Comments: Rich West Papua, but who benefits?

May 14, p. 6: Indonesia is these days praised as a success story among the countries of Southeast Asia, with growth figures that compare favorably with its neighbors and an absence of conflict. It is also the largest country in the region which enjoys an abundance of natural resources that have lured foreign companies to its shores. Since the fall of Soeharto in 1998 and the end of his dictatorship, economic progress has fostered a growing middle class. A referendum in East Timor 18 months after his exit secured that country’s independence after 25 years of devastating occupation, while in the other conflict-ridden province, Aceh, where thousands of people died from 1976 till 2004, a peace agreement has secured it an era of reconstruction, thanks largely to the devastating tsunami in December 2004 and to the agreement reached a year later between the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), and Jakarta. (Carmel Budiardjo, London)

Your comments:

One more thought I want to add about Freeport’s first contract. This contract was signed before Papua became a part of Indonesia. This makes it clear that there has never been a free choice.
Indonesia “sold” Papua before they asked the Papuans if they wanted to be a part of the nation. And selling the resources to a US company with close ties to the US government ensured their support at the UN, to accept the faked “Act of Free Choice”.
Markus Hagenauer
Germany

Thank you, Carmel Budiarjo for your article on the long-standing issues of West Papua. Your question “How much longer must Papua suffer? I am a native West Papuan and I love Western music and inherited the religion of Christianity. I, therefore, kindly invite you to sing the old song called “The answer is blowing in the wind”.
The name “Freeport” itself reflects the attitude and the practice of the Indonesian government and the foreigners, the United States and its allies operating in the mine, and West Papuan political history.
Indeed, West Papua is the “Port” of the above participants who are “Free” to do anything. Very little respect is shown toward the rights of human beings, and let alone the rights of the indigenous people towards the land, forest and other natural resources.
I do not see that there is a quick solution to help us Papuans here in our own homeland. Only if there was an extraordinary event, like the tsunami in Aceh, would all the odd practices and injustice in the land of Papua, Indonesia be revealed.
Henk Rumbewas
Jayapura