64 Years of Occupation

August 15 marks 64 years since the signing of the New York Agreement between Indonesia and the Netherlands.

Brokered under US pressure, the agreement transferred administration of West Papua to Indonesia and paved the way for the 1969 so-called “Act of Free Choice” – an Act of No Choice in which only 1,026 handpicked Papuans were coerced into voting for integration with Indonesia under military intimidation, denying the people of West Papua a genuine opportunity to freely determine their political status.

Six decades later, the repression continues. On August 3, 2026, Indonesian police violently dispersed peaceful demonstrations organized by the West Papua National Committee in Sentani. Human rights monitors reported that 3 protesters were injured, including beatings during the dispersal. The demonstrations were part of simultaneous actions across West Papua demanding an end to the military and humanitarian crisis.

The New York Agreement remains a historical injustice that continues to shape the fate and future of West Papuans. Behind this occupation are the interests of fascist governments and private corporations that have benefited from the control and extraction of West Papua’s resources, backed by the United States, seeking strategic influence in the Pacific.

For decades, West Papuans have resisted occupation, repression, and the plunder of their ancestral lands.

That resistance will not cease while false agreements continue to be used to legitimize Indonesia’s rule, while their lands are stripped of their resources, and while violence remains the weapon of occupation.

The West Papuan people have the right to resist and fight back against the forces that continue to hold their homeland at gunpoint.#