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Yan Christian Warinussy (West Papua)

John Humphrey Freedom Award 2005

  


Yan Christian Warinussy

On December 8, 2005 , 200 people gathered at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Ottawa to pay tribute to Yan Christian Warinussy, winner of the 2004 John Humphrey Freedom Award, and to highlight his outstanding exemplary struggle to expose human rights violations in West Papua , despite continuing intimidation and threats to his personal safety. The ceremony marked the end of a Canadian tour, from November 28 to December 9, 2005 that took the laureate to Vancouver , Victoria , Toronto , Montreal and Ottawa .

Yan Christian Warinussy is a lawyer and the Director of the Institute for Research, Analysing and Development of Legal Aid, known as LP3BH.

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West Papua : An Overview

Colonized in 1714 by the Dutch, West Papua followed a path distinct from the other colonies ceded to Indonesia in the 1950s. Since West Papuans have no ethnic or cultural ties to Indonesia , the Dutch put in place conditions for their independence,


enabling them to choose a flag, a name (West Papua) and a model of government. For example, culturally, over 200 languages are spoken in West Papua , while the Papuans are of Melanesian ethnicity, along with the populations of Fiji, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.


In 1962, at the insistence of the Indonesian government and under pressure from the United States, the Dutch agreed to an accord under which the United Nations would administer West Papua until an “Act of Free Choice” referendum could be held allowing Papuans to choose between independence or integration with Indonesia. In 1963, the United Nations handed Papua over to Indonesia.

In 1969, a referendum—commonly referred to now as the “Act of No Choice”—was held. Only 1025 Papuans, some with a gun held to their heads, were able to vote. The result was a unanimous vote in favour of integration with Indonesia . Popular discontent with this forced integration led to the birth of an armed independence movement—the Free West Papua Movement (Organisasi Papua Merdeka)—that is still active today. In 2001, an agreement was signed giving West Papua more autonomy, with Papuans gaining more control over their resources and freedom of expression of their cultural identity. In 2003-2004, the Indonesian government nullified the arrangements provided for under the autonomy agreement, further isolating West Papua and leading to new military operations to quash dissent. The greatest threat facing Papuans today continues to be the massive human rights violations that the Indonesian army has been perpetrating for the last 40 years.

West Papua in Numbers
  • 1,500,000 inhabitants, 40% of whom were relocated to West Papua as part of the Indonesian government’s transmigration policy of the ‘70s.
  • 100,000 West Papuans (15% of the population) have been killed by the Indonesian armed forces and militias since 1963.
  • 250 different tribes, some of which have co-existed for over 10,000 years.
  • 15% of the world’s spoken languages, with over 200 spoken languages and some 100 dialects.
  • 40 million hectares of forest, making is the largest rainforest in Asia . However, ¾ of this forest area has been earmarked for logging and mining activities by the Indonesian government.
 
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