On Friday (13 March), armed men fired on residents in a car, injuring three, while suspected rebels attacked a police post in Jan, stabbing a policeman’s wife. But Saturday’s attack was the first in years in which a government soldier was killed. The region, rich in natural resources but impoverished, lies 2,050 miles (3,300 kilometers) east of the capital Jakarta. It was brought under formal Indonesian rule in a stage-managed vote by 1,000 community leaders that was internationally dismissed as a sham. The small, poorly armed movement has been struggling for independence for decades
Members of the Free Papua Movement carry bows and arrows during a Morning Star independence flag-raising ceremony in the district of Paniai Timur in Papua
During World War II Netherlands East Indies (to become Indonesia) fell under Japanese Occupation and subsequently gained its independence during the Indonesian National Revolution from 1945 to 1950. Netherlands New Guinea (Western New Guinea), on the other hand, was only partially occupied by Japanese forces (along the north coast) and was not part of the Dutch-Indonesian agreement on Indonesian independence in December 1949. Its pre-war colonial relationship with the Netherlands was continued including the development of independent civil services and the election of a national New Guinea Council in January 1961 which was inaugurated in April 1961.White House advisors McGeorge Bundy and Robert Komer from April 1961 lobbied US President John F. Kennedy to negotiate for Indonesia the trade of West New Guinea to Indonesian control; the resulting New York Agreement was drafted by Robert Kennedy and signed by the Netherlands, Indonesia and United Nations in August 1962.
Although the Netherlands had insisted the West New Guinea people be allowed Self-determination in accord with the United Nations charter and General Assembly Resolution 1514 (XV) which was to be called the “Act of Free Choice”; the New York Agreement instead provided a seven year delay and gave the United Nations no authority to supervise the act.
The legitimacy of this transfer was not recognized by the Papuan population, the majority of whom have continued civil disobedience by raising the West Papua Morning Star flag each year on the 1 December although this action is illegal under Indonesian law and may result in imprisonment of seven to twenty years if caught and handed over to the police for prosecution.
In October 1968 Mr Nicolaas Jouwe, member of the New Guinea Council and of the National Committee elected by the Council in 1962, lobbied the United Nations claiming 30,000 Indonesian troops and thousands of Indonesian civil servants were repressing the Papuan population. According to US Ambassador Galbraith the Indonesian Foreign Minister Adam Malik also believed the Indonesian military was the cause of problems in the territory and the number of troops should be reduced by at least one half.
Ambassador Galbraith further described the OPM to “represent an amorphous mass of anti-Indonesia sentiment” with “possibly 85 to 90 percent [of Papuans], are in sympathy with the Free Papua cause or at least intensely dislike Indonesians”.
Brigadier General Sarwo Edhie oversaw the design and conduct of the “Act of Free Choice” which took place from 14 July to 2 August 1969.
The United Nations representative Ambassador Oritiz Sanz arrived on 22 August 1968 and made repeated requests for to the Brigadier General for Indonesia to allow a one man one vote system (a process known as a referendum or plebiscite) but these requests were refused on terms that the New York Agreement did not specify that the general public be allowed to vote. One thousand and twenty five Papuans were selected from and instructed on the required procedure for the act. The resulting vote was unanimous for integration, but by many Papuans and representatives of foreign governments, claim the result was rigged by the Indonesian Government.
In response, Oom Nicolas Jouwe and two OPM commanders, Seth Jafeth Roemkorem and Jacob Hendrik Prai, planned to announce Papuan Independence in 1971. On 1 July 1971 Roemkorem and Prai declared a Republic of West Papua, and drafted a constitution.
Conflicts over strategy between Roemkorem and Prai soon initiated a split of the OPM into two factions; the PEMKA lead by Prai, and TPN lead by Roemkorem. This greatly weakened OPM’s ability as a centralized combat force. It remains widely used, however, invoked by both contemporary fighters and domestic and expatriate political activists.
In 1982 a OPM Revolutionary Council (OPMRC) was established, and under the chairmanship of Moses Werror the OPMRC has sought independence through an International Diplomacy campaign. OPMRC aims to obtain international recognition for West Papuan independence through international forums such as the United Nations, The Non-Aligned Movement of Nations, The South Pacific Forum, and The Association of South East Asian Nations.
In 1984 OPM staged an attack on Jayapura, the provincial capital and a city dominated by non-Melanesian Indonesians. The attack was quickly repelled by the Indonesian military, who followed it with broader counter-insurgency activity. This triggered an exodus of Papuan refugees, apparently supported by the OPM, into camps across the border in Papua New Guinea.
