Colony of West Papua


"No right anywhere exist to hand people about from sovereignty to sovereignty as if they were property in a game"
- Woodrow Wilson, Washington, 11th Feb 1918
  From 1959 to 1962 some people in the United States government wanted the Dutch to give the colony of West New Guinea (West Papua) to Indonesia; but members of the United Nations can not legally buy, sell, or trade people. Also by writing General Assembly resolution 448, the Netherlands had legally admitted that West Papua was not their territory but is a non-self-governing territory for which the Netherlands was subject to article 73 of the Charter of the United Nations.
   Under the United Nations Charter the only two ways that the Netherlands could leave and be replaced by Indonesia was if
a) West Papua became a member of the United Nations that then asked Indonesia to occupy, or
b) if the General Assembly under articles 75-85 of the Charter (the International Trusteeship System) took over responsibility for West Papua and asked Indonesia to act as the United Nations power to satisfy the Charter requirements of article 76.
  Currently West Papua is suffering under option "b".
The 'New York Agreement' could not and did not trade West Papua.
  The Agreement allowed the General Assembly to vote to become legally responsible towards West Papua under articles 75-85 of the Charter;
which also makes the five Permenant Secrurity Council members responsible towards West Papua under articles 85 to 91 of the Charter as members of the Trusteeship Council.
  The reason for the deaths and suffering of West Papua is because the UN Secretary General has not yet told the Trusteeship Council that the General Assembly has made the trusteeship decision General Assembly resolution 1752.
In Australia there is a petition to be sent to Canberra during May 2015 asking the Australian government to comply with its legal obligations by putting General Assembly resolution 1752 on the Trusteeship Council agenda.
All Australians are encouraged to download, sign or gather signatures as explained in this petition and explanatory document.

The UN Secretary Generals act as if they've made a diabolical deal with Indonesia
What is a colony ?
It is "A region politically controlled by a distant country" *, a territory and its people under the political control of a remote or foreign administration.

A colony, or "non-self-governing territory", is also external to UN membership although the occupying or foreign administrating State may be a member of the UN, see UN Charter chapter XI.

West Papua and West Papuan people become subject to a Dutch colonial claim during the 19th century and became subject to Dutch nominal rule until the United Nations took possession of the colony in October 1962.

The UN colonization has been fifty years of terror squashing rights of speech, assembly, and life under the UN chosen administrator Indonesia..
TAPOL report: "No political prisoners? The suppression of political protest in West Papua"
Yale law school study from 2004, Indonesian Human Rights Abuses in West Papua: Application of the Law of Genocide to the History of Indonesian Control .

What is a trust territory ?
It is a concept created in chapter 12 * of the Charter (constitution) of the United Nations, it is a colony for which the UN has accepted legal responsibility. One type of "trust territory" is a colony which the United Nations has decided to administrate under article 85 and Chapter XII of the Charter of the United Nations in accordance with Article 77 part 1(c) of that chapter.

West Papua became a UN trust territory when the General Assembly made resolution 1752 (XVII) approving UN occupation and administration of West New Guinea (West Papua) as article 85 of the UN Charter allows the General Assembly to do.

Chronology

Sep 1958 - the Dutch Labour party makes a motion proposing that West Papua be made an United Nations Trust territory
Jan 1959 - US Ambassador Howard Jones suggests United Nations Trusteeship of West Papua would be a good solution
May 1959 - a counselor John Henderson in the US Embassy in Jakarta suggests details of an illegal scheme for using United Nations Trusteeship for getting Indonesia into West Papua
Apr 1961 - Dutch ask the New Guinea Council to declare within one year, a date for self-determination
Apr 1961 - the European Affairs Assistant Secretary of State recommends a legal use of United Nations Trusteeship System towards self-determination by West Papua
Apr 1961 - The NSC (American National Security Council) begins a campaign to convince President Kennedy to support an illegal scheme to trade West Papua like property
Sep 1961, 18th - UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold is 'accidently' killed in an airplane tragedy.
Sep 1961, 26th - Dutch ask United Nations to make West Papua a trust territory, but US and other nations do not support this bid
Oct 1961 - Dutch community agreement for trusteeship
Feb 1962 - Robert F Kennedy comments on situation
Aug 1962 - * Statements about the agreement *
Sep 1962 - UN report for 1962
Sep 1962 - Agenda for 1962 General Assembly, see final item
May 1963 - Indonesia becomes UN appointed administrator of territory
post 1973 - United Nations summary of Administrative History
-Notice- If the United Nations renames the file again, this is a copy of it ag-059 UNTEA.pdf
 
