The United Nations should be preparing for another mission similar to that in East Timor. Sadly, if the U.N. does anything, it will merely be doing something it should have done, 41 years ago. Hopefully, it will also be better managed than was the plebiscite for the East Timorese.
Indonesia’s control over the territorities it inherited from the former colonial powers continues to weaken, as yet another people seeks independence.
West Papuan independence leader, Benny Wenda, has been reported “arrested”.
West Papuan independence leader, Benny Wenda, has been reported “arrested”.
As of this writing, his whereabouts remain unknown.
An estimated 300,000 or nearly one third of West Papua’s people have “disappeared”, since Indonesia took over the former Dutch colony, in 1962.
The Netherlands once controled all of what is now Indonesia and relinquished its colonial rule in 1949, but reserved the Western half of the Island of New Guinea. The rationale was that West Papua was – and is - Melanesian, with no ethnic, linguistic or cutural links to the other islands.
An estimated 300,000 or nearly one third of West Papua’s people have “disappeared”, since Indonesia took over the former Dutch colony, in 1962.
The Netherlands once controled all of what is now Indonesia and relinquished its colonial rule in 1949, but reserved the Western half of the Island of New Guinea. The rationale was that West Papua was – and is - Melanesian, with no ethnic, linguistic or cutural links to the other islands.