In the mid-1990s, the organization gained renewed prominence and greater support among indigenous Papuans. This was fueled in large part by anger over the actions of the gold mining corporation Freeport-McMoRan, which is accused of environmental damage and of supporting alleged human rights abuses by the Indonesian military. In separate incidents in January and August 1996, OPM captured European and Indonesian hostages; first from a research group and later from a logging camp. Two hostages from the former group were killed and the rest were released.
In July 1998 the OPM raised their independence flag at the Kota Biak water tower on the island of Biak. They stayed there for the following few days before the Indonesian Military broke the group up using force.
Reports of a massacre have since surfaced.
From a speech by Theys Eluay in 1998…
“The truth is that we have never been part of Indonesia, so
we aren’t leaving. The truth is that Indonesia attached
itself to the Papuan people like a parasite.
If we are to advance our struggle towards gaining our
independence, we need to pursue it within the corridor of
peace and love.”
From a speech by Theys Eluay in 2001, just before he was assassinated…
“Our flag hasn’t flown for so many years.
We’re in the midst of an evil nation.
In the mouth of a tiger. But it’s God’s will.
Our prayers that the flag will fly will be answered.
I’m prepared to go to my grave, but the flag will fly. It will fly.
That’s perfectly natural for me. I don’t mind. It’s in God’s hands.
But we will not be under the Indonesians.”
“The crimes committed against the people of West Papua
are some of the most shameful of the past years. The
Western powers have much to answer for, and at the very
least should use their ample means to bring about the
withdrawal of the occupying Indonesian army and
termination of the shameful exploitation of resources and
destruction of the environment and the lives and societies
of the people of West Papua, who have suffered far too
much.”
Professor Noam Chomsky
March 18, 2009: Riyadh Saudi. By resolution of the Council of Ministers, ratified by royal decree the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ( المملكة العربية السعودية) al-Mamlaka al-ʻArabiyya as-Suʻūdiyya
Mar 12,2006 Pakistan: Five thousand women, led in part by rape victim and campaigner Mukhtar Mai, protested in Pakistan for equal rights. March 18, 2009: Multan,Pakistan. A Pakistani gang rape victim who won international acclaim as a campaigner for women’s rights has married. Mukhtar Mai wed a policeman who is still married to another woman. He threatened to divorce his first wife if she did not marry him. Ms Mai said she decided to do so to avoid family break-up.
Four men raped Ms Mai as punishment after her 12-year-old brother was accused of adultery in 2002, but she fought to have her attackers convicted. She ignored taboos about her ordeal, becoming a champion for women’s rights. Six men arrested and sentenced to death in connection with the gang rape are still in custody pending a retrial.
‘In Allah’s hand’
Ms Mai had said she was not sure she would ever marry, but on Sunday wed police constable Nasir Abbas Gabol in Muzaffargarh district, near Multan in Punjab province. “When you get married, you have to have faith in your partner and his family. I will try to cooperate with them,” she told Associated Press. “You know, I never said that I would not marry, I said that these things – relationships – are in the hands of Allah. I said if I got a good man I would get marriedMarch 18, 2009: Multan,Pakistan. It is with great pain that the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community confirms that two of its members were brutally murdered in Multan yesterday. The deceased, Dr Shiraz Ahmad Bajwa and Dr Noreen Bajwa were husband and wife and were both trained as doctors. Both martyrs were under the age of forty. Yesterday at around 2.30pm local time, unknown assailants attacked Dr Shiraz and Dr Noreen at their home in Wapda Colony, Multan Road. The assailants first taped together the hands, feet and mouths of both victims. They then tied rope around their necks and strangled them to death. Following death Dr Shiraz was hung from a nearby fan.
The brutality of these murders was further exacerbated by the fact that Dr Shiraz and Dr Noreen were expecting their first child. Dr Shiraz was an eye-specialist who had served at various hospitals including the Fazl-e-Umer Hospital in Rabwah. At the time of his death he was working at a hospital in Wapda.
Similarly Dr Noreen was working at a local childrens hospital.What occurred in Multan yesterday was an act of such cruelty that it can never be comprehended by decent and peace loving people.
Dr Shiraz and Dr Noreen had been married for just three years and were expecting their first child together. They had both chosen career paths which allowed them to serve their fellow men, women and children.
March 18, 2009: Chatabia, Algeria. Five Algerians have been killed since Saturday, a further escalation in violence ahead of presidential elections slated for the beginning of next month. Islamists cut the throat of a shepherd and 300 of his sheep in village near the Tunisian border Saturday night, newspapers reported.