Possible assistance with understanding the conflicting behaviour above.
In 1935 Standard Oil (John Rockefeller) purchased 60% of NNGPM which in 1936 discovered West Papua' had the world's richest gold, silver, copper, etc. deposits; but there was no hope of the Dutch giving the Rockefellers a mining license in the Dutch colony. The NNGPM discovery and geology reports were never given to the Dutch government which had granted the exploration licence. The Japanese 1942 invasion ultimately failed in 1944. The Dutch returned in 1945. The Ford Foundation began telling corporate America that it should support Sukarno as a central military with whom US corporation could get easy access to the region's wealth. From 1949 onwards Sukarno was unwilling to give mining licences to US corporations. John Rockefeller's cousine was married to John Dulles the US Secretary of State from 1953 to 1959 when he died, and whose brother Allen Dulles was the CIA Director from 1953 to November 1961. In March 1959 it became public knowledge that the Dutch were searching for the mountain source of gold that had been observed across the southern beaches of West New Guinea. After John Dulles resigned as Secretary of State in April 1959 while the Dutch were searching for the gold mine, a joint mining interest of the Rockefellers and Robert Lovett called Freeport Sulphur flew Forbes Wilson to establish a Freeport claim on the Ertsberg region as a "possible copper reserve". The influence and contacts which Robert Lovett had throughout the US Department of State and US intelligence advisery services were more extensive than any other person then or since.

 
Trusteeship Legacy today
The UN Charter legally requires the UN to protect trust territories under articles 76, 87, and 88 until those territories have become fellow members of the UN as agreed in article 78 of the Charter. Although the UN decided in 1963 to replace the United Nations occupation force with an Indonesian occupation force, the United Nations is still required by article 76 to "promote" the "self-governance or independence" and other conditions in West Papua; and the five permanent Security Council members (America, Britian, China, France, Russia) who are the current Trusteeship Council members are still required to monitor & report the condition of West Papua to the United Nations each year under articles 87 & 88 until West Papua becomes a fellow member of the United Nations as agreed in article 78 of the Charter.

The difficulty is that the public and the Melanesian nations have not known that West Papua is a UN trust territory. This is because the United States for its own benefit as explained by the US Department of State, drafted the trust agreement without mention of Chapter XII of the UN Charter or trusteeship although the Trusteeship System (Chapter XII) is the only means by which the UN can agree to occupy a colony.

The requirement today is for the UN to resume its legal duties to protect the people of West Papua from Indonesia and others once the UN has acknowledged its legal capacity and duty to do so under the Trusteeship System chapter XII of the UN Charter. The easiest method to achieve this is for members of the United Nations to begin asking the United Nations, "is West Papua a trust territory?"

What are the "General Assembly" and "Security Council" ?
They are organs (part) of the United Nations defined in chapters 3, 4, and 5 of the UN Charter. Normally only the Security Council under chapter 7 articles 42 and 48 may use UN forces. The exception is article 85 of the UN Charter which permits the General Assembly to authorise UN occupation of any colony for which the Assembly approves a trusteeship agreement under the Trusteeship System chapter XII article 85 of the Charter of the United Nations.

Is West Papua a trust territory ?

The General Assembly approved the New York Agreement in 1962 by making General Assembly resolution 1752 (XVII), see 17th session of the General Assembly.

Also in 1962 UN troops occupied West Papua, see UN Historical Summary and the 1962 UN Yearbook pages 124-128.

The problem is that the US and others were willing to sacrifice West New Guinea to gain trade and other relations with the Indonesian Generals. The United Nations members had a self-serving motive to make the colony subject to the Trusteeship System as a means to allow the Indonesian military entry, while the UN members had no intention of ever acknowledging the West Papuan people's choice for indepndence.

