New York Agreement
The New York Agreement[1] was an agreement brokered by the United States in 1962 on advice of the National Security Council (NSC) to transfer the colony of Netherlands New Guinea from the Netherlands to Indonesia. "The underlying reason that the Kennedy administration pressed the Netherlands to accept this agreement was that it believed that Cold War considerations of preventing Indonesia from going Communist overrode the Dutch case". [2]
At the insistence of the Dutch government, the document also included a guarantee that the Papuan people would be allowed a referendum or ‘Act of Free Choice’. Indonesia in January 1962 pledged support for a Papuan plebiscite, contrary to articles 14 and 22 of the agreement from 1963 the Indonesian military sacked the territory of goods for sale in Jakarta, and contrary to articles 15 to 18 dismantle the Papuan education and government systems.[3] Although Lieut. Gen. Basuki Rahmat announced in December 1966 that Indonesia did not intend to allow a plebiscite, President Gen. Suharto sold colonial mining rights to the Freeport corporation in 1967 and in 1968 decided that the ‘Act of Free Choice’ should be staged during 1969.
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. The legitimacy of the New York Agreement and 'Act of Free Choice' have not yet been reviewed by the U.S. government.[4]
History
In 1936 Jean Dozy discovered gold and copper while exploring the Dutch colony of West New Guinea for the Nederlandsche Nieuw Guinea Petroleum Maatschappij (NNGPM) company which Standard Oil held a 60% interest in. In March 1959 The New York Times published an article alleging the Dutch were sending scientific teams to identify which mountain was the source of alluvial gold found in the Arafura Sea. In August 1959 Forbes Wilson working for a Rockefeller interest, the Freeport Sulphur Company, flew to West New Guinea to confirm the geology reports of Jean Dozy.
In 1961 McGeorge Bundy was appointed as the US National Security Adviser over the National Security Council. McGeorge Bundy had a long association with Freeport Sulphur director Robert Lovett. McGeorge Bundy, his father Harvey Bundy and Robert Lovett were bonesman; and Harvey Bundy and Robert Lovett had been colleagues working for Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson during the Second World War before McGeorge Bundy wrote On Active Service in Peace and War with Henry L. Stimson in 1948.
From April 1961 the U.S. National Security Council[2] advised President Kennedy[5] that an agreement trading the colony to Indonesia was a preferred means to win favor with Indonesian President Sukarno. Despite Department of State views supporting Dutch concerns that "annexation by Indonesia would simply trade white for brown colonialism" and subsequent to the inauguration of the New Guinea Council on 5 April 1961, McGeorge Bundy and the NSC continued to argue in favour of the trade between the United Nations, the Netherlands and Indonesia.
References
- ^ Text of 1962 New York Agreement
- ^ a b U.S. Department of State summary. "US Foreign Relations, 1961-63, Vol XXIII, Southeast Asia".
- ^ U.S. telegrams reveal foreknowledge of Indonesian abuses in West New Guinea. Document Release Marks 35th Anniversary of Controversial Vote and Annexation
- ^ s:HR 2601 Section 1115 A bill proposal during 2005 by the US Congress to ask questions regarding the New York Agreement and resulting conditions in the territory.
- ^ Kennedy letter to Netherlands PM