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Box 2574 || || Olympia, Washington USA || || 98507-2574 || || Thank You, || || CWIS Staff || || || ||=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-|| ||\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/|| ()=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-() ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :: This file has been created under the loving care of :: :: -= THE FOURTH WORLD DOCUMENTATION PROJECT =- :: :: A service provided by :: :: The Center For World Indigenous Studies :: :: :: :: THE FOURTH WORLD DOCUMENTATION PROJECT ARCHIVES :: :: http://www.halcyon.com/FWDP/fwdp.html :: :: THE CENTER FOR WORLD INDIGENOUS STUDIES :: :: http://www.halcyon.com/FWDP/cwisinfo.html :: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: DOCUMENT: INDBANG2.TXT ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT BY INVASION OF INDIGENOUS NATIONS by Bernard Nietschmann University of California (Berkeley) [Ed. Note: This article may be reproduced for electronic transfer and posting on computer bulletin boards in part or full, provided that no profit is made by such transfer and that full credit is given to the author, the Center For World Indigenous Studies, and The Quarto Mundista BBS.] Third World colonialism has replaced European colonialism as the principal global force that tries to subjugate indigenous peoples and their ancient nations. European colonial empires became powerful through the forced incorporation of distant peoples and territories. Wars of independence and national liberation and post-World War II decolonization created today's Third World countries largely on the artificial outlines of the vanquished colonial empires. Invasion and occupation of indigenous nations once done by foreign white expansionist powers are now done by foreign brown expansionist powers. The majority of these artificial Third World states can only be maintained by the invasion and physical incorporation of lands and resources of hundreds of indigenous nations. What is called "economic development" is the annexation at gun point of other peoples' economies. What is called "nation- building" is actually state expansion by nation-destroying. Territorial consolidation, national integration, the imperatives of population growth, and economic are phrases used by Third World states to cover up the killing of indigenous nations and peoples. The capture and control of geography, not the extension of politics or economic philosophy is the objective of the Third World invasions. Most Fourth World indigenous nations have maintained the quality of lands, waters and resources while Third World states have not. Systems that do work are being destroyed to prolong systems that don't work. Over one-half of the world's conflicts are being fought over Fourth World geography, not East- West politics, or North-South economics. DEVELOPMENT BY INVASION The development and modernization of Third World states is heavily dependent upon the invasion and annexation of Fourth World nations. Duplicating the experience of First and Second world states, exported European socialism and capitalism have both failed to sustainably develop the internal resources within Third World territories. Unable to limit fast-growing populations, unwilling to reform elite-dominated land ownership, and incapable of dramatically increasing food production with more green revolutions, "many Third World governments promote development by invasion. "New" lands and resources are freshly invaded lands and appropriated resources. The ex-colonial Third World is doing to the indigenous Fourth World what First and Second world states did to it. Most of the world's largest countries are expansionist and use "nationalized" populations - backed by an army and programs of forced allegiance - to occupy and annex indigenous territory and to claim Fourth World resources. All of the 10 most populous countries are waging expansionist cold and hot wars against indigenous nations. Much of this violence against indigenous nations is hidden by common agreement among states to alter the terminology of conflict: Aggressive conflict between states is called war; a nation's defense against aggression by a state is called terrorism; and the aggressive invasion and occupation of a nation by a state is called development. Development by invasion is done by all of the most populous states that together lay claim to 63 percent of the world's peoples and 43 percent of the land area. However, in many of these states, sovereignty and allegiance are only obtained by the use of state army and security forces against nations of peoples (ironically called citizens by the states) who seek to maintain their own distinct and sovereign identities, governments and territories. CLAIMED 1985 CLAIMED AREA STATE POPULATION (1000s mi square) China 1,042,000,000 3,705.4 India 762,200,000 1,269.3 Soviet Union 278,000,000 8,649.0 United States 238,900,000 3,615.1 Indonesia 168,400,000 735.4 Brazil 138,400,000 3,286.5 Japan 120,800,000 143.7 Bangladesh 101,500,000 55.6 Pakistan 99,200,000 310.4 Nigeria 91,200,000 357.7 ---------------------------------- 3,040,000,000* 22,127.1** * = 63% of world's 4,845,000,000 in 1985 ** = 43% of world's land area, excluding Antarctica Of the world's 168 internationally recognized states, these 10 assert sovereignty over 63 percent of the world's inhabitants and 43 percent of its land area. All of these states are economically, politically and territorially expansionist. Hundreds of the world's more than 3000 nations are to be devoured to fuel but these ten political and economic entities. Resources, lands and peoples will be incorporated - forcibly if need be - to maintain the viability of the state. All have programs and policies to annex indigenous nations by occupation through the assisted and subsidized relocation of some of each state's populations. Brazil, India, Bangladesh and Indonesia each have large-scale programs for the relocation of massive numbers of their citizens across borders and onto the national territory of other peoples. Mistakenly called "transmigration", meaning the internal relocation of people within a state's borders, these migrations are really state sponsored invasions by "surplus" populations and transnationals. Two of the most destructive development by invasion transmigration programs are directed by the governments of Bangladesh and Indonesia, and financed by international development and agencies. THE BACKUP AND SPREAD OF INDONESIA AND BANGLADESH Indonesia and Bangladesh are poor Third World states with extremely large, fast-growing populations. Even when discounting the populations of the many nations claimed to be part of these states, both Indonesia and Bangladesh have huge numbers of people. INDONESIA BANGLADESH 1985 Population 168,400,000 101,500,000 World Ranking #5 #8 Natural Increase 2.2% /yr 2.8% /yr Pop. Doubling Time 32 years 25 years Est. Pop. Year 2000 226,900,000 146,200,000 % Rural-Agricult. 