Conclusion: Yes West Papua is a UN trust territory because that is the only way that General Assembly resolution 1752 (XVII) was able to authorise the deployment of UN troops from Pakistan to occupy the colony of West Papua.

Conclusion: Yes when you read the requirements of chapter XII of the Charter of the United Nations you will discover that the 1962 agreement is written in accordance with each of the several requirements, including the final requirement that it be approved by the General Assembly. The 1962 agreement has the form and exercises the functions of a trusteeship agreement because is is a trusteeship agreement for the United Nations to accept responsibility for West New Guinea, West Papua.

Comparison

General Assembly approval for agreement on Somaliland, 442 (V)
General Assembly statement about Somaliland,1479 (XV)
General Assembly approval for approval for agreement on West New Guinea, 1752 (XVII)
archive document

Did the "Act of Free Choice" change anything ?

No, the event which Indonesia calls the "Act of Free Choice" was not recognised by the United Nations (either the General Assembly or International Court of Justice) as either a referendum or a display of "self-determination" by the West Papuan people. It does not matter what Indonesia says, nor does it matter what Jakarta's supporters like Bob Carr say.

Only the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has jurisdiction to say with authority if the people of West Papua have granted their sovereignty to a foreign power.

The 1962 agreement (the New York Agreement) does describe the normal requirement for recognition of the people's decision by the UN General Assembly majority; a vote by all male and female adults who are not foreign nationals.

So what did the United Nations say in 1969? Only this, 2504 (XXIV)

What are the legal obligations of the United Nations members to a trust territory?

Article 76
The basic objectives of the trusteeship system, in accordance with the Purposes of the United Nations laid down in Article 1 of the present Charter, shall be:
to further international peace and security;
to promote the political, economic, social, and educational advancement of the inhabitants of the trust territories, and their progressive development towards self-government or independence as may be appropriate to the particular circumstances of each territory and its peoples and the freely expressed wishes of the peoples concerned, and as may be provided by the terms of each trusteeship agreement;
to encourage respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion, and to encourage recognition of the interdependence of the peoples of the world; and
to ensure equal treatment in social, economic, and commercial matters for all Members of the United Nations and their nationals, and also equal treatment for the latter in the administration of justice, without prejudice to the attainment of the foregoing objectives and subject to the provisions of Article 80.


Article 87
The General Assembly and, under its authority, the Trusteeship Council, in carrying out their functions, may:
consider reports submitted by the administering authority;
accept petitions and examine them in consultation with the administering authority;
provide for periodic visits to the respective trust territories at times agreed upon with the administering authority; and
take these and other actions in conformity with the terms of the trusteeship agreements.

Article 88
The Trusteeship Council shall formulate a questionnaire on the political, economic, social, and educational advancement of the inhabitants of each trust territory, and the administering authority for each trust territory within the competence of the General Assembly shall make an annual report to the General Assembly upon the basis of such questionnaire.

General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV)
1514 (XV). Declaration on the granting of independence to colonial countries and peoples
    The General Assembly,
Mindful of the determination proclaimed by the peoples of the world in the Charter of the United Nations to reaffirm
. . .
  Declares that:
1. The subjection of peoples to alien subjugation, domination and exploitation constitutes a denial of fundamental human rights, is contrary to the Charter of the United Nations and is an impediment to the promotion of world peace and co-operation.
2. All peoples have the right to self-determination; by virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.
3. Inadequacy of political, economic, social or educational preparedness should never serve as a pretext for delaying independence.
4. All armed action or repressive measures of all kinds directed against dependent peoples shall cease in order to enable them to exercise peacefully and freely their right to complete independence, and the integrity of their national territory shall be respected.
5. Immediate steps shall be taken, in Trust and Non-Self-Governing Territories or all other territories which have not yet attained independence, to transfer all powers to the peoples of those territories, without any conditions or reservations, in accordance with their freely expressed will and desire, without any distinction as to race, creed or colour, in order to enable them to enjoy complete independence and freedom.
6. Any attempt aimed at the partial or total disruption of the national unity and the territorial integrity of a country is incompatible with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations.
7. All States shall observe faithfully and strictly the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the present Declaration on the basis of equality, non-interference in the internal affairs of all States, and respect for the sovereign rights of all peoples and their territorial integrity.
947th plenary meeting,
14 December 1960.

