The West Papuan people had been voting in local elections during the 1950s and in 1961 elected a national Parliament. After the United States forced the Netherlands to sign the 1962 New York Agreement, Indonesia was able to remove this Parliament on promise of allowing West Papuans to one day be allowed to have an 'Act of Free Choice' to be designed and conducted by Indonesia.
The widely criticized "Act of Free Choice" was conducted from 14 July to 2 August 1969 not by the United Nations but by the Indonesian military. Indonesia had in talks with the UN in January 1969 said West Papuans were incapable of voting, and that a Indonesian system called Penentuan Pendapat Rakyat (PEPERA) would be used instead.
For this Act approx. 1025 Papuans were selected by the military and instructed to vote for integration else suffer retribution (such as the TNI inflicted upon Dili & East Timor after East Timor voted for its indepence in 1999). Indonesia announced the black Pacific nation of West Papua had unamiously vote to become part of the Islamic Asian State of Indonesia. Thereby making the Indonesian 1967 sale of West Papua's vast gold & copper wealth to the Freeport McMoRan corporation legal under US law.
The Indonesian system was scheduled to occur while the western media were
occupied with the Apollo moon walk and US President Nixon's three week
tour of Asia;
Reuters even issued instructions that no reporter was to cover the
West Papua vote; when two reporters questioned this as they felt the
West Papuan vote was vital regional news they were instructed not to
travel to West Papua; however Reuter correspondent Hugh Lunn ignore this
instruction and attended the event where he wittnese Papuans with
protest signs such as "One, One Vote" whom the Indonesian arrested
at gun point.
Former West Papuan politicians Clemens Runaweri and Wim Zonggonau testisfy they were
with the people of Jayapurra during the Act of Free Choice
preparations, when the crowd started singing Christian hymns in protest
of the Indonesian conduct; and that in response Indonesian tanks came
onto the streets and commenced shooting into the crowd to disperse it.
Warned that they were now targets of the military, Clemens Runaweri and Wim Zonggonau fled on foot towards
the safety of Papua New Guinea from where they plan to travel to the
United Nations in New York and tell the world that the 'Act of Free
Choice' was a sham. However when Indonesia received a media report of
this intention, it issued urgent confidential requests to Australian
Ambassador Gordon Jockel that these two politicians be arrested,
stating:
"the early arrival of these two
Irianese at the United Nations could stimulate defiance and seriously
upset the management or conduct of the Act of Choice within West Iria"
As the men were boarding the airplane,
an Australian official drove up and instructed them to step down, when
they explaned that they already had their tickets and other travel
documents the official had the police arrest the two. They were
interned on Manus Island until after the Act of Free Choice had been
completed.
In papers released in 2004, it has been revealed that US Ambassador, Marshall Green in 1969 had fore knowledge that Indonesia had no intention of allowing a Papuan vote that might prevent Indonesia from annexing West Papua as a Indonesian province; he further pointed out that any UN member would unwise to expect free or direct elections.