The Law established a Papuan People's Assembly (MRP) with representatives of the different indigenous cultures of Papua. From 1971, the name Papua New Guinea was used for the Australian territory. The island is so large that it is considered 'nearly a continent' in terms of its biological distinctiveness. When the Portuguese and Spanish explorers arrived in the island via the Spice Islands, they also referred to the island as Papua. 22 February 2013: A military helicopter was damaged by ground fire while attempting to remove the bodies of soldiers killed fighting the OPM earlier. TNI spokesmen claimed that 3 soldiers were killed while 7 Liberation Army personnel were killed. 1 December 2003: A group of 500 people hoisted the separatist flag, several other actions took place, 42 people were arrested. [25] [26] and the Indonesian governance style has been compared to that of a police state, suppressing freedom of political association and political expression. A successive European claim occurred in 1828, when the Netherlands formally claimed the western half of the island as Netherlands New Guinea. The largest island offshore, Dolak (Frederik Hendrik, Yos Sudarso), lies near the Digul estuary, separated by a strait so narrow it has been named a "creek". [55] The Eisenhower administration were open to non-violent territorial changes but rejected the use of any military means to resolve the dispute. Tribes living high in the mountainous interior practice small scale agriculture, cultivating yams and sweet potatoes and keeping pigs. In the town of Mulia two shootings targeted the police and military, injuring one soldier. Primary lowland rainforest covers much of New Guinea up to about 3,300 feet (1,000 metres) above sea level. As a result the population of West Papua in 2010 was around 3.5 million people, with an estimated split of almost 50% Papuan and 50% non-Papuan. Politically, the western half of the island comprises two provinces of Indonesia: Papua and West Papua. These sentiments were reflected in the popular Indonesian revolutionary slogan “Indonesia Merdeka- dari Sabang sampai Merauke” "Indonesia Free—from Sabang to Merauke. In 1545, the Spaniard Íñigo Ortíz de Retes sailed along the north coast of New Guinea as far as the Mamberamo River, near which he landed on 20 June, naming the island 'Nueva Guinea'. [34] There is evidence that New Guinea gardeners invented crop rotation well before western Europeans. Papuans often gave vital assistance to the Allies, fighting alongside Australian troops, and carrying equipment and injured men across New Guinea. A difficult one to answer. These factors convinced the Kennedy administration to intervene diplomatically to bring about a peaceful solution to the dispute, which favored Indonesia.[71]. The Council decided on the name of West Papua for the territory, along with an emblem, flag, and anthem to complement those of the Netherlands. [35], Through the transmigration program, which since 1969 includes migration to Papua, about half of the 2.4 million inhabitants of Indonesian Papua are born in Java. By comparison, Muslims are almost nonexistent within Papua New Guinea. They were beaten to death with red hot. [36] intermarriage is increasing and the offspring of trans-migrants have come to see themselves as "Papuan" over their parents' ethnic group. Half of its members were to be elected and elections for this council were held the following year. New Guinea has 578 species of breeding birds, of which 324 species are endemic. All political parties across the political spectrum, particularly the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI), supported Sukarno's efforts to integrate the territory into Indonesia. It was decided that the present status quo of the territory would be maintained and then negotiated bilaterally one year after the date of the transfer of sovereignty. [43] Generally, proposals regarding federation with Papua New Guinea are a minority view in the freedom movement. New Guinea has a rich variety of plant life, including orchids, figs, and species of false beech. "Melanesia, the ethnogeographic region that includes New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and New Caledonia, contains some of the most remote and inaccessible populations on earth." The Indonesian military organised this vote, called the Act of Free Choice in 1969 to determine the population's views on the territory's future; the result was in favor of integration into Indonesia. A mountainous zone called the Highlands, extending from the west to the southeast, occupies the central part of the island of New Guinea. One of the largest concentrations of copper in the world is at Tembagapura, about 25 miles (40 km) southwest of Mount Jaya in Papua. Ploeg reports that the word papua is often said to be derived from the Malay word papua or pua-pua, meaning "frizzly-haired", referring to the highly curly hair of the inhabitants of these areas. Wildlife includes many reptiles and such marsupials as the tree kangaroo and phalanger. [37] As of 2010, 13,500 Papuan refugees live in exile in the neighbouring Papua New Guinea (PNG),[36] and occasionally, the fighting spills over the border. [36], The western part of the island was in contact with kingdoms in other parts of modern-day Indonesia. [citation needed] When first flown over by aircraft, numerous settlements with agricultural terraces and stockades were observed. Indonesian irredentist sentiments were also inflamed by the fact that several Indonesian political prisoners had been interned at a remote prison camp north of Merauke called Boven-Digoel prior to World War II. Apr 1978: Six unidentifiable bodies were discovered in the Dosai district of Jayapura. These first inhabitants, from whom the Papuan people are probably descended, adapted to the range of ecologies and, in time, developed one of the earliest known agricultures. Papua and West Papua form the western half of the island of New Guinea (the eastern half is the nation of Papua New Guinea).

