New York Agreement

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For the agreement ending foreign involvement in the Angolan Civil War, see New York Accords

The New York Agreement is a document brokered by the United States on behalf of the Indonesian government in 1962 to transfer sovereignty of Western New Guinea from the Netherlands to Indonesia. 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.

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.

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