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West Papua Project

About the West Papua Project

Primary Goal
This project seeks to promote peaceful dialogue between the people of West Papua and Indonesia, and to promote conflict resolution as a viable alternative to the current and escalating conflict.

Objectives

  • Establish relevant links with concerned NGOs, academics and parliamentarians in Australia, West Papua and Indonesia. The resulting networks will serve as a conduit for the dissemination of public information and as a key source of support for conflict resolution
  • Raise public awareness of the conflict between West Papua and Indonesia with particular reference to the human rights implications and the threat to the stability of the South Pacific region.

Project description
This project aims to put in place concrete strategies near achieve the goal of peaceful dialogue between Indonesia and West Papua. These strategies will consist of strengthening networks, addressing the information deficit on West Papua through research and a public awareness campaign, and promoting education on conflict resolution.

In the news - the latest from the West Papua Project: "Mine killings put a vital treaty at risk" by Jim Elmslie, The Age, August 3, 2009. View the article

Papua Desk

The Papua Desk is a newly established clearing house of concise briefing papers covering many critical aspects of the economy, politics and society in West Papua. Its aim is to provide current, academically formatted information for the use of clients in non-government groups, academia, the media and politics. A full Mission Statement can be found here

Contacts:
Dr. Jim Elmslie, Papua Desk Executive Officer,

Dr. Peter King, Professor/Research Associate in Government and International Relations,



Current Briefs:

Outside Indonesia? Global Debate on the Future of West Papua

Since its launch in 2000 the West Papua Project has become both a generator of ideas and a leading focus for discussion (and some demonization) in the great debate which has emerged in Australia, Papua, Indonesia and globally about West Papua’s future. With a new paper by Peter King the West Papua Project launches a forum for discussion of West Papua’s strategic options and future prospects:

Lowying the Boom on West Papua: Self-determination Unthinkable
for Australia's Leading Foreign Policy Think Tank

The paper includes a considered response to a widely influential Lowy Institute paper which supports special autonomy within Indonesia as the answer to West Papua’s problems and opposes an activist role for Australia in support of Papuan rights. Links to this paper by Rodd McGibbon and other prominent recent contributions to the debate, including one by Indonesia’s leading expert on Papua, Muridan Widjojo, can be found below. The West Papua Project and authors associated with it figure prominently in all of these contributions.

Outside Indonesia? Links

tni troop kids jayapura Puncak Jaya Glacier soldier jayapura market
Brimob mobile paramilitary police–and future victims? The peak of Puncak Jaya in the central highlands of West Papua High and Low: Indonesian soldier and Papuan street vendors, Jayapura

Workshops and Position Papers on Peace Building in Papua

From 2001-2005 four Project workshops were held, bringing together dozens of representatives from a cross-section of West Papuan society, plus Australian and Indonesian participants, to deliver a clear message of the need for peace in Papua through collective dialogue. An account of these workshops together with their outcomes may be found in Position Papers 2-5 below. The workshops were made possible by generous grants from the Myer Foundation, the University of Sydney, the Uniting Church and other church groups.

West Papua Conference 2007

On August 9 and 10, Indonesian Solidarity in association with the West Papua Project and CPACS, organised a conference on West Papua 2007: Paths to Justice and Prosperity. The convenors (Eko Waluyo and Peter King) have made the conference program and associated papers, presentations and a report on the conference available.

Human rights in West Papua: Recent Reports for the West Papua Project

Jim Elmslie with Peter King and Jake Lynch – Report:
Blundering In? The Australia-Indonesia security treaty and the humanitarian crisis in West Papua CPACS, The University of Sydney, March 2007
(A new report on military abuses in the Papuan highlands and the Australian government's dubious role in its new security treaty with Indonesia.)

John Wing with Peter King – Report:
Genocide in West Papua? The role of the Indonesian state apparatus and a current needs assessment of the Papuan people Report prepared for the West Papua Project and ELSHAM Jayapura, CPACS, The University of Sydney, August 2005
(This report, based on risky field work in Papua and launched in the national parliament, was immediately picked up by media and parliaments around the world and continues to reverberate.)

See also:
Submissions and Testimony to the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties, Commonwealth Parliament by Jim Elmslie, Peter King, Paula Makabory and Benny Giay on the Agreement between Australia and the Republic of Indonesia on the Framework for Security Cooperation
(The Lombok Treaty), November 2006

Project Personnel

  • Conveners:

  • CPACS Director: Associate Professor Jake Lynch
  • Papua Representative: Dr Benny Giay (ELSHAM, Jayapura)
  • US Representative: John Rumbiak (Kaplan Foundation, New York);
  • Vanuatu Representative: Dr John Ondawame
  • Indonesia Representative: Dr George Aditjondro (Jogjakarta)

Patrons

  • Dr Meredith Burgmann: Former President, Legislative Council of NSW
  • Professor Tim Flannery: Division of Environmental and Life Sciences, Macquarie University

Advisory/Steering Group for 2009

  • Jake Lynch: CPACS
  • Peter King: Government and International Relations
  • Jim Elmslie: Research Fellow, CPACS
  • Joe Collins, Ann Noonan: Australia West Papua Association
  • Paula Makabory, Matthew Jamieson: Institute for Papuan Advocacy and Human Rights (Australia)
  • Clinton Fernandes, Australian Defence Force Academy, University of New South Wales

Books by West Papua Project Participants

Leith The Politics of Power Elmsie Irian Jaya Under the Gun King West Papua and Indonesia since Suharto Frenandes Reluctant Indonesians
  • Denise Leith, The Politics of Power: Freeport in Suharto’s Indonesia, University of Hawaii Press, 2002
  • Jim Elmslie, Irian Jaya Under the Gun: Indonesian Economic Development Versus West Papuan Nationalism, University of Hawaii Press, 2002
  • Peter King, West Papua and Indonesia since Suharto: Independence, Autonomy or Chaos? UNSW Press, 2004
  • Clinton Fernandes, Reluctant Indonesians: Australia, Indonesia and the Future of West Papua, Scribe Publications, Melbourne, 2006

Map of West Papua and surrounding area

Map

(Click on the map to download PDF)

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