Three family members and an elected official died in a bomb explosion the following morning as they headed to the site of the killing.In February, Islamists killed seven people in the Tebessa region where the village is located, some 630 kilometres (390 miles) southeast of the capital,March 18, 2009: Damascus, Syria, A Syrian writer and human rights activist, who has been in prison several times for publicly asking for political reforms in the country that has been ruled by the Baath regime for forty years, was sentenced to three years in prison today. According to Syrian human rights organisation ONDUS, Habib Saleh (62 years old) was sentenced today to three years in prison by the criminal court of Damascus under charges of “spreading false information to weaken national sentiment and to reawaken confessional dissent”. “Many European and Western diplomats, as well as activists in the community, were present this morning when the verdict was read”, 
Saleh, who was arrested six times between 1982 and May 2008, was arrested almost a year ago by government security services after publishing an article on internet in which he asked for political reforms. Since the accession in the summer of 2000 of President Bashar al-Assad, son of the deceased Hafiz al-Asad, tens of civilians and human rights activists have been imprisoned for “spreading false information to weaken national sentiment”Algiers.March 18, 2009: Rawalpindi, Pakistan. A suicide bomber blew up his car outside a restaurant in Pakistan’s garrison city of Rawalpindi, killing 14 people and wounding 18 others.
Pakistani residents identify victims’ bodies after a suicide blast at a hospital in Rawalpindi
March 18, 2009: Manilla, Philipines: Officials say Philippine marines have clashed for a second day with al-Qaida-linked militants holding three Red Cross workers hostage, killing at least six combatants and wounding 19 troops.
The fighting erupted Monday when Abu Sayyaf gunmen led by Albader Parad attempted to break out of a loose cordon set up by government forces to box in dozens of militants and their hostages in a hilly jungle near southern Jolo island’s Indanan township.
The military says Parad may have been wounded by marine snipers. There has been no word about the fate of the hostages. A military spokesman and the Jolo governor said fighting resumed Tuesday, leaving three militants and three marines dead and 19 troops wounded.
March 18, 2008: Baghdad, Iraq. Ten Iraqis are killed by Islamic militants in three separate bombing attacks
March 18, 2008: Jerusalem, Israel. A rabbi is stabbed in the neck by a Palestinian.
March 18, 2008: Sanaa, Yemen. A schoolgirl is among two killed in a bomb attack on the US Embassy March 18, 2007: Songkhla, Thailand. A Buddhist man is shot off of his motorcycle by Muslim radicals.
March 18, 2007: Songkhla, Thailand. Two Buddhist factory workers, a mother and daughter, are shot to death by Islamic terrorists.
March 18, 2007: Ramadi, Iraq. Nine Iraqi policemen are tortured and then decapitated by Sunni militants.
March 18, 2007: Kismayo, Somalia. Islamic insurgents assassinate a police chief.
March 18, 2007: Mogadishu, Somalia. Two people are killed when Islamic militias bomb a restaurant.
March 18, 2007: Mosul, Iraq. Four people are kidnapped and killed by Islamic terrorists.
March 18, 2007: Iskandariya, Iraq. A woman and her daughter are killed when Freedom Fighters lob a mortar into their home.
March 18, 2007: Baghdad, Iraq. Sunni terrorists detonate a car bomb in a Shia neighborhood, killing six residents.
March 18, 2007: Mardan, Pakistan. Religious extremists gun down a watchman, then set fire to four music shopsMarch 18, 2006: Ghazni, Afghanistan. Religious extremists assassinate a former governor, two relatives and two employees in a residential neighborhood.
March 18, 2006: Sumbal, India. Muslim gunmen murder a young civilian.
March 18, 2006: Baghdad, Iraq. Sunni extremists kill two more Shia pilgrims with a roadside bomb.
March 18, 2006: Baghdad, Iraq. The bodies of twenty-two men showing signs of torture are found by police.
March 18, 2006: Yala, Thailand. Islamists gun down a 53-year-old man who was riding out to his rubber plantation.
March 18, 2006: Rawalpora, India. A woman and nine others are injured in a powerful Hizb-ul-Mujahideen car blast.
March 18, 2006: Yala, Thailand. A 39-year-old man is murdered by Islamic separatists.March 18, 2005: Bandipore. India. The Mujahideen kill an 8-year-old boy by tossing a grenade into a school. Six of his classmates sustain critical injuriesMarch 18, 2004: Baqubah. Iraq. Sunni gunmen open fire on a bus carrying Iraqi journalists and crew of a local TV station funded by Americans. Three are killed and ten injured.
