In 1984 Indonesian control of Irian Jaya, the western half of New Guinea, came under challenge in new ways. Part of the Dutch East Indies before 1949, the territory had been retained by Holland against Indonesian claims until 1962. In May 1963, under a U.S.-mediated settlement, and after a six-month period under U.N. authority, Indonesia assumed control, pending an act of self-determination. An Act of Free Choice took place in 1969, with U.N. observers noting widespread opposition to what was in effect an Indonesian-imposed outcome. On February 13, 1984, West Papuan nationalists associated with the Free Papua Movement (Organisasi Papua Merdeka, OPM) launched an uprising in the province's capital, Jayapura. Military operations quickly crushed the revolt in the capital and pursued the rebels into the countryside. But in the following months, 11,000 indigenous Melanesians fled to neighboring Papua New Guinea, where their presence has generated continuing controversy. These events fit a 23-year-old pattern of resistance to Indonesian rule. Scarcely a year has gone by since 1963 without incidents leading to refugee flight. But the 1984 flow of asylum seekers was much larger than any