http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/HC23Ae01.htmlPapuan anger focuses on world's richest mine
The pretext may have been demands for the closure of Freeport Indonesia's Grasberg copper and gold mine, 500 kilometers away across Papua's rugged central highlands. But while focusing on the world's most profitable mine attracted international attention, the true motivation for last week's bloody demonstrations in Papua's provincial capital, Jayapura, ran much deeper.
The student-led protests, in which four policemen, an air force officer and a protester were beaten and stoned to death, underline once again the need for the Indonesian government to do a lot more to address the remote territory's grievances, which range from an unfair distribution of the wealth gleaned from its natural resources to political double-dealing in Jakarta and a deep-rooted disrespect for Papuan culture.
-snip- (long article)
Like many countries in Southeast Asia, Indonesia has dealt poorly with its minorities. Papua is perhaps the most glaring example, a vast Melanesian territory whose people and culture are starkly different from those of the rest of the archipelago. The Javanese, in particular, who continue to have a dominant influence on Indonesian public life, have shown little patience for the Papuans, their aspirations or their culture.
It is this unhappy attitude that the Indonesian government has to overcome. Sudarsono, a Javanese himself, understands it well. He told foreign reporters recently that a lack of respect for Papua's unique culture ranks alongside economic injustice and unfair distribution of state income as one of the biggest problems confronting efforts to bring about genuine reconciliation.
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(and Papua wasn't even in the Spell Check)
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