78% 85% Pop. Density 229/ sq mi 1800/ sq mi G.N.P. per capita ('85) $560.00 /yr* $130.00 /yr* * US dollar value. AN INDONESIAN FATHERLAND Indonesia is a post-World War II state imposed over the artificial outlines of the Dutch East Indies colonial empire. Spread across a 3000-mile arc of 13,700 islands and at least 300 distinct nations and peoples, the government and army are controlled by Javanese, a people from but one island and one nation. Java has almost 100 million people, some 80 percent of whom live in rural areas where one-third of the land is controlled by only one percent of the land owners. These conditions place further pressure on the agriculture-based peasantry whose population density reaches 5000 people for each square mile in some areas. With Java's population growing at the rate of two million per year and with similar growth rates on the adjacent island-nations of Bali and Madura, the Jakarta-based Javanese government has instituted a state policy of expansion to redirect the backup of the ruling population and to consolidate Javanese control beyond the island of Java. Aided by the slogan "Unity Through Diversity," Java has moved to expand its domination over unconsenting nations by military invasion and occupation, deployment of Javanese settlers, and compulsory "Javanization" programs to change religion, nationality, language, and allegiance. This has and is being done, for example, in the South Moluccas (invaded in 1950), West Papua (invaded 1962), and East Timor (invaded 1975). Another aspect of Javanese territorial consolidation of huge portions of insular Southeast Asia and Melanesia, is the declaration of an Indonesian land-and-water fatherland (tanah air) united by the state doctrine of wawasan nusantara, Java's concept of an "archipelagic state." This means that Java-controlled Indonesia asserts authority over a vast expanse of ocean waters by claiming 200-mile exclusive zones around each of the more than 13,000 islands within Indonesia's colonial boundaries. These extensions of Jakarta's territorial land and water claims mean that Indonesia has become the world's seventh-largest state in area, potentially sealing off international access to island straits and sea lanes. These commercially and strategically important sea lanes connect the Pacific and Indian oceans and the Asian mainland and Australia. Furthermore, Java's archipelagic "fatherland" is a military-backed geopolitical net that has been cast over hundreds of distinct nations and peoples. Jakarta effectively strips these nations of their own self-determination, land and sea territories and resources, and freedom. The backup and overflow of Java is resulting in the destruction of multitudes of nations, peoples and environments. Java's population problems and geopolitical aspirations have resulted in a campaign of military-assisted movements of millions of people, island-hopping, and island takeovers, and environmental damage on a geographical scale verging on the 1941-1945 War of the Pacific. THE CREATION OF BANGLADESH At the height of its colonial grip of Asia, Britain controlled one fifth of the world's land area and one fourth of its people. Part of that overseas empire was the British creation of India: A foreign dominated, artificial territory of different peoples, nations, languages and religions. Stretching between British- controlled Burma and Afghanistan, India was the keystone in the British colonial arch in Asia. It served as a source of immense profits, and a buffer against Russian expansion from the west and French expansion from Indo-China to the east. Never a nation of single people within an historic homeland, India was a creation forced from distinctly different entities. Strachey remarked during the turn of the century high-tide mark of British colonialism, "There is not, and never was, an India, or even a country of India, possessing - according to European ideas - any sort of unity, physical, political, social or religious: No Indian nation, no people of India." International pressure and internal dissent forced Great Britain to pull out of its colonial empire of India on August 15, 1947. Continuing clashes between Moslems and Hindus led to the 1947 Partition that divided the empire into Moslem East and West Pakistan separated by 1200 miles of Hindu India. The eastern wing of the new Moslem state was formed from the earlier East Bengal area of colonial India. Disputes between Pakistani-dominated West Pakistan, and Bengali-dominated East-Pakistan led to a brief "civil war" in 1971 during which India sided with the Bengali forces. Already once-divided from British-created Indian, the state of West and East Pakistan was again divided by the 1971 war into Pakistan (formerly West Pakistan) and Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan). Born of violence upon violence, Bangladesh became a separate state, formed and reformed from a previous state and a still earlier colonial empire. During all of these geopolitical transitions, however, within this British-Indian-Pakistan- Bangladesh claimed territory were many indigenous nations that never relinquished their nationality or territory to any of the imposed geographical pretenders. Judging from the creation of Bangladesh (and Indonesia), there is nothing natural or permanent or even persistent about international boundaries, colonial empires, or internationally recognized states. Bangladesh is one of the world's poorest countries and within its claimed territory are rapidly increasing numbers of Moslem Bengali citizens whose population densities - like those of Java - are among the highest anywhere in the world. Tiny Bangladesh, its 55,600 square mile area is about the size of Nicaragua with only three million people, has over 100 million, the eighth largest state population. A geographical axiom that applies to Bangladesh is that without reforms or innovations, a rural population dependent upon agriculture must expand the area under cultivation. The outward movement of lowland Bengali people has long been a demographic reality and a threat to the adjacent nations of hill peoples such as the Assamese (India) and Chakmas (Chittagong Hill Tracts). THE SPREAD OF NATION DESTRUCTION Within the state of Bangladesh is the over-populated Bengali nation, just as within the state of Indonesia is the over- populated Javanese nation. Each of these two states is ruled by one dominant nation which