Johan B. P. Maramis:
2. THE QUESTION OF WEST IRIAN (WEST NEW GUINEA)
After years of bloody revolutionary war and several failed attempts to end the conflict the situation in
West Irian noticeably deteriorated and endangered peace in the region. The
international community pressured the Netherlands to seek a solution to the
dispute. Both sides ultimately agreed to convene a Round Table Conference
towards the end of 1949 in The Hague where Netherlands would agree to transfer sovereignty of West Irian to the Republic of
Indonesia.
It may be recalled that at the conclusion of the Conference it
was not possible to reconcile the views of Indonesia and Netherlands on New
Guinea which remained therefore in dispute and that within a year from the date
of the transfer of sovereignty the political status would be determined through
negotiations. The negotiations did take place but failed to produce
satisfactory results. Negotiation however
continued beyond the stipulated one year period. By mid 1951
it became impossible to continue due to the persistent refusal of The Netherlands to negotiate any further. Having exhausted
bilateral negotiations Indonesia ultimately decided to seek a solution through
multilateral channels notably the United Nations.
The question of West Irian was not a new one for the General
Assembly of the United Nations. In 1954 at the request of Indonesia it
was placed in the agenda of the ninth session of the General Assembly of the
United Nations. Indonesia had no option but to bring this matter before the
General Assembly. After full consideration the First committee adopted, by more
than two third majority, a draft resolution on this question and expressed the
hope that the two parties would pursue their endeavours to find a solution. The
General Assembly however failed to adopt said resolution.
Colombo Plan Powers meeting
After the ninth session, the Prime
Ministers of the five Colombo Plan Powers- India, Ceylon, Burma, Pakistan and
Indonesia - met in Bogor Indonesia in December 1954 and supported the position
of Indonesia while expressing their earnest hope that the Netherlands would
reopen negotiations to implement their obligations under the solemn agreement
concluded by them with Indonesia. Unfortunately The Netherlands turned a deaf
ear to this earnest appeal while relations between the two parties deteriorated considerably.
The Asian-African conference convened at
Bandung in April 1955 also supported the position of Indonesia and urged the
Netherlands to reopen
negotiations as soon as possible and
expressed the earnest hope that the United Nations would assist the
parties concerned in finding a peaceful solution to the dispute. The Conference
deemed it only appropriate to bring the question to the attention of the tenth
session of the General Assembly. They were confident that the G.A. this time
would not fail to make the necessary recommendations in the interest of peace
and co-operation among nations. The tenth, eleventh and twelfth sessions of the
General Assembly again failed to produce any results.
After having exhausted both bilateral and multilateral channels.
Indonesia became frustrated and resorted to physical means to end the conflict.
This action created a dangerous situation and could threaten peace and tranquillity in the region which prompted UN Secretary
General U Thant to seek ways to revitalize bilateral negotiations with
the help of the experienced American Ambassador Elsworth
Bunker. Negotiation took place in a small city
near Washington DC and after days of tough bargaining in which Ambassador
Bunker played a crucial role the meeting succeeded to produce an Agreement
between the Netherlands and Indonesia concerning West New Guinea.
First, the Agreement provided that, shortly after it came
into force, the administration of West New Guinea (West Irian) would be
transferred by the Netherlands to a United Nations Temporary Executive
Authority (UNTEA) established by and under the authority of the UN Secretary
General. This Authority, which was to be headed by an United Nations
Administrator, Dr. Abdoh of
Iran, would after 1 May 1963, transfer administration of West Irian to
Indonesia. Secondly, the Agreement contained certain guarantees for the
population of the territory, including detailed provisions regarding the
exercise of the rights of self-determination under arrangements made by
Indonesia with the advice, assistance and participation of the Secretary
General, who would appoint an United Nations
Representative for that purpose. The act of self-determination was to take
place before the end of 1969.
The Agreement came into force upon the adoption by the General Assembly of resolution 1752 on 24 September 1962
(X VII). In that resolution the General Assembly took note of the Agreement,
acknowledged the role conferred upon the Secretary General and authorized him
to carry out the tasks entrusted to him in the Agreement.
In a related understanding of the main agreement, the two
parties agreed to the cessation of hostilities and requested the Secretary General
to provide the necessary assistance to make it effective.
