New York Agreement
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A document brokered by the United States on behalf of the Indonesian government in 1962 is commonly known as The New York Agreement. The document was orchestrated by the USA in secret and without consent of the peoples of western New Guinea, after the Indonesian invasion commenced in December 1961. In effect, it transferred authority for the colony from the Netherlands to Indonesia.
At the insistence of the Dutch government, the document also included a guarantee that the Papuan people would be allowed an ‘Act of Free Choice’. In violation to Articles 15 to 18, Indonesia instead undertook a program to dismantle the Papuan education and government systems; removed personal liberties and in 1969 orchestrated a corrupt ‘Act of Free Choice’, in which representatives were chosen by Jakarta and forced, under threat of execution, to vote for integration.
Although Indonesia had in January 1962 pledged support for a west Papuan plebiscite which it then reaffirmed in the New York Agreement; Lieut. Gen. Basuki Rahmat in December 1966 announced Indonesia did not intend to allow such a plebiscite. By 1968 refugees fleeing Indonesian maladministration from were flowing from western to eastern Papua, disappointed that even freedoms expressed in Article 22 Section 1 of the New York Agreement were not being honored.
[edit] External references
- Document Release Marks 35th Anniversary of Controversial Vote and Annexation, government telegrams reveal foreknowledge of Indonesian intentions and abuses in West New Guinea
- Secret letter of US President to PM of the Netherlands
- 'US Foreign Relations, 1961-63, Vol XXIII, Southeast Asia'
- Text of 1962 New York Agreement