forces less powerful and less populated nations to accede to the fiction of an Indonesian and a Bangladeshi "nation". Bangladesh and Indonesia are in the third phase of a likely four-phase geographical expansion. First came the colonial creation of an empire that forcibly joined ancient nations. Then followed the emergence of a new state ruled by a single nation over many nations whose own development and security was eroded by fast-growing populations (Bengali and Javanese). The third phase is the safety valve relocation of large numbers of people from the Bengali and Javanese nations into the adjoining nations, a sort of eating up of other nations' territories and resources. This is the present-day phase where invasion by the ruling group's army and settlers supports economic development and fosters no-choice political consolidation. For Indonesia this is being done by transmigration of Javanese, Maduran and Balinese nationals to other nations on other islands such as Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and West Papua. For Bangladesh the movement is to the many nations within the Chittagong Hill Tracts and elsewhere. Accelerated by environmental destruction, population doubling times of 25 - 32 years, the squandering of resource wealth by ruling elites, and resource extraction by transnationals, this third phase of expansion to the state periphery probably will be over within 15 years. The fourth and next phase will be territorial expansion beyond state boundaries and across demographic divides. This is already beginning as more than 500,000 Bengalis have left the state of Bangladesh and illegally settled Assam, northeast India. BURMA PRESENTS ANOTHER AREA OF RELATIVELY LOW POPULATION. Indonesia may encourage cross border movements of people to Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, Sabah, Palawan and Mindanao (Philippines), and there is deep concern in Australia over the chances of an invasion from the north. One of the world's greatest demographic divides exists between Australia which has almost the area of the United States of America but only the population of New York City's 15 million, and Indonesia which will have 226 million after the next 15 years on a land area that is smaller than Mexico. Between the expansionist Javanese and Bengalis and neighboring less populated states are many non-expansionist nations whose peoples, lands and resources are being consumed by the spread of invading settlers, and totalitarian state control, assisted by multi-lateral state institutions like the World Bank and its subsidiary the Africa-Asia Bank. STATES REJECT NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE The peoples and nations of Chittagong Hill Tracts and West Papua are seeking to decide their own political, economic and social future. And they seek protection from expanding invasions onto their territory and into their communities. Rather than becoming independent with the removal of Western colonial rule, these two multinational areas were taken over by adjacent Third World states. Land and resources that could have sustainably developed the peoples of peaceful, self-contained nations, became the means for aggressive states to expand. The Bengali invaders of the Chittagong indigenous nations and the Javanese invaders of West Papua indigenous nations have failed to learn the same lesson they taught their British, Indian, Pakistani, Dutch, and Japanese invaders. THE MULTINATIONAL CONFEDERACY OF CHITTAGONG Thirteen indigenous hill people nations make up the Chittagong Hill Tracts. They are different in all respects - identity, cultures, languages, religions, histories, territories - from the non-indigenous Moslem Bengali people that only recently claim them as part of the Bangladesh state. With 400,000 people, the Chakmas are the largest national population of the some 600,000 people who historically occupy and claim the hill territories. These people have a long history of resisting invasions from the lowlands. In the 18th century the British colonized the adjacent lowlands and pushed to incorporate the independent and sovereign hill peoples by introducing tea plantations and wage labor. At first the British encouraged Bengali immigration to "pacify" the area, but as the Bengali people's own aspirations for independence from British rule developed, the British recognized the area as an autonomous indigenous region with the enactment of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Regulation pin 1900. To gain the support of the hill peoples, the British recognized the integrity of indigenous ("tribal") nations and agreed to prohibit outsiders (principally Bengalis) from purchasing land or permanently settling. In 1935, the Chittagong Hill Tracts territory was recognized by the colonial administration of India to be a distinct and separate "totally excluded area." During the growing resistance to British rule among the many nations held within British-created India, the Chittagong Hill nations worked toward creating a semi-independent state or the possibility of merging with other indigenous peoples in neighboring nations to form an independent state of confederated nations (similar to what the Karen and 10 other indigenous nations seek in Burma). The British promised that Chittagong autonomy and continued independence would be recognized with the independence of India. Instead, however, the British "granted" the Chittagong Hill Tracts territory and people to newly-independent Pakistan in 1947 by-way- of the "Radcliff Award." This was a craven and criminal deed that awarded non-Moslem peoples and nations to a new state created by violence and millions of deaths to establish the Moslem state of Pakistan. The mere existence of non-Moslem peoples and national territories within the Islamic state was an invitation to invasion, attempted conversion, and repression. Rather than liberation and independence, the Chittagong indigenous nations were invaded by the Pakistani army and Bengali settlers, 1947 - 1971, and by Bangladeshi army and Bengali settlers since 1971. With a population of more than 600,000, Chittagong nations have more people than 20 percent of the world's internationally recognized states, including Bahrain, Belize, Bahamas, Iceland, Luxenburg, and Vanuatu. Colonial kinship, not geography or demography, is the basis of recognition of independence by the United Nations Brotherhood of States. ONE COUNTRY, ONE PEOPLE: NEW GUINEA Comprised of many nations of Papuan peoples, New Guinea, the world's second largest island, has more internal commonality and political consensus than any part of it has with any past or present colonial powers that have asserted control over this natural geopolitical