Sugar cane was cultivated for the first time in New Guinea around 6000 BC.[33]. The police seized firearms, ammunition, knives, combat gear, documents, and Morning Star flags, and killed 14 militants. Anthropologically, New Guinea is considered part of Melanesia.[15]. There are over 200,000 insect species, over 20,000 plant species, over 725 bird species, over 400 amphibian species, over 455 butterfly species, and over 200 mammal species. A huge programme of missionary activity over the last fifty years has seen almost the entire indigenous Papuan population take on the Christian religion whilst still keeping many traditional beliefs alive. Cash crops in Papua New Guinea include coffee, cacao, copra, palm oil, tea, and rubber; skyjack tuna, prawns, and timber are also exported. New Guinea, island of the eastern Malay Archipelago, in the western Pacific Ocean, north of Australia. The German, Dutch and British colonial administrators each attempted to suppress the still-widespread practices of inter-village warfare and headhunting within their respective territories.[43]. Following the return to civil administration after World War II, the Australian section was known as the Territory of Papua-New Guinea from 1945 to 1949 and then as Territory of Papua and New Guinea. A 1969 referendum on the province’s autonomy, recognized by the international community but rejected by many Papuans as deeply flawed, declared it a part of Indonesia. There are also some Polynesians, Chinese, and Europeans. Demonstrators reportedly threw rocks at prisoners as they set the prison ablaze, while riot police deployed tear gas and water cannons to disperse the crowd.

Papua New Guinea supported Indonesia's control of Western New Guinea: the focus of the Papua conflict where numerous human rights violations have reportedly been committed by the Indonesian security forces. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. The joint administrators would be three non-aligned nations Ceylon, India, and Malaya, which supported Indonesia's position. 17 7694–7698, "The team also dated features consistent with the planting, digging, and tethering of plants and localized drainage systems to 10,000 years ago. (2010) Papua and West Papua provinces including nearby islands, 3,593,803; (2011) Papua New Guinea excluding islands, 6,178,781.

By comparison, Muslims are almost nonexistent within Papua New Guinea.

This work is still in its early stages, so there is still uncertainty as to precisely what crop was being grown, or when/where agriculture arose. New Guinea is administratively divided into two parts: its western half comprises the Indonesian propinsi (or provinsi; provinces) of Papua and West Papua (collectively, formerly called Irian Jaya); and its eastern half comprises the major part of Papua New Guinea, an independent country since 1975. He argued that other underlying Dutch motives to prevent West New Guinea from joining Indonesia included the territory's lucrative economic resources, its strategic importance as a Dutch naval base, and its potential role for housing the Netherlands' surplus population including Eurasians who had become displaced by the Indonesian National Revolution. Many young people have left their villages to study at universities across West Papua and Indonesia and are interacting with Indonesians and the global community to gain support for their struggle for freedom. 17 December 2019: Two soldiers were killed in a shootout with members of, Kerry Boyd Collison, "Rockefeller and the Demise of Ibu Pertiwi", Bobby Anderson, "Papua's Insecurity: State Failure in the Indonesian Periphery", East-West Center, Policy Studies 73, 978-0-86638-264-9 (print); 978-0-86638-265-6 (electronic), This page was last edited on 27 September 2020, at 22:30. The largest of these is Jayapura, the capital of West Papua on the north coast. Jun–Aug 1981: Operasi Sapu Bersih (Operation Clean Sweep); population of Ampas-Waris and Batte-Arso villages were bayoneted and left for dead. The United States also wanted to repair relations with Jakarta, which had deteriorated due to the Eisenhower administration's covert support for regional uprisings in Sumatra and Sulawesi. Afterwards more than thirty houses were burned by the Indonesian army. At the same time, a bomb was defused beside a police station in Biak. [72] Implementation of Indonesian governance was followed by sporadic fighting between Indonesian and pro-Papuan forces until 1969. These original inhabitants first arrived in New Guinea at a time (either side of the Last Glacial Maximum, approx 21,000 years ago) when the island was connected to the Australian continent via a land bridge, forming the landmass known as Sahul. [33], In 1962, the Dutch agreed to relinquish the territory to temporary United Nations administration, signing the New York Agreement, which included a provision that a plebiscite would be held before 1969. Authorities say the shutdown is a “matter of national security,” according to an NPR report citing local media, but human rights groups have criticized the blackout as an attempt to cover up potentially violent suppression of protestors.

3-17 October 2018: OPM rebel group under Egianus Kogoya leadership had taken 15 migrant teachers and medical workers as hostage for 14 days. Paniai Region. [48] The slogan indicates the stretch of Indonesian territory from the most western part in Sumatra, Sabang, and the most eastern part in Merauke, a small city in West New Guinea. The eastern half of the island was granted independence from Australia in 1975, as Papua New Guinea. In 2012, West Papuan National Committee's (KNPB) Chairman.