Irian Jaya: How Canberra helped crush freedom quest
Thursday, August 26, 1999, The Sydney Morning Herald

Australia selling out a small, powerless people: it happened on our doorstep 30 years ago, writes ANTONY BALMAIN.

As East Timor prepares to vote in a United Nations ballot on its future, previously secret documents show Australia played a leading behind-the-scenes role to ensure Irian Jaya became a part of Indonesia in another UN-supervised vote - the so-called Act of Free Choice in 1969.

Top-secret government files, released under a 30-year rule of the Government's Archives Act, showed Australia colluded with Holland, the United States and United Nations officials to rubber-stamp the Indonesian takeover of the Melanesian province.

The documents show Australian military officers collected evidence of Indonesian atrocities, including military offensives, rapes, beatings, lootings and torching of villages, but the Federal Government kept the information secret.

Secret government cables, intelligence documents and government reports were contained in 13 Department of Territories files due to be released in January, but released early by the Department of Foreign Affairs to SBS television's Dateline program.

One secret US government document given to Australia before the self-determination process began in July, 1969, shows UN officials indicating almost all West Papuans supported independence.

A document, prepared by the US Embassy in Jakarta and presented to Australia before the West Papuans were to decide their future in the UN-supervised process, said: "Personal political views of the UN team are ... 95 per cent of Irianese support the independence movement and that the Act of Free Choice is a mockery".

In the act, 1,025 West Papuans, selected by Indonesia, voted on behalf of the entire population of some 800,000. The vote took place in eight regions over three weeks, ending on August 4, 1969. It fulfilled a 1962 agreement initiated by the US to avert war between Indonesia and the Netherlands.

The rest of the former Dutch colony had become independent Indonesia in 1949 and the Netherlands had originally meant for West Irian to establish itself as a Melanesian nation.

In a clear indication the Netherlands and Australia knew there would not be a fair vote and did nothing about it, one top-secret report written by a Dutch intelligence officer, which has not been officially released, was distributed to Australia and Indonesia, also before the vote.

Dated June 27, 1969, the document said it was evident the West Papuans could not fairly decide whether or not to remain a part of Indonesia.

"The act of free choice cannot be carried out honestly according to western ideas. The ‘electors' will also be appointed by the Indonesians," the report said.

"But finding enough Papuans willing to act as ‘electors' for the Indonesians may turn out to be quite a problem. So there will be no free choice by the people. Not even the United Nations headed by Mr Ortiz-Sanz can alter this fact."

Australia, at the request of Indonesia, also arrested and prevented two pro-independence West Papuan leaders from travelling to the UN, just weeks before the UN-supervised vote on self-determination. The men, Willem Zonggonao, 26, and Clemens Runawery, 27, were detained when they crossed the border into Australian administered New Guinea, carrying testimonies from many West Papuan leaders calling for independence and for the UN to abandon the Act of Free Choice.

Mr Zonggonao, previously a member of the Indonesian West Irian Assembly, in a recent interview from Port Moresby, PNG, said: "Because we refused to sign the paperwork, they put us in jail. Then ASIO interviewed us and we were ... flown to Manus Island."

Manus Island, 300 kilometres north-east of Australian-administered New Guinea, was used as a place to send scores of West Papuans refugees, to ensure they did not engage in any political activity.

Mr Zonggonao also said the West Papuans chosen to participate were "indoctrinated by military officers and told if they didn't vote for Indonesia they would have their tongues cut out".

The Australian Ambassador to Indonesia at the time, Gordon Jockel, witnessed the Act of Free Choice in Irian Jaya and in one of the secret cables he wrote: "In the two or three days we had in Biak and Djajapura it was easy to see the mass of the Papuans there are sullen and discontented."

The documents also show Australia maintained a secret military and intelligence relationship with Indonesia, aimed at eliminating armed pro-independence dissent. Telexes sharing information on the movement of the West Papuan armed resistance were sent over the border between Australian-administered New Guinea and West Irian. The documents were dated before and during the act of self-determination.

One cable sent on July 15, 1969, from Indonesian officers in Jayapura to Australian officials in Vanimo, New Guinea, said: "We inform you that some west Irianese have deserted to your country under the leadership of Bernadus Warry ... armed with four weapons. Would you like to help us investigate. We are awaiting your answer."

The document indicated Australia assisted. "Djajapura is being informed that the matter is being investigated."

But no action was taken on evidence gathered by Australian military officers of Indonesian atrocities.

One report, dated August 29, 1969, stated: "Our previous information on rapes committed by Indonesian soldiers has been confirmed in a number of cases. The Bobol and Tamus people are quite definite on this score and ... in particular one girl from Bobol, I think, was raped by a number of soldiers when she was 11, several years later again and again when she was 16 and then married."

Despite these abuses, the files showed Australia played a leading role in a campaign to ensure the Act of Free Choice was accepted without debate at the UN General Assembly in November 1969.

Indonesia, backed by Australia and the Netherlands, lobbied countries including Malta and several West African nations to not question the legitimacy of the self-determination process.

Dutch and UN officials were implicated in a cable to Canberra dated September 8, 1969, from Sir Patrick Shaw, the Australian Ambassador to the UN.

"Netherlands Ambassador Middleburg hopes that the handling of the item in the Assembly will go quietly with only two statements, from the Netherlands and Indonesia," Sir Patrick Shaw wrote.

"[UN] Under Secretary General for special political affairs Rolz-Bennett continues to be cautiously optimistic that the item will not give rise to much discussion."

While many West Papuan leaders were calling for a new act of self-determination, the UN Secretary General, U Thant, then ratified the wish of the Irian Jayans "to remain with Indonesia".

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