East Timor, then the country’s 27^th province, voted for independence from the colonial power of Indonesia during a UN-sanctioned referendum in 1999. Indonesia invaded the tiny former Portuguese colony in 1975 and used to claim that a majority of the people there were grateful for joining Indonesia; that only a few wanted to part with their beloved Indonesia.

The Jakarta Post in its March 9 edition quoted the mission as saying that “the government will submit a strong protest through [the UN human rights body] for the unprofessional, ill-intentioned, one-sided and click-bait working method to establish negative public opinion”.

The mission accused the three rapporteurs of having worked “unprofessionally, not impartially and with bad intentions”.

Do not ever belittle the situation on the ground in the provinces of Papua and West Papua. What happened in East Timor decades ago could happen in Papua because discrimination and racism against the indigenous population persist.

Separatist groups, which the government refers to as criminal armed groups, have launched sporadic armed attacks on security forces and innocent people working in the territory. But we are often confused about whether the resistance movement is genuine or involves various interests of the elites inside and outside of Papua.

“Between April and November 2021, we received allegations indicating several instances of extrajudicial killings, including of young children, enforced disappearance, torture and inhumane treatment and the forced displacement of at least 5,000 indigenous Papuans by security forces.”

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