Although you will rarely find a local business in West Papua, mining has been a very huge business in the region. West Papua is a region that is very rich in natural sources. This region is even the largest source of tax revenue in Indonesia.
Unfortunately, West Papua is an area with a long history of oppression. It is a place where many activists were tortured, jailed, assassinated, and gone without a trace. So, what happened with West Papua? Why do you rarely hear about this region?
Four Decades of Heavy Restrictions
To understand why West Papua becomes a conflict area as you know it today, you need to understand the history of this area and its connection to Indonesia. You will not find any official statistics. However, as many as 100,000-500,000 Papuans were killed by Indonesian authorities way back then.
Indonesia had an era of heavy restrictions on access to West Papua, both of human rights groups and social media. Those four decades of heavy restrictions left West Papua in almost a media blackout, which did not help the region at all to develop and thrive.
Freeport-McMoRan – A Mining Giant
The West Papua economy has never been at its best. However, this region has always been exploited for its natural resources. Freeport-McMoRan is linked to everything that has happened in the history of West Papua.
Freeport-McMoRan has its headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona, almost 15,000 kilometers away from Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia. Despite having a very far headquarters, Freeport is the country’s largest taxpayer. This mining giant even contributed as much as $1.5 billion to Indonesia in 2014.
This mining giant was able to earn this kind of profit and revenue thanks to its Papua operations, which has wider implications. To simplify, Freeport needs the support of a lot of government securities. This means less monitoring, adding a lot of potential human rights abuses in the mining operations.
Mining is the main business in West Papua that contributes many tax revenues to Jakarta. The military and national police are involved in maintaining order so that the gold and copper extracted in West Papua can contribute to the tax revenues.
The mine itself, Grasberg mine, is one of the largest mines you will find in the world. This mine is almost closed off to any kind of outside access. The official permission to enter the mine requires as many as 18 separate signatures from security agencies and ministries. This arouses a lot of suspicions from many human rights groups.
An Oppressive History
West Papua itself has a huge history of oppression. This region was controlled by Germany, the Dutch, and Australia before Indonesia took over. During the New Order era under General Soeharto, West Papua was treated so poorly. Even the locals were treated like animals, with many massacres and bombings occurring in West Papua.
The bombings and massacres by the Indonesian military were done to kill the independence aspirations in the region. Indonesia was trying to force West Papuans to become Indonesians. And a lot of human rights activists believe that this was linked to the natural resources that the region has in abundance.
Four years after the annexation of West Papua, Freeport began its reign. This was when the relationship between Freeport and Indonesia began, providing profit for the company itself and the Indonesian government. This happened all the while West Papuans endured great suffering and pain.
Although Indonesia is trying to do better for West Papua today, the dark days of this region still haunt many of its people. And that is how mining becomes the main business in West Papua that has a very long history of oppression.