country: Britain, the Netherlands, Germany, Australia, Japan, and Indonesia. One half of the island achieved independence from its colonizer, Australia, in 1975, and became Papua New Guinea, an emerging important power in the Pacific and in Melanesia. Instead of self-determination and independence, the western half of the island was invaded and annexed by expansionist Java as Indonesia's easternmost province. Papuan people are Melanesian, not Indonesian. Melanesian is a term of identity of free choice; Indonesian is a word that delimits an area and peoples held together by force. The people of West Papua are different in all respects from their rulers from Java: Language, religions, identity, histories, systems of land ownership and resource use, cultures and allegiance. For more than 23 years, the Javanese have tried to take West Papua by force and to incorporate it and its peoples into Indonesia. And the Papuan peoples have continued to resist the takeover and instead wish either to be free to create their own autonomous state or to merge with Papua New Guinea. The Javanese occupation of West Papua has no legitimacy. Java and West Papua are separated by 2300 miles of ocean waters and numerous island nations. The Dutch ruled the two colonies with separate administrations, similar to the former British colonies of Jamaica and Trinidad, each of which became an independent state in 1962. To acquire West Papua, the Javanese promoted a sham, claiming that half of New Guinea was a "natural" geographic part of "greater Indonesia," and they launched political and military campaigns to secure their bogus claim. After the Dutch military forces were driven from Java in December, 1949, the Javanese set their sights on claiming all island nations of what once had been the Dutch East Indies. For 12 years the taking of West Papua was a matter of "national pride" for the Javanese. They promised to liberate the Papuans by invading and driving out the Dutch. In 1962 they attacked with a paratroop force at Aru Bay. The Dutch took the problem to the United Nations. A special UN commission headed by Elsworth Bunker, a ranking member of the Kennedy Administration in the United States, considered the Netherland's complaints and then urged the turnover of West Papua to Indonesia. It was obvious at the time that the decision to turn a blind eye to Indonesia's blatant disregard for the UN Charter was a choice made to enhance U.S. foreign policy interests. Indonesia was a U.S. ally and an important part of Washington's plan for the containment of communism in Southeast Asia. (Elsworth Bunker's UN sanctioned plan to force West Papua into the arms of Indonesia was confirmed in The New York Plan of 1962. It was an agreement similar to Sir Cyril Radcliff's 1947 Radcliff Award which gave the Chittagong Hill Tracts to Pakistan.) Indonesia was to govern West Papua as a trust territory until an election could be held to determine the political future of the Papuan peoples. From 1962 to 1969, Papuan resistance to the Indonesian occupation was widespread. By 1969, Indonesia felt that it had enough military control over West Papua to hold a phony "Act of Free Choice" (Pe Pe Ra, Determination of the People's Opinion). Widely referred to as the Act of No Choice by the West Papuans, only 1,025 (of 800,000 total population) people were allowed to vote on the destiny of their country: Independence or union with Indonesia. Indonesian military units and generals determined the outcome of the vote. Indonesian army Major Soewondo threatened those who were to vote by telling them: I am drawing the line frankly and clearly. I say I will protect and guarantee the safety of everyone who is for Indonesia. I will shoot dead anyone who is against us - and all his followers. (TAPOL, 1984:31) And Brigadier-General Ali Murtopo warned Papuan representatives that Indonesia, as the strongest military power in Southeast Asia, is able to strike fear into any country. If we want to be independent, he said, . . . we had better ask God if He could find us an island in the Pacific where we could emigrate . . . . Indonesians had fought for West Irian for years. They had made many sacrifices in this struggle, and they would not therefore allow their national aspirations to be crossed by a handful of Papuans. Short shrift would be made of those who voted against Indonesia. Their accursed tongues would be torn out, their full mouths would be wrenched open. Upon them would fall the vengeance of the Indonesian people, among them General Murtopo who would himself shoot the people on the spot. (_TAPOL_, 1984: 31-32) With a gun to her head, West Papua was annexed to Indonesia. In 1969, Indonesian President Suharto declared that West Papua was a province of Indonesia to be called West Irian. In 1973 the province was renamed Irian Jaya and the papuans were renamed Irianese. A new mythical people - the Irianese - were to be created instantly with this declaration from Jakarta, a people whose identity, allegiance, land and resources were to be given to Java and to Java's self-inflated image of empire and destiny. Use of the word Papuan was forbidden and punishable by imprisonment; use of the geographical name West Papua was also forbidden and censored from radio and all publications. To make Papuans and West Papua Indonesian, the Jakarta central government began programs to obliterate the people and to annihilate their place. With an area of 160,032 square miles, West Papua has a size larger than Japan or Poland and almost as large as Iraq or Sweden. Its Papuan population of 1,000,000 is larger than one fourth of the states recognized by the United Nations including Gambia, Fiji, Guyana and Cyprus. If West Papua were to join the 3.5 million people of Papuan New Guinea - a goal of many among the West Papuan resistance forces, "One Country, One People" - then the indigenous peoples of New Guinea would have a population larger than almost half of the established states. And, a combined Papuan territory would have an area larger than any Central American or European country. TRANSMIGRATION: ANNEXATION BY OCCUPATION An area coveted by expansionist desires and even placed on a thirty pieces of silver platter by opportunistic Western countries wishing to establish good relations with new Third World powers, must nevertheless be occupied and subjugated. The strategy used by most Third World states relies on the mass transfer of a civilian population loyal or at least dependent upon the central government, backed by a large and ruthless military force, with almost all expenses lobbied for by transnationals and provided by international development agencies. BANGLADESH'S STATE OF SIEGE AGAINST THE CHITTAGONG NATIONS During 1947 - 1971, East Pakistan organized and promoted Bengali settlement and development of the Chittagong Hill Tracts and peoples. In 1955 the Bengali government violated the political autonomy of the region by disregarding the Chittagong Hill Tracts Regulations and bringing the area under the administrative control of Pakistan. government encouragement of Bengali settlers, merchants and money lenders into the Chittagong Hills accelerated in 1958 with the military takeover of Pakistan. Economic development was used to firmly establish a Bengali- Pakistan state beachhead within indigenous national territory throughout the Chittagong Hills. The U.S. Agency for International Development (A.I.D.) provided most of the funding for the construction of the Kaptai Dam across the Karnaphulli River. Finished in 1963, the dam supplies hydroelectric energy to the Bengali port of Chittagong, but has created a 20,000 hectare reservoir on indigenous lands that displaced 100,000 people, largely Chakmas who were resisting the Bengali invasion. In 1964 all immigration restrictions to the area were removed by the Bengali government. With the 1971 separation of Bangladesh from Pakistan, the Bengali government in Dhaka began a push to "Bengalize" the Chittagong Hill peoples. The Bengali invasion was stepped up in 1979 by Bangladesh's active encouragement of settlers to move into the area. By 1980, Dhaka had received enough international assistance (U.S. AID, Sweden, World Health Organization, UNICEF) to provide the settlers with transportation, money, a six-month food supply, and 2.5 to 5 acres of land for each family. In 1982, an additional 250,000 Bengalis were brought into the area. By 1985 the Bengali population amounted to 400,000 settlers and 40,000 army personnel, almost 75 percent of the original number of the area's inhabitants and owners. To the Bengalis, the Chittagong Hills are a population overflow region that had land, hydroelectric potential, oil and natural gas. To secure these, the Bengalis suppressed all rights of the indigenous peoples and nations, and forcibly imposed their people, religion, and government and began a brutal campaign to eliminate indigenous resistance by burning crops, villages, arbitrary and widespread murders, rapes, torture, and destruction and theft of goods and property. (Fourth World Journal, R.S. Dewan, 1985: 33- 40) Since its own independence from Pakistan, Bangladesh has continued and accelerated the Bengali invasion and state of siege to deny the independence of the Chittagong Hill peoples, who in turn, have had to organize their own armed resistance force, the 15,000 partially armed guerrilla fighters of the Shanti Bahini ("peace force"). The Bengali army is waging an undeclared war against the indigenous peoples of the Chittagong Hills. In order to defeat the Shanti Bahini fighters they attack civilians. To break the resistance they terrorize non-combatants. To conquer the people - they destroy them. To stop the flow of information, recruits, food and shelter from villagers to their sons and daughters in the Shanti Bahini, the Bengali army burns villages, one after the other. When they suffer an ambush and defeat, the Bengali army retaliates by murdering and raping civilians. The Bengali army is one of the most poorly controlled armies in Asia. It is conducting a purge of indigenous peoples, an elimination, a liquidation, genocide 1980's style at no cost to the developing state, paid for by naive, trusting international agencies wishing to solve "The Population Problem." The Bengali military-assisted invasion of the Chittagong Hill nations is the world's most clear-cut example of genocide in practice today. Undeniably hungry Bengalis feed on food grown on land drenched in Chakma blood, Mro blood, Marma blood, Tripura blood. INDONESIA'S DISGUISED INVASION OF WEST PAPUA When Java replaced the Netherlands as the colonial power that claimed sovereignty over 300 Fourth World Nations on 13,700 islands over a 3,000-mile-extent, the expansion of political, military, and economic control was made the top priority. In 1950, President Sukarno said that migration to the outer islands was "a matter of life and death for the Indonesian nation." Java's expansionist designs were to extend by moving Javanese settlers and military units, island to island, and to disguise these invasions as the redistribution of overpopulation within the confines of a mythical Indonesian state. The invasions are financed by international aid, amounting to some $600,000,000 provided by the World Bank, World Food Program, European Economic Community, Asian Development Bank, Islamic Development Bank, Federal Republic of Germany, France, Netherlands, the United States, and the United Nations Development Program. (Survival International, Bulletin: March 2, 1985) Transmigration - the resettlement of people loyal to a central government - is the main tactic for "smokeless wars" of invasion and occupation by Third World states against Fourth World Nations and peoples. Java's war on the peoples it claims as Indonesian civilians is called transmigrasi (Transmigration). It represents the world's largest invasion force. The 1984 - 1989 Five Year Plan called for the movement of 5,000,000 people from Java, Madura and Bali specifically to those areas that resist Java's imposed sovereignty: Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, South Moluccas, East Timor, and West Papua. Over the next 20 years, some 65,000,000 more people will be moved to Javanize Fourth World territories claimed by Indonesia. Java no longer gives overpopulation as the principal reason behind transmigration. Centralized political and economic goals - not humanitarian ones - are the justifications. The Jakarta government lists seven goals for its transmigration program: To promote national unity, national security, an equal distribution of the population, national development, the preservation of nature, help to the farming classes, and improvement of the condition of local peoples. (Survival International, Bulletin: March 2, 1985) What transmigration has actually accomplished is very different: The spread of poverty, forced displacement of indigenous peoples from their homes, communities and lands; deforestation and soil damage at the rate of some 200,000 hectares per year (to total 3,600,000 deforested hectares by 1989); destruction of local governments, economies, means of sustainable resource use; forced assimilation programs; widespread use of military force to "pacify" areas and to break local resistance by bombing and massacres of civilians. It costs about $9000.00 to move a family from Java and to establish it on 2.5 to 5 hectares of expropriated land in a distant island. People who