But, can people say West Papua is not a trust territory ?

A common mistake is to look for a word formular, a specific phase you would like to see in a document; but there is no requirement in Chapter XII for an agreement to use the word "trusteeship". A logical reason neither the New York Agreement or the General Assembly approval res.1752(XVII) use the word trusteeship is because Indonesia was uncomfortable with the legal reality, Indonesia would not sign the agreement unless the UN and the agreement did not use the word trusteeship.

Another mistake by people new to the trusteeship question, is to confuse the 'System' of UN Charter chapter XII with the 'Council' of UN Charter chapter XIII. There is no need for the Trusteeship Council to be the UN administrator, and in fact Article 81 of the Charter requires the agreement to "designate the authority which will exercise the administration of the trust territory". The creation of the UNTEA was a means of satisfying the requirements of Chapter XII while not putting the colony under the control of the Trustesship Council which Indonesia would not accept, and without putting the UN administration under Indonesian control which the Netherlands would not accept. This is ALSO the reason that article 12 of the New York Agreement gave the UN the option of allowing Indonesian administration or not, because the Dutch insisted the UN had to have the option.

A third common mistake is to look to un.org web pages expecting that those are authoritive sources of information; but they are not. All the web pages at un.org are covered by disclaimers in their copyright and terms of use policy statements; the website clearly warns users that they use the information there at their own risk. Most importantly, the office workers writing the web pages and who assembled the Non-self-governing territory lists are not lawyers putting their names to the un.org web page claims denying the colonial status of West Papua.

Only the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has jurisdiction to decide if West Papua is a trust territory, but common sense says West Papua is and the media should be asking "Is West Papua a trust territory?"

Technically this means the current President of the Trust Territory under rule 1 of the Council's rules of procedure should be calling an immediate meeting ofthe Trusteeship Council to exercise General Assembly resolution 171 (III) so the ICJ can answer the question.

It also means every member of the UN has a moral and probably legal obligation to transmit their wish for the General Assembly to ask the ICJ the same question.

As a member of the Security Council and neighbour to West Papua, Australia should be eager to fulfil its obligations by asking the question at the Security Council. But is Australia a honest UN member or will it put its trade relationship with Indonesia ahead of regional human rights???

Who are the members of the Trusteeship Council? The members of the Security Council plus whichever UN member is in occupation of trust territory; see chapter 13 of the UN Charter.


The last statement by the United Nations about the territorial status of West Papua was in this document describing Indonesia as the "current administrator".

Please remember that ALL the web-pages at UN.ORG are covered by UN disclaimers to the effect: "This site may contain advice, opinions and statements of various information providers. The United Nations does not represent or endorse the accuracy or reliability of any advice, opinion, statement or other information provided by any information provider, any User of this Site or any other person or entity. Reliance upon any such advice, opinion, statement, or other information shall also be at the User's own risk."

Please also be aware that Indonesia and Reuters have been publishing mis-information about a UN General Assembly resolution in 1969, and that too many academics fail to read the document themselves because they assume Reuters understood and revealed the entire story... General Assembly resolution 2504 (XXIV) says nothing about the sovereignty of West Papua, and does not claim to have revoked UN trust status of the territory which was and still is being administrated by Indonesia pending an "act of self-determination" when the UN will hopefully acknowledge the sovereign choice of the West Papuan people.

The United Nations issue

The United Nations appears to be in abeyance of the United Nations Charter and has been since 1962, which would be issues the media could query in New York and Geneva.

By United Nations action and omission of actions, human rights have been suspended in the colony of West New Guinea (West Papua) since it became a UN administrated colony (trust territory) in 1962. Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed, unknown numbers have been raped, and a nation has been denied its freedom (self-determination) for fifty years.

