Dear Friends The Australia West Papua Association (Sydney) is a non party-political, non-religious association supporting indigenous : peoples of West Papua (Irian Jaya).Aims of AWPA 1. To help raise awareness of the range of critical social and environmental issues in West Papua.2. To encourage NGOs to make contact with counterpart Indonesian NGOs, and with other organisations, in order to exchange information and determine strategies which may assist the West Papuan people.3. To encourage groups to lobby their own governments and the government of Indonesia.4. To have the issues of human rights violations and transmigration fully investigated by a team of UN observers, including the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, with a view to reporting to the UN Human Rights Commission and the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations.5.  To lobby for the maintenance of the UN Committee on Decolonisation, and for the question of West Papua's status to be restored to the Committee's agenda. To encourage the invited participation of West Papuan representatives to conferences, fora, festivals and other activities, held in the Pacific region.6. To have the issue of the treatment of West Papuan people included on the agenda of the South Pacific Forum, and for WP to be granted observer status at the Forum.7. To encourage the invited participation of West Papuan representatives to conferences, fora, festivals and other activities, held in the Pacific region; With these aims in mind, AWPA produced a West Papua Information Kit in 1995. This is a second, fully revised edition of the Kit. It includes a more thorough investigation of the Freeport mine, and includes a section on regional issues.We have included a bibliography and a contacts list.
Yours sincerely Committee members The Australia West Papua Association, Sydney December, 1997 Contents
ABBREVIATIONS 1  INTRODUCTiON WEST PAPUA: A NEAR NEIGHBOUR - The Land and the People - Historical background 2  THE ENVIRONMENT: RESOURCE BOOM OR GRAND THEFT? - Resource Wealth .- Mining - Freeport Impacts on the people and their environment Resistance to Freeport Legal challenges The Australian Connection - Deforestation - Dams 3  CULTURAL GENOCIDE - Transmigration - Health - Tourism 4  OPPRESSION AND RESISTANCE - Human rights violations - Resistance - Refugees 5  REGIONAL ISSUES - Soeharto's Indonesia - Australia's role APPENDIX: Tom Beanal's speech to Loyola University 1996 BIBLIOGRAPHY WHAT YOU CAN DO 1. INTRODUCTION
West Papua: A Near 
Neighbour to Austrailia  West Papua is one of Australia's closest neighbours. It forms the western half of the world's second largest island, New Guinea, sharing a border with the independent nation of Papua New Guinea. Its land area is about half that of New South Wales.
A  rugged  rainforest-covered mountain range forms a spine down the centre of the country. These mountains are the world's third highest,  after the  Himalayas and the Andes. Tropical glaciers are found at the highest altitudes, including those adjacent to the huge Freeport mine.The coastal areas of West Papua have some of the most extensive sage and mangrove swamps in the world.
The island of New Guinea shares many natural features with Australia, including eucalyptus trees, marsupials and cassowary birds.
The indigenous people of West Papua are of the same ethnic origin as those in the eastern half of the New Guinea island, and are also related ethnically and culturally to other Melanesian peoples of the Pacific like the people of PNG, Solomon Islands, Fiji, Vanuatu, Kanaky and Torres Strait Islands. Indigenous West Papuan cultures differ greatly from those of the rest of Indonesia, and West Papua was 85% Christian before being annexed by predominantly Muslim Indonesia.
There are about 250 different West Papuan tribal groups, including Dani, Asmat, Ekri, Moi and Amungme, with more than 250 different languages spoken. West Papuan culture is rich and varied and has developed over more than 50,000 years.
The Republic of Indonesia does not recognise indigenous rights, and subordinates 'adat' (traditional law) to what the government claims is the national interest. This denies a fundamental feature of West Papuan life and identity, that is the relationship with the land. It leaves the West Papuan people defenceless in the face of development and transmigration policies, and absolves Indonesia of any obligations regarding indigenous  rights  under  international instruments and mechanisms.
Pressing issues for the indigenous peoples of West Papua are: recognition of their land-rights claims; their right to receive just compensation for loss of land; protection from human rights abuses; and improvements in their health standards, which are currently the lowest in Indonesia. Now the 1997 drought, frosts, and fires burning out of control, are causing extreme food shortages in the central highlands.
The land and the People
"The Charter of the United Nations, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights affirm the fundamental importance of the right of selfdetermination of all peoples, by virtue of which they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and curtural development."