The cease-fire came into force on 18 August 1961. The task of
assisting in the implementation of this agreement was entrusted to
Brigadier-General Indar Jit Rikhye,
Military Advisor to the Secretary General. He was to be responsible to making
arrangements for the arrival of the United Nations security force. Six
member states Brazil, Ceylon, India Ireland, Nigeria and Sweden agreed to provide 21 military observers to supervise the
cease-fire arrangements. On 21 September Brigadier General Rikhye
was able to report that all actions concerning the cessation of hostilities had
been completed without incident.
The Netherlands transferred the administration of the territory
to UNTEA, which was directly responsible for the administration of West Irian
between 1 October 1962 and 1 May 1963. UNTEA transferred full administrative
control of the territory to the Republic of Indonesia on 1 May 1963. With these
transfers of administration the first part of the Agreement was implemented.
There were some cases of unrest and turmoil marked by sporadic
armed clashes, increased border crossings and anti Indonesia campaign instigated by the Free Papua
Organization to disrupt the implementation of the act of free choice. The
Government however took adequate measures to have the conduct of the act of
free choice implemented as scheduled.
In response to the Secretary General’s request, the Government
of Pakistan provided a force of some 1.500 men to serve as the United Nation
Security Force (UNSF). The Government of Canada and the United States provided
supporting aircraft and crews. Major General Said Uddin Khan of Pakistan was
appointed by the Secretary General as Commander of UNSF. By the time UNTEA had
assumed responsibility for the territory, all officers of Dutch nationality had
left, temporarily replaced by officers from the
Philippines who in turn were later replaced by Indonesians. By the end of March
1963, the entire corps was officered by Indonesians. The withdrawal of The
Netherlands’ naval and land forces was effected in stages. By 15 November 1962,
this process had been completed without incident
In January 1965, however Indonesia withdrew its active
participation in the United Nations and thus the future implementation of the
second phase of the Agreement became an unworkable proposition. Only in the
middle of 1966 Indonesia decided to restore its relations with the United
Nations. On 27 April 1967 Foreign Minister Adam Malik in a press conference
announced that Indonesia would honour the obligations stipulated in the New
York Agreement. The Secretary General sent his representative, the
Under-Secretary General for Special Political Affairs Mr. Rolz-Bennet to Indonesia for the purpose of holding
discussions with the Government concerning the implementation of the last phase
of the New York Agreement. I was present during the discussion with Rolz- Bennet. He was a friendly and understanding man. A
Memorandum of Understanding was signed on 1 August 1967 which reaffirmed
Indonesia’s commitment as stated in the Agreement and
the act of Free Choice would be implemented before the 24th
session of the G.A. in 1969 between the month of April and July 1969 and that
one year before the act of self-determination the Secretary General would
appoint a Representative as called for in the Agreement. His choice for this
function was Ambassador Fernando Ortiz-Sanz, the Permanent Representative of
Bolivia to the United Nations and his appointment would be effective April
first, 1968. The Indonesian Government agreed to U Thant’s proposal and
considered that the most convenient time to
commence his duties would be the middle of August 1968.
Meanwhile the Government appointed the Special Assistant to the
Foreign Minister for West Irian Affairs,
Ambassador Sudjarwo Tjondronegoro,
as Mr. Ortis-Sanz counterpart. On August 12, ambassador Ortiz-Sanz accompanied
by his wife and staff members arrived in
Jakarta. I was in the welcoming party which received them.
The role of the United Nations in
the second period was according to the agreement ‘to advise, assist and
participate in the arrangements which were the responsibility of Indonesia for
the act of free choice” having in mind the interest and welfare of the people
of the territory
The obligations of Indonesia were to make arrangements for the
act of free choice which include consultations (musyawarah)
with the representative councils on procedures and appropriate methods to be
followed to ascertain the freely expressed will of the population;
the determination of the actual date of the exercise of free choice and the
formulation of questions in such a way as to permit the inhabitants to decide
whether or not they wished to sever their ties with Indonesia. The Indonesian
Government’s intension to consult the representative councils through musyawarah consisted of reaching a decision based on
discussions, understanding and knowledge of the problem. It planned to carry
out the act of free choice consecutively through eight consultative assemblies
compromising some 1.925 representatives.