Under the United Nations Charter, conditions in every colony must be reported to the organisation either under article 73(e) of the Charter, or under articles 87 and 88 of the Charter if it is a "trust territory". But the United Nations ceased monitoring conditions in the colony of West New Guinea (West Papua) in 1962, and has not attempted to implement articles 73(e), 87, or 88 of the UN Charter since then.

Why? Gold, money, profits, the common reason for turning a blind eye to genocide and colonial mining.

Background to the American mine and New York Agreement

The colony has the world's richest gold & copper desposit, Ertsberg, which the Rockefellers and other shareholders of the Freeport corporattion wanted. In 1961 a Freeport director Robert Lovett got his friend McGeorge Bundy appointed as the national security adviser in Washington DC from where they could influence US foreign policy to their benefit.

Legally the United Nations can not buy or sell people (slavery) but under chapter 12 of the UN Charter it can become the administrator of an entire colony until they are allowed to decide their sovereignty, self-determination by public vote which still has not been allowed in West Papua.

Like any con-artist or lier, the corporations and their friends told different stories to different people, they told the US President that sacrificing West Papua would save the world from communism, they told the other UN members that sacrificing West Papua would save the world from war with Indonesia, and they told the lawyers that the transfer of administration from the Netherlands to the United Nations was for benefit of the Papuan people. -Those were conflicting lies. The truth is simple, the Freeport directors wanted a cheap mining licence for West Papua's gold, copper, silver, etc. which they purchased from General Suharto in 1967. They had no intention of allowing the "act of self-determination" promised to be allowed by 1969.

The mine is worth $billions to the Indonesian Generals and the American shareholders, they had no intention of allowing the "act of self-determination" defined in the 1962 UN agreement. And they will still do anything they can to prevent West Papua being mentioned at the UN General Assembly.

When the UN General Assembly made resolution 1752 (XVII), the UN was legally required to add West Papua to the agenda of the Trusteeship Council, but this have never been done. The benefactors of the UN still not adding West Papua to the agenda of the Trusteeship Council have been Freeport and Bechtel corporations and their business partners in Jakarta at the expense of the West Papuan people.

Freeport was the first foreign mining license General Suharto signed and businessmen continue to make untold $billions from the arrangement...
.. those businessmen can and do exercise influence in Washington and among the UN General Assembly membership.
The West Papuan people had already chosen independence but the American media did not report this. Electoral rolls had been created and in January 1961 the colony elected representatives for a New Guinea Council which in April 1961 became their part of the administration of West New Guinea. Six months later the New Guinea Council heard of the American plan, and to prevent the terror of Indonesian rule it created this manifesto of independence declaring their people's wish to be free, to become an independent nation called West Papua which wanted to "live in peace and to contribute to the maintenance of world peace".
America and then the UN has ignored the West Papuan wish for freedom, for human rights, for their independence.

 
The 1962 Agreement

In September 1961 the Netherlands announced that it wanted the colony to become a United Nations trust territory, without Indonesia being allowed to occupy Papua. But America refused to support UN trusteeship unless Indonesia became the administrator of the UN territory.

In New York, America drafted an agreement which in accord with chapter 12 of the United Nations charter took effect when the UN General Assembly aproved the deal. The United Nations in October 1962 asserted a hostile occupation which denied permission for public rallies in Papua and refused to hear petitions under article 87 of the UN charter; and as administrator, the UN in May 1963 chose to allow Indonesia to occupy & administrate the colony pending an "act of self-determination" no later than 1969.

The agreement became a "trusteeship agreement" when the United Nations General Assembly endorsed the agreement in resolution 1752 (XVII), as required of a trusteeship agreement under article 85 of the UN charter.

In 1967 Indonesia illegally sold alleged mining rights of the colony to the Freeport corporation.

By this stage the Freeport friend McGeorge Bundy had left the White house to head the Ford Foundation, but a new adviser Henry Kissinger guided the US while Indonesia began using US equipment to kill people and level villages in areas wanted by the mine. Years later Henry Kissinger was rewarded with membership of the Freeport mining corporation's board.

No "act of self-determination" as promised in the agreement has ever been allowed in the colony, and neither Indonesia nor the United Nations Secretary-General have yet exercised their parts of the agreement (articles 14-20, and article 21 of the agreement).

