotiations and often-bloody clashes between the two parties, the Netherlands and Indonesia agreed to hold a conference for the purpose of arranging the transfer of power over the former Dutch colonies in the East Indies. As a preliminary step, a fact-finding team was formed. The Republic of Indonesia was represented by Dr. Mohamad Roem, while the Dutch Government appointed Dr J. H. van Royen as their representative. Their agreement, which later came to be known in history as the Roem-Van Royen Statement was concluded on May 7, 1949. It reasserted the United Nations Security Council resolution of January 28, 1949, which stated that the Round Table Conference would take place with a view to accelerating the unconditional transfer of real and complete sovereignty to the United States of Indonesia in accordance with the Renville Agreements.

        At the conference Dr van Royen himself stated that "the population of Indonesia consists of about seventeen ethnic and linguistic groups which, in their turn, contain a still greater number of sub-groups.... Common existence under the Netherlands Crown has created a sense of Indonesian nationality." This statement is most relevant because it demonstrates not only the common existence but also common fate and common struggle of the people of West Papua with the rest of Indonesia against the colonial rule.

        The issue of West Papua had brought the Round Table Conference that opened on August 23, 1949 in The Hague to a near deadlock. The Indonesian delegation was of the opinion that the transfer of power should include the whole territory of the former Dutch East Indies, including West Papua. However, at the last moment, when agreement had been reached on all other points, the Dutch government was adamant on the exclusion of the territory of West Papua in that transfer of sovereignty. The Dutch government based its objectives on irrelevant arguments, i.e. that ethnologically speaking West Papua did not belong to Indonesia.

        The Indonesian delegation considered the sudden switch to ethnological and anthropological consideration absurd, since the Round Table Conference was a political conference held for the purpose of arranging the transfer of power over the former Dutch colonies in the East Indies. The widely believed reason was that domestic political dynamics in the Netherlands necessitated the maintenance of a sort of 'Dutch presence' in Asia, particularly in the Pacific. Thus, Dutch-Indonesians would later settle the status of West Papua in bilateral negotiations under the continued Dutch colonial rule.

        This stiff and unyielding Dutch stand concerning West Papua came as a surprise to the Indonesian delegation, particularly when agreement had been reached on almost all other points. Mr Ida Anak Agung Gde Agung, the then foreign minister and head of delegation of the State of East Indonesia wrote: "This matter was of particular concern to the delegation from the State of East Indonesia….West Papua was in the sphere of East Indonesia and had been included in the former Dutch province of 'The Greater East', which covered almost the same territory as the State of East Indonesia." It is also important to note that the Netherlands Constitutions of 1922 and 1948 did not mention West Papua as being separate from the rest of Indonesia.

        To avoid a deadlock, a compromise resolution on West Papua was finally accepted in the early hours of November 1, 1949, much to the disappointment of the Indonesian delegation. The text read as follows:

        "The status quo of the Residency of New Guinea shall be maintained with the stipulation that within a year from the date of transfer of sovereignty to the Republic of the United States of Indonesia the question of the political status of New Guinea be determined through negotiations between the Republic of the United States of Indonesia and the Kingdom of the Netherlands." (Article 2)

        When the actual transfer of sovereignty took place on December 27, 1949 the forced exclusion of West Papua clouded the happiness of Indonesians. It was, notwithstanding, the best choice at the time in the struggle to achieve independence and full sovereignty. The Indonesian people never doubted that the separation of West Papua was only temporary, as implied in Article 2. Yet, the dispute over West Papua continued to trouble relations between Indonesia and the Netherlands until 1960 and put both countries on the brink of war.

1950-1960

        Several attempts to resolve the question of West Papua through negotiations within a year of the Round Table Conference between Indonesia and the Netherlands ended in deadlock. Consecutive cabinets that came to power after independence, from the Hatta Cabinet up to the Wilopo Cabinet, put the West Papua issue on the top of their agendas. However, as was evident from the beginning, the Dutch government had not the slightest intention to adhere to Article 2 of the Charter of the Transfer of Sovereignty and maintained the principle that West Irian should be excluded in the transfer of power.

