The Papua Conflict

The Papua Conflict
Author: Richard Chauvel
Publisher:
Total Pages: 100
Release: 2004
Genre: History
ISBN:

?Without Irian Jaya [Papua], Indonesia is not complete to become the national territory of the Unitary Republic of Indonesia.? In recalling this statement of President Sukarno, her father, Megawati Sukarnoputri gave voice to the essence of the nationalists? conception of Papua?s place in Indonesia and its importance. Indonesia today confronts renewed Papuan demands for independence nearly three decades after Jakarta thought it had liberated the Papuans from the yoke of Dutch colonialism. Indonesia?s sovereignty in Papuan has been contested for much of the period since Indonesia proclaimed its independence??challenged initially by the Netherlands and since 1961 by various groups within Papuan society. This study argues that even though Indonesia has been able to sustain its authority in Papua since its diplomatic victory over the Netherlands in 1962, this authority is fragile. The fragility of Jakarta?s authority and the lack of Papuan consent for Indonesian rule are both the cart and the horse of the reliance on force to sustain central control. After examining the policies of special autonomy and the partition of Papua into three provinces, the authors pose the question: If Jakarta is determined to keep Papua part of the Indonesia nation??based on the consent of the Papuan people??what changes in the governance of Papua are necessary to bring this about?This is the fifth publication in Policy Studies, a peer-reviewed East-West Center Washington series that presents scholarly analysis of key contemporary domestic and international political, economic, and strategic issues affecting Asia in a policy relevant manner.

The Road: Uprising in West Papua

The Road: Uprising in West Papua
Author: JOHN. MARTINKUS
Publisher: Black Incorporated
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2020-03-16
Genre:
ISBN: 9781760642426

Chemical weapons deployed. Choppers taken out. Tens of thousands of people displaced. Communications repressed. The West Papuan independence movement has reignited, and Indonesian troops are cracking down. In The Road, John Martinkus gives a gripping, up-to-date account of the province's descent into armed conflict and suppression. Replete with vivid detail and new information, his revelatory work of journalism shows how and why a highlands road led to an uprising, and where this might all lead.

Conflict, Violence, and Displacement in Indonesia

Conflict, Violence, and Displacement in Indonesia
Author: Eva-Lotta E. Hedman
Publisher: SEAP Publications
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2008
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780877277453

This volume foregrounds the dynamics of displacement and the experiences of internal refugees uprooted by conflict and violence in Indonesia. Contributors examine internal displacement in the context of militarized conflict and violence in East Timor, Aceh, and Papua, and in other parts of Outer Island Indonesia during the transition from authoritarian rule. The volume also explores official and humanitarian discourses on displacement and their significance for the politics of representation.

Papua's Insecurity: State Failure in the Indonesian Periphery

Papua's Insecurity: State Failure in the Indonesian Periphery
Author: Bobby Anderson
Publisher:
Total Pages: 92
Release: 2015-08-03
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780866382649

West Papua is the most violent area of Indonesia. Indonesian security forces battle the country's last active separatist insurgency there. The majority of Indonesia's political prisoners are Papuans, and support for independence is widespread. But military repression and indigenous resistance are only one part of a complex topography of insecurity in Papua: vigilantism, clan conflict, and other forms of horizontal violence produce more casualties than the vertical conflict that is often the exclusive focus of international accounts of contemporary Papua. Similarly, Papua's coerced incorporation into Indonesia in 1969 is not unique; it mirrors a pattern of long-term annexation found in other remote and highland areas of South and Southeast Asia. What distinguishes Papua is the near-total absence of the state in indigenous areas. This is the consequence of a morass of policy dysfunction over time that compounds the insecurity that ordinary Papuans face. The author illuminates the diverse and local sources of insecurity that indicate too little state as opposed to too much, challenges common perceptions of insecurity in Papua, and offers a prescription of policy initiatives. These include the reform of a violent and unaccountable security sector as a part of a broader reconciliation process and the urgent need for a comprehensive indigenous-centered development policy.

