Since 1963, West Papua has been occupied by the Indonesian armed forces. For the past forty-seven years, the people of West Papua have been subjected to gross human rights violations including rape, torture, cultural genocide, murder and massacre - more than 100,000 West Papuans have been killed. Thousands of West Papuans are currently living in camps in Papua New Guinea; and others are forced to live in exile around the world because it is not safe for them to go home.
Multi-national corporations in cahoots with the Indonesian authorities have exploited West Papua's natural resources to an extraordinary degree. This has caused massive social dislocation, devastation of rain forests, pollution of streams and rivers on which the local people depend for their survival, and serious human rights violations in areas where multinationals are active. [1]
There have been repeated ongoing calls from West Papuan leaders for dialogue to turn West Papua into a 'land of peace', but the Indonesian authorities have ignored these. The number of Indonesian troops deployed in West Papua continues to increase; in 2007 it was reported that there were plans to build up the troop presence along the border with Papua New Guinea, and to deploy a new third division of Indonesia's Kostrad (strategic reserve command) troops 'to patrol Papua border areas and other conflict-prone regions' [2]. It is estimated that the proportion of soldiers in West Papua is around one soldier for every 44 civilians.
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