are forcibly displaced to make room for the transmigrants are not paid for their land; Indonesia asserts that transmigration is a national priority and that national needs for land replace any local ownership: "The rights of traditional-law communities may not be allowed to stand in the way of the establishment of Transmigration settlements" (Basic Forestry Act: Clarification Act 2823, 1967, Clause 17). Indonesia cannot itself afford to move 65 million people at the present-day cost of $9000 per family. Funds for that will be sought from international sources. The purchase of land would drive the amount far beyond the $10 billion that Java needs to extend its control over non-Javanese islands, nations and peoples. Internationally financed invasions disguised as national priorities and domestic resettlement is the way poor Third World states acquire land and resources. West Papua is one of the main areas targeted for annexation and incorporation by the military-backed transmigration program. West Papua's abundant forest and mineral resources and offshore oil potential makes it even more attractive for development by invasion. To physically secure West Papua and to transfer control of the area from Papuans to Javanese, Jakarta has imposed a seven- part strategy: TERRITORIAL OCCUPATION. Displacement of Papuans by Javanese, Maduran and Balinese settlers that will number 1,000,000 by 1989, and up to 10,000,000 by the year 2000. RELOCATION OF PAPUANS INTO ASSIMILATION CAMPS. The Javanese use two primary types of relocation camps to erase Papuan identity (ethnocide): Translocal settlements where Papuans are brought to live with Javanese settlers at ratios of 1:3 to 1:5 in order to "civilize" them with Moslem religion, Bahasa Indonesian language, and Javanese culture and community life; and Centers for Social Development where Papuans are brought to remove them from supporting the Papuan resistance forces and to indoctrinate them. The centers are called PPMs and have the same purpose as "strategic hamlets" widely used during the war between Vietnam and the United States, "model villages" used by the Guatemalan government on Mayan Indians and "relocation camps" used by the Nicaraguan government to control Indians from the Miskito, Sumo and Rama nations. INDOCTRINATION. Within the translocal, and community development camps, and surviving Papuan villages, Javanese government people carry out a program of Pascasila Indoctrination, to replace Papuan and Melanesian identity and nationality with Indonesian. Called indoctrination, its goals "to cultivate national pride, self- respect and broaden people's horizons so as to create a consciousness of being [part of] a nation, part of the Indonesian state, and to defend the state. (TAPOL, 1984:10) TERRITORIAL MANAGEMENT. Throughout Indonesia the Javanese rely on a doctrine of "territorial management" (Pembinaan territorial wilayah) for "national defense." It is based on the belief that the Indonesian army will face warfare of "internal" and "external" guerrilla forces, not conventional armies. Therefore, the army must organize all the peoples within the claimed Indonesian state into "total people's defense" (hankamrata) by "management" of each society down to the smallest units. "Territorial Management" is a major part of Java's strategy to occupy West Papua and to use the Indonesian army to reduce opposition from "citizens" claimed by Indonesia. COUNTERINSURGENCY. The Papuan defense force is called the OPM (Organisasi Papua Merdeka) or Free Papua Movement which has been fighting the Indonesian invasion for almost 25 years. The goal of the Pemka and Vitoria branches of the OPM is to resist the Indonesian invasion as long as it is necessary until world opinion or future allies pressure a withdrawal. OPM's views are encapsulated in its slogan, "One people, one soul." Jakarta does not recognize the OPM as a legitimate guerrilla force, instead calling it the GPK (security disrupter gangs), or GPL (wild terrorist gangs). Jakarta uses the weight of its army - the largest in Southeast Asia - to break the OPM resistance by isolating the Papuan people in either PPM or translocal camps, by burning down villages, creation of fear by carrying out arbitrary arrests, beatings, torture, and murders. Indonesian army units make frequent sweeps through villages to arrest and burn. (TAPOL, 1984:10) MILITARY SETTLER UNITS. An important component in Jakarta's strategy to defend the occupied territory against Papuan guerrillas ("Territorial Management"), and to seal off the West Papua-Papua New Guinea border to deny the OPM sanctuary and access to supplies is the use of military settler units (transmigrasi saptamarga) numbering some 90,000 in compounds along the Jayapura-Merauke Trans-Irian Highway which is under construction. Made up of former army personnel and their families, these units -unlike regular army - are permanent settlements that will eventually comprise a "Java Curtain" between Papuan peoples. PROHIBITION OF FREE ACCESS AND TOTAL DENIAL OF VIOLATIONS. To hide the widespread human rights violations, and genocidal assault on Papuan culture and community life, Indonesia has closed off almost all of West Papua to journalists, and human rights organizations. At the same time, the Indonesian government and army deny the existence of the 25-year-old war, the state of siege against the Papuan people, and the killing of up to 200,000 Papuans. Instead, Jakarta says the armed resistance is being done by "terrorists," who are "separatists" and whose aim it is to "disrupt regional stability" and "development process;" and that Papuan rejection of Javanese assimilation is due to their "backwardness," and "simplistic way of thinking." Java is waging a war against the Papuan people in order to take over Papuan land and resources for the Javanese, all in the name of a mythical Indonesia, whose state motto is "Unity Through Diversity," but should be "Submit to Java." The most comprehensive statement on Java's plans for West Papua are contained in a document issued in April, 1984 by Brigadier- General Meliala Sembiring, military commander of the occupying Indonesian army in West Papua. The basic strategy for restoring security in Irian Jaya [West Papua] is concentrated on separating the people from GPK ["Security Disrupter Gangs"], inculcating a spirit of non- cooperation/resistance among the people towards the GPK, localizing the security-disrupters, striking out at those disrupters who persist, and consolidating and rehabilitating the region. The smiling policy implemented by the 17th/Cendrawasih Division before the middle of 1982 was the first step in our efforts to detach the people from the influences of the GPK separatist idea, and