March 18, 2004: Baghdad. Iraq. Muslims barge into a Christian home and kill the two children they find there. There mother is also killed, as well as their grandfather.
March 18, 2004: Basra. Iraq. Fedayeen suicide bomber kills three other Iraqis and injures at least one outside a hotel.March 18, 2003: Kadarko, Nigeria. Armed Muslims shouting “we are going to finish off the infidels” attack a Christian village and kill at least 22 villagers. More than forty-four others were injured or missing.
March 18, 2003: Baliki, Philippines. Islamic boat attack kills one and leaves two injured.
March 18, 2003: Cotabato, Philippines. Rebel bomb attack on a Roman Catholic church during mass injures five worshippersMarch 18, 2002: Quetta, Pakistan. A party activist is killed in a sectarian attack.
March 18, 2002: Gaza, Israel. Dick Cheney in town to broker peace talks
March 18, 2000: In Gaza, setting the seeds of their overthrow five years later, Palestinian Fatah police seized explosives and arrested six HAMAS militants in raid on a refugee camp.March 18, 2000:A Congress Committee president in Kashmir had his home attacked from all sides by terrorists firing automatic weapons, rockets, and mortars.The same day, two bombs were discovered by police before the Army of Muhammad terrorist could detonate them in trains full of people. Each IED contained 18 pounds of RDX, a military-grade plastic explosive. Both devices were hooked to a timer and set to detonate shortly after they were discovered.March 18, 1995: Thirty-six Muslim militants who were members of the Islamic Group GIA’s (al-Gama’at al-Islamiyya) wave of bombings in France. They were sentenced to as many as 10 years.March 18, 1995: A Turkish sports club in Duisberg, Germany suffered an arson attack. Another Turkish mosque, this one in Munich was firebombed by Kurdish Muslims. And then to make certain there was no mistaking the nature of their religions, these jihadists bombed a Turkish social club in Ahlen, Germany.March 18, 1992: In Argentina, a Christian center was bombed by Imad Mugniyah of Hizballah, proving that Islam was an equal opportunity killer. Muslims are taught to hate Christians in addition to Jews (“people of the book”) and to kill them wherever they are found. The problem isn’t Israel; it is Islam.March 18, 1992: Muslim militants in the Philippines kidnapped two American women and an Australian mother and her two children, north of Manila. They had been touring the island with the Australian woman’s husband, who was a protestant minister. After ambushing their car at gunpoint, the pastor was forced out of the car and the gunman sped off with the women and childrenMarch 18, 1990: A car filled with explosives but without a driver, veered off-track as it headed toward the Commodore Hotel in Lebanon. Syrian soldiers were based there.March 18, 1987: Eleven people were killed and 45 others were wounded when a bomb went off in a popular cafe in Djibouti City. Eight of those killed were European citizens and seventeen of the injured were French. The bombing was perpetrated by terrorists from the Popular Struggle Front (PSF) – a Libyan-backed organization.March 18, 1986: A high-speed French train was bombed while 13 miles outside Paris. Ten people on board were injured. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility and demanded the release of five Arab Muslim terrorists currently in French prisons. Each Shiite jihadist was being held in connection with an unsuccessful assassination attempt on former Iranian Prime Minister Bakhtiar in July 1980.The Committee of Solidarity with the Arab and Middle East Political Prisoners (CSPPA), a Hizballah cell, also claimed responsibility. But the names of the clubs were meaningless. Evidence proved that the Shia Iranian theocracy in Tehran was directly involved, making fundamentalist Islam responsible.March 18, 1986:The “General Command of the Palestinian Revolution Forces” said that it bombed an Israeli factory in the Bene Beraq settlement north of Tel Aviv and that “heavy damage was sustained and a large number of Israelis were either killed or wounded by the blast.”March 18, 1986: A bus driver for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) was kidnapped near the Palestinian refugee camp at Bourj al-Barajinah in the Shia Muslim region of southern Beirut. Zahi Hamadei, a Palestinian refugee who worked at the camp, was taking UNRWA staff to work when his vehicle was intercepted by a jihadist-laden Mercedes. He was carted off by armed Shias never to be heard from again.March 18, 1985: A bomb exploded in the Israeli Embassy in Singapore.March 18, 1983: In Islam’s hellhole, French citizens were targeted in a grenade attack in the Chiyah section of Beirut.
Thats all today folksMerry Mo,s Murderous Mob
ILLUSTRATED P.I.G TO ISLAM 