Act of Free Choice

A map showing Indonesia and Western New Guinea.

Act of Free Choice (Indonesian: Penentuan Pendapat Rakyat, PEPERA) was an event in July to August 1969 by which Indonesia asserts that the Western New Guinea population decided to relinquish their sovereignty in favor of Indonesian citizenship. The Act of Free Choice was a vote by 1025 men selected by the Indonesian military in Western New Guinea asked whether they wished to raise their hands in a display for United Nations observers. The event was noted by the United Nations in General Assembly resolution 2504 (XXIV) without qualification whether it complied with the authorizing New York Agreement, and without qualification whether it was an act of "self determination" as referred to and described in United Nations General Assembly resolutions 1514 and 1541 (XV) respectively.

Background

The referendum and its conduct had been specified in the New York Agreement; Article 17 of which in part says:

"Indonesia will invite the Secretary-General to appoint a Representative who" .. "will carry out Secretary-General's responsibilities to advise, assist, and participate in arrangements which are the responsibility of Indonesia for the act of free choice. The Secretary-General will, at the proper time, appoint the United Nations Representative in order that he and his staff may assume their duties in the territory one year prior to the self-determination." .. "The United Nations Representative and his staff will have the same freedom of movement as provided for the personnel referred to in Article XVI".

The agreement continues with Article 18:

Article XVIII

Indonesia will make arrangements, with the assistance and participation of the United Nations Representative and his staff, to give the people of the territory, the opportunity to exercise freedom of choice. Such arrangements will include:

a. Consultation (musyawarah) with the representative councils on procedures and methods to be followed for ascertaining the freely expressed will of the population.

b. The determination of the actual date of the exercise of free choice within the period established by the present Agreement.

c. Formulations of the questions in such a way as to permit the inhabitants to decide (a) whether they wish to remain with Indonesia; or (b) whether they wish to sever ties with Indonesia.

d. The eligibility of all adults, male and female, not foreign nationals to participate in the act of self-determination to be carried out in accordance with international practice, who are resident at the time of the signing of the present Agreement, including those residents who departed after 1945 and who returned to the territory to resume residence after the termination of the Netherlands administration.

Process

Under Article 17 of the New York Agreement, the plebiscite was not to occur until one year after the arrival of U.N. representative Fernando Ortiz-Sanz in the territory on 22 August 1968. However after NASA announced the Apollo 11 flight schedule to land on the Moon for July, Indonesia proposed the plebiscite be conducted six weeks early during July 1969.

The New York Agreement specified that all men and women in Papua that were not foreign nationals had the right to vote in the Act. General Sarwo Edhi Wibowo instead selected 1025 Melanesian men out of an estimated population of 800,000 as the Western New Guinea representatives for the vote. They voted publicly and unanimously in favor of remaining with Indonesia. The United Nations took note of the results with General Assembly Resolution 2504. According to Hugh Lunn, a journalist from Reuters, men who were selected for the vote were blackmailed into voting against independence with threats of violence against their persons.^[1] Contemporary diplomatic cables showed American diplomats suspecting that Indonesia could not have won a fair vote, and also suspecting that the vote was not implemented freely, but the diplomats saw the event as a "foregone conclusion" and "marginal to U.S. interests".^[2]

Demands for a revote

After the Fall of Suharto in 1998, celebrity Archbishop Desmond Tutu and some American and European parliamentarians requested United Nations Secretary Kofi Annan to review the United Nations' role in the vote and the validity of the Act of Free Choice.^[2] There have been calls for the United Nations to conduct its own referendum, with as broad an electorate as critics say the New York Agreement obliged but the Act of Free Choice did not fulfill. Those calling for a vote also point to the 30 year license which Indonesia sold to the Freeport-McMoRan company for Papuan mining rights in 1967, and to the Indonesian military's response to the East Timor referendum as support to discredit the 1969 Act of Free Choice.^{[original research?]} The Indonesian Government position is that the United Nations' noting of the results validates the conduct and results.^[3]

See also

• Papua Conflict

References

• The United Nations and the Indonesian Takeover of West Papua, 1962-1969: Anatomy of a Betrayal by John Saltford (2002) ISBN 0-415-40625-0 (pdf 3.4 MB)
• Drooglever, Pieter J.: Een Daad van Vrije Keuze: De Papoea's van Westelijke Nieuw-Guinea en de grenzen van het zelfbeschikkingsrecht. Uitgeverij Boom, Amsterdam, 2005. ISBN 90-8506-178-4 (Summary)

External links

• Free West Papua Campaign