Instead of fulfilling the trusteeship agreement, an Indonesian General in 1969 selected 1022 men whom he alleged represented the colony for an Indonesian process he called an "act of free choice". Purportedly the choice was to either raise their hands when told or their families would be killed and their villages burnt to the ground. Instead of expressing outrage at the inhuman conduct of the "act of free choice" the UN General Assembly made a resolution 2504 saying Indonesia had conducted something called "act of free choice" and neither Indonesia or the Netherlands were objecting.

The rule of law requires that the United Nations and Indonesia allow
the "act of self-determination" they promised in the New York Agreement.

 
Trusteeship

The Charter of the United Nations is written so that once the UN becomes the administrator of any colony, the territory will remain a "trust territory" even if the UN decides to allow one of its members to take over the administration of the trust territory. The only provision which the UN charter makes for "trust territory" status to end is article 78 - "The trusteeship system shall not apply to territories which have become Members of the United Nations, relationship among which shall be based on respect for the principle of sovereign equality.".

In other words, West Papua will remain a UN Trust territory until West Papua has determined its sovereignty (an act of self-determination), and has been accepted as a sovereign United Nations member by the other members. Or the International Court of Justice exercises its sole judicial jurisdiction to the same effect.

The rule of law requires that the United Nations members allow the "self-government" and "peace"they promised in the United Nations Charter.
The rule of law requires the UN members to protect the human right of "self-determination" promised in General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV), and resolution 1541 (XV).
The rule of law requires the United Nations to allow the "act of self-determination" it promised in the trusteeship agreement.

As was documented in this US Department of State record, America for its own benefit created this Agreement signed by the Netherlands, United Nations, and Indonesia agreeing on terms for their occupation and administration of West New Guinea as a colony until the Secretary-General of the United Nations reports "to the General Assembly on the conduct of the act of self-determination and the results thereof" and "The parties" .. "recognize and abide by the results of the act of self-determination".

It is not relevant to the United Nations territorial status of West Papua whether agreement has yet been completed, but as it happens the agreement will not be completed until a UN Secretary General can fulfil the above mentioned requirement of noting an "act of self-determination" as required by article 21 of the agreement.

As an international agreement involving the United Nations, only the International Court of Justice has jurisdiction to resolve any debate if it exists.

In legal terms, Indonesia abandoned its claim of sovereignty in 1962 by signing the New York Agreement agreement in exchange for administrating the colony for up to seven years before allowing an "act of self-detrermination" as defined in the agreement.

Indonesia has NO RIGHT to sell mining licenses to Freeport or BP, no right to fly the Indonesian flag over the Morning Star. Sovereignty and property rights belong to the West Papuan people, it always has, and they are NOT property to be traded between foreign powers.

West Papua became subject to the Trusteeship system when the General Assembly including Indonesia and the Netherlans supported resolution 1752 (XVII).


 
The last United Nations statement

The last UN statement about West Papua free of disclaimers appears to have been in this document from the 1970s which states:
 Administrative History
  The United Nations Temporary Authority in West Irian (UNTEA) was formed to administer West Irian, which is located on the island of New Guinea. In 1963 Dutch New Guinea became Irian Barat, which in 1973 changed its name to Irian Jaya and is currently administered by Indonesia. UNTEA administered West Irian from October 1962 to May 1963. The administrator was Djalal Abdoh.

Please note that the web-pages being published at un.org are subject to disclaimers in their "terms of use" and or "copyright" notices; such as "This site may contain advice, opinions and statements of various information providers. The United Nations does not represent or endorse the accuracy or reliability of any advice, opinion, statement or other information provided by any information provider, any User of this Site or any other person or entity. Reliance upon any such advice, opinion, statement, or other information shall also be at the User's own risk."

A side-note: 1969 (but important for Ban Ki-moon)

The "act of free choice" event in 1969 is irrelevent because it was not an act of self-determination, nor did the Secretary-General or General Assembly claim it was.

The events in 1969 were irrelevent because they did not affect the sovereignty of West Papua and therefore did not affect trust territory status. In fact the same administrator, Indonesia, remained in administration of the colony.