this policy must be further developed by means of more basic management. Territorial smiling reflects a territorial attitude guided by the eight duties of the Armed Forces. Territorial smiling means acting with human feelings and outlooks, honest openness and friendship from the [army] apparatus towards the people in its area. This can in practice be done by face-to-face encounters, house-visits, especially in the more remote regions, and other such family activities. The next step which is now needed is to separate the people from the GPK, mentally and physically, by setting up Centers for Social Development [Pusat Pengembangan Masyarakat], or PPMs, that is to say, setting up settlement locations especially in the more remote regions, taking account of local customs, religious beliefs, life- styles, historical background, inter-tribal relations, and the aspirations of the local community. A program to raise living standards and improve social and economic conditions is a powerful magnet to attract the people in the vicinity to settle in the PPM locations so as to detach them from the influences of the GPK separatists. (TAPOL, 1984:10) With respect to the Papuan refugees who have fled Indonesia's "smiling policy", PPMs, and territorial management, Sembiring says "we shall generously and open-heartedly welcome back the border crossers as Indonesian citizens if they consciously return to the fold of the Motherland." (TAPOL, 1984:10) Approximately 13,000 to 15,000 Papuan refugees have crossed into Papua New Guinea to seek safety from Indonesian violence. The refugees are living in 16 isolated camps, in terrible conditions, with very limited assistance, most coming from the League of Red Cross Societies. Papua New Guinea's fear of Indonesia has prevented it from meeting internationally recognized standards for the treatment and protection of refugees, and that fear has for the time being silenced the PNG government in Port Moresby from internationally condemning what is happening to Papuan peoples on the other side of the invisible barrier. Indonesia denies that there are refugees, instead referring to them as "illegal border crossers." Indonesian offers for repatriation have been rebuffed by the refugees who fear reprisals if they were to return. Jakarta is pressuring Papua New Guinea's government to force repatriation in order to close the biggest leak in the "Java Curtain." STATES CLAIM INNOCENCE AND DENY VIOLENT INTENT It is commonplace that states refute evidence of their invasion and takeover of Fourth World nations by asserting a sovereign right over "domestic territory;" by claiming that their armies are but dealing with "law and order problems," "terrorists." "separatists," "backward tribalism." or "rebels;" or by outright denials of any wrongdoing, territorial or human rights violations. Because most states claim sovereignty over many nations, and small states fear big states, most states look the other way and do not see state armed and settler forces that have invaded and now occupy Fourth World nations and peoples. Equivalent to the Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale, "The Emperor's New Clothes," where the Emperor's claims were empty but nevertheless were imposed, a new fairy tale of emptiness is being told, "The Emperor's New Claims." BANGLADESH Widespread poverty under the marshall-law government of Lieutenant General H. M. Ershad has forced waves of desperately poor Bengalis to seek land. One of these waves has several million immigrants who have crossed India's border into Assam; another flood of migrants assisted by the Bengali army has gone across the border into the Chittagong Hill Tracts in order to annex new lands for the state. Moslem immigrants from Bangladesh are being challenged by indigenous Hindu Assamese who say they are "squatters," "illegal aliens." Violence over the existence of several million Bengalis has been frequent and led to the death of 5,000 to 6,000 in 1983. India's Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi intervened with an August 1985 agreement that called for the removal of a million or more Bengalis from the voter roles and their possible deportation. The Assamese and other indigenous anti-immigration movements pressured New Dehli and Gandhi into disenfranchising and removing Bengali immigrants. Despite the escalating land-based violence in Assam and India's accord with the Assamese over Bengali immigrants, the government of Bangladesh refuses to recognize any problem. For example, in response to a New York Times article on the Assam Accord, Mr. Abdul Hannan, Mission of Bangladesh to the UN, claimed: The government of Bangladesh has repeatedly made it clear that there are no Bangalees in Assam, and the question of their expulsion to Bangladesh has not arisen at all . . The population of Bangladesh is basically homogeneous and stable. Socioeconomic research has found acute seasonal shortage of labor in various parts of the country during harvesting season due to lack of population mobility. In a country where even seasonal internal migration of population is so limited, permanent emigration on the scale that has been alleged is simply inconceivable. Bangladesh has been experiencing a rate of growth of gross domestic product, together with growth rates in industry, agriculture and services, higher than other countries in the region. There has not been a single case of communal disharmony in Bangladesh since independence. So does it stand to reason that Bangalees should have emigrated to Assam? (The New York Times, January 16, 1986:14) Similarly, the Bangladesh government also denies any invasion of the Chittagong Hill Tracts by Bangalee settlers or army. The bangladesh representative at the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations (Geneva, July 31, 1985), used the same argument against the overwhelming evidence of Bangali invasion of Chakma and other indigenous nations' lands, and outright genocide by the Bangladesh army. "Bangladesh is a homogenous country . . . there are four groups of tribals . . . but adequate census information on their numbers and locations is not available . . . the need for greater population mobility is a big problem in Bangladesh and to limit the movement of Bangalee citizens into an area would not only limit development, it would deny them a basic freedom." Army-assisted invasion by Bengali squatters is, apparently, a basic freedom in Bangladesh. INDONESIA Speaking before the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations in response to a statement given by the OPM West Papuan delegation, Indonesian representative, Mr. Juwana, rejected all accusations: The accusation that the objective of transmigration is