        The situation for the Indonesian negotiators become even more impossible when the Dutch government amended Article 1 of its constitution in 1952, in which the territory of the Kingdom of the Netherlands was defined. The amended article stated that the Netherlands' New Guinea would become a part of that territory. This was certainly in direct contravention with Article 2 of the Round Table Conference, which stipulated the status quo of West Papua until a negotiated solution was found.

        It was against this backdrop that President Soekarno deemed it necessary to being the West Papua issue to the United Nations General Assembly session in 1954, which regrettably, failed to adopt the draft resolution. However, observers were of the opinion that Indonesia gained a moral victory because it succeeded in drawing international attention to the West Papua issue, and furthermore, all African-Asian nations supported Indonesia's national claim. By this, more than the half of the world's population supported Indonesia's position.

        The support of Asian and African states was reiterated in the Asian-African Conference in 1955 in Bandung. This Conference was attended by delegations from 29 countries, representing two thirds of the world's population. The conference adopted the following resolution:

        "The Asian-African Conference in the context of its expressed attitude on the abolition of colonialism, supported the position of Indonesia in the case of West Irian, based on the relevant agreements between Indonesia and the Netherlands."

        "The Asian-African Conference urged the Netherlands Government to reopen negotiations as soon as possible to implement their obligations under the above-mentioned agreements, and expressed their earnest hope that the United Nations would assist the parties concerned in finding a peaceful solution to the dispute."

        The efforts of the Asian-African governments proved successful and the General Assembly adopted resolution 915(X) in 1955 on the question of West Papua. Regrettably, efforts to solve the West Papua problem, both bilaterally and through the United Nations mechanism, up to the end of the decade proved futile due to the inflexibility of the Dutch Government and lack of support for Indonesia's position from the world powers, particularly the United States.

        Meanwhile, the West Papua problem entered a new phase. The Dutch had been steadily building-up military capability on the territory, and in 1960 deployed its aircraft carrier to the waters around West Papua. Coinciding with the military deployment, the Dutch instituted the Papuan Council, consisting of appointed members, some of whom were Dutch nationals and some Papuans. The chairman was a Dutch official, and the authority of the council was restricted to giving advice to the Dutch governor and its legislative function was limited. The purpose of this move was to create an impression that the Dutch government was preparing the Papuans towards self-government and later the exercise of the right of self-determination. The Papuan national flag, the Morning Star, and anthem were also created.

        In an effort to get the United Nations to sanction their plan, the Dutch foreign minister submitted a plan in September 1961 to the world body, which later became known as the Luns Plan. Referring to Resolution 1514 (XV) of the United Nations General Assembly on decolonisation, the foreign minister submitted a proposal to decolonise West Papua as soon as possible. He also invoked Article 73 of the United Nations Charter regarding non-self-governing territories.

        The new situation displeased the Indonesian government and compelled it to take a more assertive stance on the matter. Indonesia considered the Dutch policy not only as a declaration of intent to maintain colonial rule in West Papua, but also as a threat to Indonesia's territorial integrity and security. As a consequence, on August 17, 1960 in his Independence Day address President Soekarno announced the breaking of diplomatic relations between the Netherlands and Indonesia. A year later he announced the issuance of TRIKORA (an Indonesian acronym for the People's Three Demands):

        1. Thwart the formation of a puppet state of Papua by the colonial power;
        2. Raise the Indonesian Red and White flag in West Papua; and
        3. Prepare a general mobilization to defend national indepen­dence and unity.

        In response to the Dutch diplomatic offensive, Indonesian Foreign Minister Subandrio was sent to New York with a special mission to expound and explain to the United Nations General Assembly-which met from September to November 1961-the true motive of the Dutch in giving the Papuan people the right of self-determination in such a short time.