Freedom in Entangled Worlds

Freedom in Entangled Worlds
Author: Eben Kirksey
Publisher: Duke University Press
Total Pages: 329
Release: 2012-03-21
Genre: History
ISBN: 082235134X

Ethnography that explores the political landscape of West Papua and chronicles indigenous struggles for independence during the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Diminishing Conflicts in Asia and the Pacific

Diminishing Conflicts in Asia and the Pacific
Author: Edward Aspinall
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2012-10-02
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1136251138

Since the publication of the 2005 Human Security Report, scholars and policy-makers have debated the causes, interpretation and implications of what the report described as a global decline in armed conflict since the end of the Cold War. Focusing on the Asia-Pacific region, this book analyses the causes and patterns of this decline. In few regions has the apparent decline in conflict been as dramatic as in the Asia-Pacific, with annual recorded battle deaths falling in the range of 50 to 75 percent between 1994 and 2004. Drawing on a wide range of case studies, this book looks at internal conflicts based on the mobilization of ethnic and nationalist grievances, which have been the most costly in human lives over the last decade. The book identifies structures, norms, practices and techniques that have either fuelled or moderated conflicts. As such, it is an essential read for students and scholars of international relations, peace and conflict studies and Asian studies.

Conflict and Resource Development in the Southern Highlands of Papua New Guinea

Conflict and Resource Development in the Southern Highlands of Papua New Guinea
Author: Nicole Haley
Publisher: ANU E Press
Total Pages: 206
Release: 2007-11-01
Genre: Intergroup relations
ISBN: 1921313463

The Southern Highlands is one of Papua New Guinea's most resource-rich provinces, but for a number of years the province has been riven by conflict. Longstanding inter-group rivalries, briefly set aside during the colonial period, have been compounded by competition for the benefits provided by the modern state and by fighting over the distribution of returns from the several big mining and petroleum projects located within the province or impinging upon it. Deaths from the various conflicts over the past decade number in the hundreds. As a result of inter-group fighting, criminal activity and vandalism, a number of businesses have withdrawn from the province. Roadblocks and ambushes have made travel dangerous in many parts and expatriate missionaries and aid workers have left. Many public servants have abandoned their posts with the result that state services are not provided. Corruption is rife. Police are often reluctant to act because they are outnumbered and outgunned. This volume brings together a number of authors with deep experience of the Southern Highlands to examine the underlying dynamics of resource development and conflict in the province. Its primary purpose is to provide some background to recent events, but the authors also explore possible approaches to limiting the human and economic costs of the ongoing conflict and breakdown of governance.

Indonesia’s Failure in Papua

Indonesia’s Failure in Papua
Author: Emir Chairullah
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 174
Release: 2021-12-28
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1000518396

Chairullah investigates how the political, social, and economic interests of national and local elites were negotiated in the formulation and early stages of Special Autonomy in Papua Province, Indonesia. The Papuan case lends support to the current conception of elite theory, which considers the influence of actors and dynamics beyond power elites in the decision-making process. The failure of the policy implementation as a conflict reduction strategy in the Papuan case can be attributed to the dynamics of elite configurations during the negotiation and early implementation stages. Chairullah presents two significant new findings for research on Papuan Special Autonomy. Firstly, that secret negotiations were held between Papuan and national elites during Abdurrahman Wahid’s presidency, and these were crucial in reducing separatist sentiment in Papua. Secondly, that the United States, through Freeport McMoRan, strongly influenced the Special Autonomy negotiation process. The actions of national elites in Jakarta led to widespread disappointment about the policy at all levels in Papua and the subsequent escalation of separatist sentiment based on Papuan ethnic identity. An important book for scholars of Indonesian politics and society, and especially those with a particular interest in the Papuan conflict.

Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict in Indonesia

Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict in Indonesia
Author: Jacques Bertrand
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 308
Release: 2004
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780521524414

Since 1998, which marked the end of the thirty-three-year New Order regime under President Suharto, there has been a dramatic increase in ethnic conflict and violence in Indonesia. In his innovative and persuasive account, Jacques Bertrand argues that conflicts in Maluku, Kalimantan, Aceh, Papua, and East Timur were a result of the New Order's narrow and constraining reinterpretation of Indonesia's 'national model'. The author shows how, at the end of the 1990s, this national model came under intense pressure at the prospect of institutional transformation, a reconfiguration of ethnic relations, and an increase in the role of Islam in Indonesia's political institutions. It was within the context of these challenges, that the very definition of the Indonesian nation and what it meant to be Indonesian came under scrutiny. The book sheds light on the roots of religious and ethnic conflict at a turning point in Indonesia's history.