either to overwhelm the unique identity which exists in Irian Jaya or to "smother local resistance" is preposterous. The objective Indonesia's transmigration programme, which is a national endeavour already in existence for many years, is to expand development efforts and to evenly spread its benefits to the regions outside of the already overpopulated areas in order to achieve nationally balanced economic progress. The purpose is to utilize the surplus agricultural manpower available to develop land resources in the outer islands. It is aimed at improving the standard of living of the community in general, by increasing regional development and by assisting the people on the outer islands that demonstrate a relative lag in development. The worthy aims of the transmigration policy are recognized, both nationally and internationally. Assistance for this programme is not only received from friendly countries but also from such international institutions as the World Bank, which recently approved a substantial loan. The implementation of the transmigration programme is not yet perfect. There are many problems left to iron out and many unforeseen difficulties to attend to. But these are almost entirely concerning the agricultural aspects of the project and obstacles to cultural understanding have never been the main hurdles to overcome. As in any country we have experienced difficulties in harmoniously fusing peoples with different backgrounds and different languages . . . . I must add that allegations of more than 200,000 Irianese deaths during military occupation, bombings, indiscriminate shooting, imprisonment torture, etc are completely absurd and untrue . . . . (Juwana, 1985) MELANESIA AND INDONESIA Consider that there are two major forces in collision worldwide: the expansion of states and the defending nations. Indonesia and Melanesia - two large geographic areas of islands -represent these counterpoised forces of political incorporation by invasion, and political liberation by self-determination. Indonesia is a new colonial state built on Javanese expansion by armies and settlers against the peoples of Sumatra, Kalimantan, South Moluccas, East Timor, and West Papua. Melanesia is an equally large area that has an emerging geopolitical identity based on independence from colonial occupation. Indonesia is an archipelago of different nations united by force; Melanesia is an archipelago of similar peoples united by choice. Independence from colonial rule is spreading throughout Melanesia: Fiji (1970), Papua New Guinea (1975), Solomon Islands (1978), Vanuatu (1980), and Kanaki (New Caledonia claimed by France) will achieve independence in the near future. That leaves the Torres Strait Islands (claimed Australia), and West Papua, South Molucca and East Timor (claimed by Indonesia). Melanesia has a very strong internal affinity based on identity and a growing consensus against non-Melanesian control by occupation. Vanuatu is in the forefront of the pan-Melanesian movement. In an address to the United Nations General Assembly (October 11, 1984), Vanuatu Foreign Minister Sela Molisa stated: We regret that there is some justification to the Israeli and South African complaint that the international community is very selective in its denunciations. It pains us deeply that there is indeed a grain of truth to this argument. How else can we explain the condemnations of the annexation of Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, but silence on the annexation of East Timor? How else can we explain the condemnations of apartheid but the silence on the plight of the Melanesian people of West Papua? How else can we explain the appeals to sever economic ties with South Africa while a South African company participates in the exploitation of West Papua's oil resources? How else can we explain the concern over Israeli and South African military expansionism, and the indifference to the military expansionism in our region which has already seen West Papua and East Timor swallowed, if not digested, and which now provokes, and threatens the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our good neighbor, Papua New Guinea? Our region is known for its calm and serene atmosphere. The countries of the South Pacific are populated by peace loving people of diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds. However, our similar colonial histories have instilled in us all a strong aversion to external interference and foreign rule. On this we are in total accord. Unfortunately, the international community has not yet taken note of this. Thus, while our support is given as a matter of principle in the struggle against apartheid, little is known of our own struggle against the same practices in our own region. (Molisa, October 11, 1984) FOUR CHOICES INSTEAD OF THREE The three worlds of capitalism, communism and poverty are not the only choices for the more than three thousand nations that are confronted by political, military and economic expansion. A fourth choice establishes a geopolitical firebreak between aggressive, expanding states. Enduring nations are anchored in their geography, they do not expand beyond the extent of their people or beyond their need. REFERENCES _West Papua: The Obliteration of a People_. TAPOL, London, (1984) Dr. Ramendu S. Dewan "Bangladesh's Genocidal Crimes," _Fourth World Journal_, Vol. 1, No. 1, Fall 1985. Wolfgang Mey (ed.) _Genocide in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh_, IWGIA Document 51, Copenhagen (1984) _The Chittagong Hill Tracts: Militarization, Oppression and the Hill Tribes_. Anti-Slavery Society, Report No. 2, London (1984) "West Papua: Transmigration: The Invasion of Tribal Lands." Urgent Action Bulletin, Survival International. London (March 2, 1985) "Planned Relocation of the Papuan Population," _TAPOL Bulletin_, No. 66, November, 1984. The New York Times, January 16, 1986. "Statement by Mr. Juwana, Observer of the Republic of Indonesia to the Fourth Session of the Working Group on Indigenous Populations of the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities," United Nations, Geneva, August 1, 1985. "Statement by the Honorable Sela Molisa, Minister for Foreign Affairs and External Trade of the Republic of Vanuatu." Thirty- Ninth Session of the UN General Assembly, New York, October 11, 1984. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- To have a current Center For World Indigenous Studies Publication Catalogue sent to you via e-mail, send a request to jburrows@halcyon.com http://www.halcyon.com/FWDP/cwiscat.html Center For World Indigenous Studies P.O. Box 2574 Olympia, WA U.S.A. 98507-2574 FAX: 360-956-1087 OCR Provided by Caere Corporation's OmniPage Professional