        As a co-sponsor and ardent supporter of Resolution 1514 (XV), Indonesia objected to the Dutch efforts to invoke it and not to complete the independence of the Indonesian nation but instead to partition its territory. Paragraph 6 of the Resolution states that "the partial or total disruption of national unity and the territorial integrity of a country are incompatible with the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter". In this context, Indonesia maintained that Article 73 could not apply to West Papua as it forms an integral part of the Republic of Indonesia and was occupied by force by the colonial authorities. Furthermore, Indonesia pointed out that if the United Nations was sincere in resolving the West Papua issue, it would eradicate Dutch colonialism and return the territory to the Republic of Indonesia. Indonesia emphasized the bringing this dispute under Article 73, would mean a negation of the letter and spirit of the Round Table Conference, as well as the purposes of the United Nations Charter and, in essence, Article 73 itself. With this, the Indonesia-Dutch dispute over West Papua entered a new level of hostility and put both countries on the brink of war.

        
New York Agreement

        The possibility of a new war in the West Pacific caused much anxiety in the international community. United Nations Secretary-General U Thant took the initiative to send notes to the two parties concerned, asking them to restrain themselves and to try find a peaceful solution to the West Papua issue bilaterally. Indonesia welcomed the UN Secretary General's initiative, because for more than a decade Indonesia-in accordance with the provisions of the Round Table Conference-had been seeking to find a peaceful solution to the dispute.

        Due to the breakdown of diplomatic relations between the two countries, Indonesia had no alternative but to seek a third party as intermediary in the bilateral negotiations. Both governments agreed to the intermediary of the UN Secretary-General and Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker of the United States. In March 1962, the so-called Bunker Plan was submitted to both governments. It was followed by an agreement-later known as the New York Agreement-between the Republic of Indonesia and the Kingdom of the Netherlands concerning West New Guinea (West Papua) on August 15, 1962. The agreement provided for the initial transfer of administration of West Papua by the Netherlands to an interim UN authority (the United Nations Temporary Executive Authority-UNTEA) on October 1, 1962 and subsequent transfer from UNTEA to Indonesian control on May 1,1963.

        A few hours after the United Nations flag was lowered over West Papua, the Indonesian Government appointed a native son of West Papua to the office of governor of the province. Such an appointment was more than what was called for in the Agreement, namely to accelerate the participation of the people in the local government. Thus ended colonial rule over all of Indonesia and a prolonged dispute between Indonesia and the Netherlands. The speedy solution was in itself an achievement and highlighted Indonesia's commitment to find a peaceful solution to the problem of separation of West Papua from the rest of Indonesia.

        
The Act of Free Choice

        Another salient provision of the Agreement was the Act of Free Choice that would take place six years after the administration had been formally and fully transferred to Indonesia. For Indonesia this provision was a compromise solution to promptly reach a peaceful resolution of the West Papua question and to meet the demands of the Netherlands to avoid armed conflict. Nevertheless, the Agreement left the method and procedure of the Act of Free Choice to the Indonesian Government in consultation with the existing Papuan representative councils as legal representatives of its people (Article XVIII).

        As had been clarified by the representative of Indonesia to the United Nations, the Act of Free Choice is not an act of self-­determination in the strict, traditional, and orthodox sense. This is because Indonesia never considered West Papua as being separate from the rest of Indonesia. The period of six years was to allow for the Papuans to become reacquainted with the rest of Indonesia after having been unjustly divided by the colonial power. It was only with such assurances that the Indonesian Parliament adopted and ratified the Agreement on September 1, 1962.

