The Organisasi Papua Merdeka in Irian Jaya: Continuity and Change in Papua New Guinea's Relations with Indonesia

Abstract

The period 1983-84 would be remembered in the Pacific for the unprecedented inflammation of Papua New Guinea-Indonesia relations over alleged infringements of their border agreement.1 New Guinea, the world's second largest island after Greenland, is divided into two separate political jurisdictions. The eastern half, Papua New Guinea (PNG), is an independent state, while the western half, Irian Jaya (formerly West Irian), is Indonesia's seventeenth province. International controversy attended Indonesia's acquisition of Irian Jaya during the days of Sukarno's confrontation with the Dutch.2 While a legal accord in 1962 gave Irian Jaya to Indonesia, a disenchanted indigenous Irianese guerrilla movement has persistently sought to separate Irian Jaya from the Indonesian state.3 The guerrilla group called the Organisasi Papua Merdeka