As it happens, the New York Agreement was not successfully concluded. Although the General Assembly in Resolution 2504 (XXIV) mistakenly alleged the Secretary-General had completed his task, but that task in article 21 of the agreement is not completed until the Secretary-General reports on an act of self-determination.

Current administration of the colony
Video summary about West Papua
Access in 2012, Prt 2, Swiss journalist arrested in Jayapura - 2010, Dutch journalists detained - 2009
Military operations in West Papua
Freeport 1996 Freeport 2006 Ertsberg - Wikipedia
environment
 
The Petition
I have drafted this petition which I invite members of the West Papuan community if you wish to, to endorse and publicly deliver copies of the letter directly to the President and members of the United Nations Trusteeship Council.

I believe West Papua is a United Nations trust territory which the United Nations Trusteeship Council should be asking about and should be asking the UN Special Committee of Decolonization about.

Legal concepts - Sovereignty

Neither the Netherlands nor the United Nations owned the sovereignty of the Papuan people and their homelands.

Just as Americans exercised self-determination in 1776, so too does every nation have the right to chose independence or to be subject to some other governance.

Neither the Netherlands nor the United Nations could give Indonesia something which they did not own; the Agreement was a grant to allow each to occupy and enforce control of the colony, but it ALSO was an agreement to allow and recognise Self-determination.

Sovereignty still belongs to the people of West New Guinea until they decide it belongs to their own or some other government, a process called self-determination which the United Nations has not yet recognised to have been exercised.

Jakarta had no legal right to sell a mining license to Freeport in 1967 or to BP now. The Indonesian Generals have no legal entitlement to cut down the forests of West Papua. And Jakarta has no legal right to try and divide West Papua against itself, or to delay self-determination contrary to it's signature on the Agreement and contrary to it's alleged acceptance of United Nations General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV).

Legal concepts - Trusteeship System
When the world endorsed the United Nations charter an important part of it's goal was to end colonization and in support of that the charter included three chapters titled:
CHAPTER XI : DECLARATION REGARDING NON-SELF-GOVERNING TERRITORIES
CHAPTER XII : INTERNATIONAL TRUSTEESHIP SYSTEM
CHAPTER XIII : THE TRUSTEESHIP COUNCIL
Human Rights concepts - Self-determination / Decolonization
United Nations General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV),
  14 December 1960 : DECLARATION ON THE GRANTING OF INDEPENDENCE TO COLONIAL COUNTRIES AND PEOPLES
United Nations General Assembly resolution 1541 (XV),
  14 December 1960 : A declaration that incorporates an agreed requirement for "Self-determination", PRINCIPLES WHICH SHOULD GUIDE MEMBERS IN DETERMINING WHETHER OR NOR AN OBLIGATION EXISTS TO TRANSMIT THE INFORMATION CALLED FOR UNDER ARTICLE 73e OF THE CHARTER

Contacts, you can contact the,
author at daeron@optushome.com.au American West Papuan Netork at http://www.wpaction.org, blog, or facebook Australian West Papua Association at www.zulenet.com/awpa/, mail-list, or facebook British Free West Papua campaign at www.freewestpapua.org, blog, or facebook
AK Rockefeller Soundtrack to the New World Order Dutch "Tanahku West Papua" German Free West Papua Kampagne
;
Other pages of interest
West Papua Media - news and current affairs
West Papua Information Kit
An archive for researchers and others interested in decolonization related to West Papua
Papua Web
An archive (2008) for students, researchers, development workers, community leaders, government agencies and others working on issues relevant to West Papua.
A Edith Cowan University project to use infographics to convey background of a conflict zone.
Sea Planes, Dutch Explorers and Suffocated Coral

 

Free West Papua,
a poem by Bill Anderson 2010.
Surrey Hills, Australia.

By the Waters of West Papua,
Sad Island Friend,
We sit down and weep.
 
Behold a Pale Horse...
 
If we forget you West Papua,
Sad Island Friend,
Let our tongues split,
our hands lose their skills.
And his name...
 
How long
must we look North,
Sad Island Friend,
with horror and Shame ?
 
Was death...

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."
- Edmund Burke (1729-1797)