        Some misinterpretations and misunderstandings, however, have occurred and persisted regarding the role of the UN in the Act of Free Choice and the procedure chosen to implement it. The New York Agreement between Indonesia and the Netherlands was a bilateral instrument concluded between the two parties themselves and was not reached on the basis of any resolution or any other mandate of the United Nations General Assembly. The underlying factor, which called on the Secretary-General to assume an intermediary role, was in response to pressing international circumstances. Subsequent measures taken by the Secretary-General, including the establishment of UNTEA and the dispatch of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Ambassador Fernando Ortiz-Sanz of Bolivia, from 1968 until 1969, were based primarily on the provisions of the Agreement itself. In addition, the fact that the financial expenses were borne equally by the Governments of Indonesia and the Netherlands, as stipulated in Article XXIV of the Agreement, reflected the limited role of the United Nations.

        The role of the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative in the Agreement was clearly restricted. Ambassador Fernando Ortiz-Sanz acknowledged early on that he "… was not given any political or administrative authority, not even a supervisory function." Rather, his responsibility according to the Agreement was to "advise, assist and participate in arrangements which are the responsibility of Indonesia for the Act of Free Choice, having in mind the interests and welfare of the people of the territory".

        Despite the limited role of the UN, in the spirit of the Agreement the Government of Indonesia actively sought advice and assistance of the UN in determining the method and procedure of the Act of Free Choice. The level of socio-cultural development of Papuan people at that time, the ruggedness of the terrain and difficulties in communication and transportation, made the one-man-one-vote system impossible to implement. The Government of Indonesia therefore chose musyawarah-already a familiar democratic process with the Papuan people-as the most appropriate method of self-determination. Musyawarah is an Indonesian traditional practice of democracy that calls for consultations and discussions towards consensus. This Act of Free Choice would be done through regional councils, which would be enlarged to form consultative assemblies. These consultative assemblies consisted of representatives directly elected by the people, functional faction that consisted of interest, social, cultural and religious groups, and traditional factions that consisted of elected tribal representatives.

        Both the United Nations Representative and the Netherlands were consulted and approved of the method chosen, as reported in the Djakarta Times on February 26, 1969. Papuan legislators also showed their support with the method of self-determination. The Indonesian Government in fulfilling its duty to inform the people of Papua and to explain the methods to be followed for the Act of Free Choice published an information paper explaining the New York Agreement. It also communicated additional information concerning what the Government was doing with regard to the Act of Free Choice through newspapers, newssheets and radio broadcasts.

        The Government also ensured basic rights and freedoms such as freedom of speech, to the extent of immunity from prosecution. Legally organized political groups were allowed to function. However, ominous activities that included widespread intimidation, terror and threats of the so-called "Free Papua Movement" or "Free Papua Organization" greatly complicated the situation in the territory. From the beginning, their intention was to oppose, sabotage and wreck the implementation of the Act of Free Choice. Despite provocation, the authorities pursued a policy of restraint and moderation in overcoming insurrection and armed confrontation and adopted a policy of clemency and leniency.

        Notwithstanding the difficult circumstances, the Act of Free Choice was carried out from July 14 to August 2,1969, with the active participation of the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative as stipulated in the New York Agreement. In his report to the General Assembly the Special Representative acknowledged that:

        "The petitions opposing annexation to Indonesia... show that without doubt certain elements of the population of West Papua held firm conviction in favor of independence. Nevertheless, the answer given by the consultative assemblies to the questions put to them was a unanimous consensus in favor of remaining with Indonesia."

        "Finally, on the basis of the facts presented in this report and the documents referred to, it can be stated that with the limitations imposed by geographical characteristics of the territory and the general political situation in the area, an act of free choice has taken place in West Papua in accordance with the Indonesian practice, in which the representatives of the population have expressed their wish to remain with Indonesia."

        On November 19, 1969, the 24th UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 2504(XXIV) that recognized the results of self-determination in West Papua in accordance with the New York Agreement. With the adoption of the resolution, the international community formally recognized West Papua as an integral part of Indonesia. Thus ended the long and costly dispute over the status of West Papua between Indonesia and the Netherlands. West Papua has been rightfully restored to Indonesia and the result of the Act of Free Choice was a revalidation by the Papuan people of the 1945 proclamation of Indonesian independence.