---

Indigenous peoples have the right to freely determine their relationships with States in a spirit of coexistence, mutual benefit and full respect'

Attempts to colonize the western half of New Guinea began in the 16th century. The Dutch were the first to make permanent outposts in 1828 although at that time they were primarily concerned with colonization of Java and the nearby islands. Even up until 1940, the area of Dutch administration covered only 5% of the territory. In 1848, the island of New Guinea was split with the 141st meridian becoming the border between the British in eastern New Guinea and the Dutch in west New Guinea. When the Netherlands East Indies became the independent Republic of Indonesia in 1949 the Dutch retained Netherlands New Guinea as a separate territory. The Dutch government was well aware of the huge resources of gold and oil in New Guinea. Oil had been discovered before the war by a Dutch exploration company (Netherlands New Guinea Petroleum Maatschappij) which was 60% owned by US companies.The diplomatic dispute between Holland and Indonesia continued through the 1950's. Former Sukarno intelligence officials have admitted that US oil interests provided substantial financial assistance to Indonesia's campaign after 1958. [new] During this time the Dutch made substantial investments in education and health and in 1961 they established a New Guinea Council that included some elected Papuan members. In 1961 Dutch Foreign Minister Luns proposed that the UN should supervise the transition of Papua to independence.The dispute came to a head in 1962 when President Sukarno ordered his troops to infiltrate Dutch New Guinea. Even though this military action was a failure, the U.S. government, motivated by New Guinea's natural resources and Cold War politics, intervened in the dispute. Under US pressure the Dutch abandoned their plan for Papuan independence . Instead the New York Agreement stipulated that Indonesia could administer New Guinea until 1969 when a plebiscite would let Papuans decide whether they wanted to remain part of Indonesia. Indonesia agreed to respect the Papuan people's rights to freedom of speech and assembly but the form of the plebiscite was not clearly defined. The UN was supposed to supply a multi-national force to supervise the handover but in fact this amounted to 1500 Pakistani and 1500 Indonesian troops. UN records show that the Pakistani commander was eager to excuse abuses by Indonesian troops.However Sukarno's triumph was short lived. In 1965/66 he was ousted by General Suharto in a very bloody coup in which hundreds of thousands of alleged communists were killed and more than a million arrested. General Suharto had headed the military campaign against Dutch New Guinea in the early 60's.Indonesian preparation for the so-called 'Act of Free Choice' was extremely ruthless - many Papuans who supported independence were intimidated and many were killed. For example, 300 Papuans were shot in the village of Ifar Besar on Lake Sentani. Many Papuans protested to UN officials, journalists and diplomats and an armed resistance movement, the Organisasi Papua Merdeka (OPM), was formed in 1964. The highpoint of OPM resistance was the four day occupation of former Dutch capital of Manokwari in January 1967. The Indonesian airforce strafed and bombed the town until the OPM withdrew.