Papua
Papua
Okay, so now a little more on the history of Papua, which until 2003 included West Papua. Some of this may be a rehash, bear with me.
So in 1945 Indonesia proclaimed its independence from Dutch rule and claimed all of the former Dutch East Indies, including Western New Guinea. But Holland considered at least this part of the former Dutch East Indies to be in fact the current Dutch East Indies and so they stayed. There were military clashes. In 1962 both parties agreed to the New York Agreement, whereby control of the region would pass temporarily to Indonesia until the United Nations could oversee a referendum in which all of the region's inhabitants could choose how they wished to be governed.
Flash forward to 1969 and the Act of Free Choice. The Indonesian Military hand picked 1,025 Melanesian men and women out of the 800,000 available and through various means not normally associated with free elections, threats of violence and such, indicated a preference in the outcome of the vote. So when the UN came and held the referendum, 1,025 people showed up and unanimously voted for Indonesian control of the region.
Critics of the referendum refer to it as the Act of No Choice and point to irregularities such as the Indonesian government selling 30 year mining licenses two years before they could possibly have known they would control the area.
There are many organizations who are labouring via various means to secure independence for the Federal Republic of West Papua, which was formed in 2011 and declares the New York Agreement and subsequent Act of Free Choice to both be null and void. Of course, the Indonesian government considers the Federal Republic of West Papua to be null, void and subject to swift and decisive retaliation for any actions it takes.
So that is kind of where people's heads were at during the Wasior Incident.