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

Background

West Papua (West New Guinea) has the world's greatest gold mine and in 1960 American businessmen wanted it. Those Americans (Rockefellers and Robert Lovett) in 1961 got their friend McGeorge Bundy into the White house (Kennedy administration) and he promoted a scheme for America to ask that the colony become a United Nations trust territory administrated by Papua's traditional enemy Indonesia.
Bundy did not tell Kennedy that West Papua had great wealth which his sponsor Robert Lovett at the Freeport corporation wanted to mine, instead Kennedy was told it was only a matter of pride that Indonesia wanted the territory and that America could gain Cold-war benefit by helping Indonesia gain access to the territory.
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 their colony. 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".
But America and then the UN ignored the West Papuan wish for freedom, for independence.

The Agreement

Under the United Nations charter, chapter 12, the organization can become the administrator of a colony pending decision by the colony whether it wants independence or not; "self-determination" of its sovereignty. Also under chapter 12 of the charter the UN can allow one of its members to be the administrator pending the vote on self-determination.
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 an agreement (New York Agreement) in accord with chapter 12 of the United Nations charter, for the United Nations to occupy the colony and then for Indonesia to occupy 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.
But in 1967 Indonesia sold mining rights of the colony to the Freeport corporation.
To enforce that mining arrangement, neither Indonesia or America would allow West Papua to become free.
To ensure America would ignore the struggle for freedom, the newly appointed Henry Kissinger gave advice - an adviser who years later became a member of the board of the Freeport mining corporation.
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.
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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

source : http://colonywestpapua.info/