Articles by: Peter Arndt

Author Biography: No biography available

We Are Not Monkeys!, by Peter Arndt

As Indonesian brutality intensifies, the Papuan struggle for independence reaches a crisis

Informit: We are not monkeys!

The date 15 August 1962 is significant in the history of the people of the western half of the island of New Guinea, the place commonly called West Papua. On that date the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which had occupied the territory since the nineteenth century, and the Republic of Indonesia signed what was called the New York Agreement. For some years, Indonesian president Sukarno had been pushing hard for the territory to be handed…