Also relevant to the implementation of the second part of the
Agreement was the obligation of the two parties to reimburse all the costs
incurred by the United Nations and to make available
suitable funds in advance for the discharge of the Secretary General’s
responsibilities. The parties agreed that they would share on an equal basis
the costs of such reimbursements and advances.
The Asian Development Bank promised to give financial assistance
as was also the case with The Netherlands which planned to contribute
US$ 10 milion each year for a period of three
years. This fund was to be administered by the United Nations and was named
Fund for West Irian (FUNDWI) Consultations with the local representative
councils.
The consultations of the central government
with the representative of the councils in West Irian on the method and
procedures of the act of free choice carried out with the eight regency
councils. The draft concept of the Government was the subject of these
consultations and were completed on April 11, 1969. The councils accepted the
Government proposal to implement the act of free choice in order to fulfil an
international obligation. They also expressed agreement with the method
proposed by the Government for carrying out the act of free choice, through
consultations (musyawarah) with the
consultative assemblies specifically established in each regency for the
purpose. They accepted also the advise
of Ortiz–Sanz to enlarge the membership of the assemblies and to include
representatives of all sectors of the population elected by the people.
Considering the specific geographical, social and human
realties, the method to be contemplated should be musjawarah
with the consultative assembles and not the method of one man one vote in the
urban areas and collective consultation in less accessible areas in the
interior as was suggested by Ortiz-Sanz. The Government considered the mixed
method too complicated and not suitable for the conditions and situation of the
territory.
The Government intended to carry out the act of free choice
during the period 14 July to 5 August 1969. The
main subject to be submitted and to be considered was: whether the people would
like to remain with the Republic of Indonesia or not (which means severing tie
with Indonesia).
As planned the sessions of the consultative assembly for the act of free choice started in Merauke
regency on Monday July 14 1969 and ended in Djajapura
regency on Saturday August 2 1969. By this time the act of free
choice for the whole of West Irian was completed. Immediately after the
conclusion of the act of free choice the Minister of Home Affairs issued a
statement on August 2, 1969 that the act of free choice was completed in good
order and the result unanimously adopted as the wishes of the entire people of
West Irian to remain united with the Republic of Indonesia and rejected
separation from the territory of the unitary state of the Republic of
Indonesia. The Foreign Minister Adam Malik on the same day confirmed the
Minister of Home Affairs statement.
In his report to the Secretary, Ortiz–Sanz in his closing
remarks expressed his reservation regarding the implementation-of article XXII
of the agreement relating to “the rights, including the right of free speech,
freedom of movement and of assembly of the inhabitants of the area”. He stated
that this important provision was not fully implemented and that the
Administration exercised at all times a tight political control over the
population. Nevertheless he further observed that on the basis of the facts
presented in his report and the documents referred to, he stated that with the
limitation imposed by the geographical characteristics of the territory and the
general political situation in the area, the act of free choice had taken place
on West Irian in accordance with Indonesian practice, in which the
representatives of the population expressed their wish to remain with
Indonesia.
An additional items was included in the General Assembly which
was proposed by the Secretary General regarding the agreement of Indonesia and
The Netherlands which included his report on the implementation of the
agreement coupled with a draft resolution sponsored by Belgium, Indonesia,
Luxembourg, Malaysia, Netherlands and Thailand. The debate of the
Secretary General’s report on the implementation of the act of free choice
evoked criticism from some African countries led by Ghana and Dahomey. They argued that the method of musjawrah
was a gross violation of the internationally accepted methods like referendum
and plebescite. They requested that the question of
West Irian would continuously remain in the General Assembly and requested also
to give the people of West Irian another chance in 1975 to exercise
the act of self-determination.
I was present during the debate and shocked to hear phrases like
“disguised annexation” and “Indonesia is a colonial power” used by several
African delegates. The Indonesian delegation, including myself, had therefore
to lobby hard to gain more support to reject the amendments proposed by those
African delegates. Those amendments were rejected by roll call voting with 60
against 15 in favour and 39 abstentions.
The resolution without amendment was accepted by roll call
voting, with 89 in favour, none against and 14 abstentions. This United Nations
vote finally put to an end the question and drama of West Irian.
Posted: 28 April 2002 Admin: rudyct https://tumoutou.com