New York Agreement

An Agreement signed by the Netherlands and Indonesia regarding the

administration of the territory of West New Guinea. The first part of the
agreement proposes that the United Nations assume administration of the territory,
and a second part proposes a set of social conditions that will be provided if the
United Nations exercises a discretion proposed in article 12 of the agreement to
allow Indonesian occupation and administration of the territory. Negotiated during
meetings hosted by the United States, the agreement was signed on 15 August 1962 Regional map with West New Guinea
at the United Nations Headquartersin New York City. highlighted. To the west, the
Moluccas in Indonesia; to the east,
The agreement was added to the agenda of the 1962 United Nations General Papua New Guinea; to the south,
Assembly and precipitated General Assembly resolution 1752 (XVII) granting the Australia.

United Nations authority to occupy and administrate West New Guinea. Although
agreements are not able to negate obligations defined in the Charter of the United
Nations,[1] and the agreement asserted that it was for the benefit of the people of the territory, some people believed that the
agreement was sacrificing the people of the territory for benefit of the foreign powers. A United States Department of State
summary[2] from 1962 asserts the "agreement was almost a total victory for Indonesia and a defeat for the Netherlands", that the
United States "Bureau of European Affairs was sympathetic to the Dutch view that annexation by Indonesia would simply trade white
for brown colonialism", and that "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."

Contents
Background
Negotiations
Implementation
References

Background
The origins of the dispute over Dutch New Guinea are agreed
to have originated in the pre-World War II need to find a "... if Java, Sumatra, etc., should be severed from the
Netherlands within the foreseeable future—which God
homeland for the Eurasian Indo people.[3][4] According to
forbid!—then that does not need to be the case of New
C.L.M. Penders, "None" of the other reasons, including to Guinea. New Guinea does not belong to the Indies
develop the island,[4] "advanced by the Netherlands for the Archipelago either geographically or geologically....
continuation of their rule of West New Guinea" rationally Neither the Javanese, the Acehnese, nor the inhabitants of
Palembang have any right to this 'empty' country. The
served the Dutch national interest enough to hold a territory
Dutch were the first to occupy it, and have the right to use
that would lead it to lose so much business and international it for the population surplus of the Netherlands ..."
goodwill.[3] Beginning in the 1920s, large numbers of
—Colonization advocate P. E. Winkler, 1936[3]
unemployed Indo people in Java persuaded the Dutch
government to set up colonies in northern West New Guinea,
which eventually failed to give the colonists the prosperity
they expected. However, New Guinea was conceived of as a "promised land" in the imagination of groups such as the Vaderlandsche
Club and the Dutch Nazi Party who lobbied for a "white Dutch province in theIndies".[3] Although this province was never achieved,
the Indos maintained a privileged and resented position in Indonesia, such that they were the strongest advocates for an autonomous
New Guinea.[3] From 1945 during the Indonesian National Revolution, the Netherlands tried to negotiate for a special place for New
Guinea in various conferences with Indonesian nationalists, with the Linggadjati Agreement among other things reserving New
Guinea as a place of settlement for Indos.[4]

However, during the Dutch–Indonesian Round Table Conference of 1949, both Indonesia and the Netherlands could not agree on the
status of New Guinea, with the Netherlands arguing that it should keep West New Guinea for the eventual self-determination of the
natives, once those inhabitants had become sufficiently "mature".[4] The resulting accord was unclear on the final status of New
Guinea, although the Dutch Labor Party defeated an amendment that would have explicitly excluded New Guinea from Indonesian
independence.[3] From 1951, the Indonesian government interpreted the results of the Round Table Conference as giving it
sovereignty over all of the former Dutch East Indies, including New Guinea.[4] Throughout negotiations with the Indonesians, the
Netherlands maintained it could give up sovereignty over Dutch New Guinea, because the conservative parties in the Dutch
parliament, deeply humiliated by Indonesian independence and wanting to maintain a colonial stronghold in the area, would not vote
to ratify any such agreement.[3] When the Indonesian government withdrew from the Netherlands-Indonesia Uniondue to frustration
at the slow pace of talks over New Guinea, the Netherlands felt itself relieved from any obligation to continue negotiations on the
issue.[4] Indonesia, supported by all of the African and Asian nations except nationalist China, tried to pass a United Nations General
Assembly resolution urging the Netherlands to negotiate with it on the status of West New Guinea, but the resolutions were blocked
by the opposition of all of theWestern nations except Greece.[5]

Indonesia gained more international support for negotiations with the Netherlands during the Geneva Summit and the Asian–African
Conference in 1955, after which Dutch newspapers and churches, previously stalwartly in favor of keeping New Guinea, advocated
bringing New Guinea "into a quieter sphere" of United Nations Trusteeship.[5] Nevertheless, in 1956, the Netherlands amended its
constitution to include West New Guinea as a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, although the government
excluded an amendment that would have specified self-determination as the goal of Dutch sovereignty over the territory.[5] Inside
West New Guinea, the Netherlands liberalized political parties, but banned pro-Indonesia parties as subversive.[6] In response to the
Netherlands' hardening, Indonesia's position on New Guinea gradually shifted to say that the people of New Guinea already exercised
their right to self-determination with the Proclamation of Indonesian Independence in 1945.[4] After the third and final vote in the
United Nations General Assemblyin 1957, in which a resolution urging Dutch–Indonesian dialogue, with the support of a majority of
nations representing the majority of the world's people, was blocked by the colonial powers, the Indonesian foreign minister
Subandrio said that it would no longer seek to resolve the "West Irian" (West New Guinea) issue at the United Nations.[5] Mass
strikes and illegal seizures broke out in Indonesia against Dutch businesses in 1958, organized by the Communist Party, youths and
.[5] Diplomatic ties were severed with the Netherlands in 1960.
veterans' groups which led to Dutch nationals fleeing the country [4]

Negotiations
During the 1950s, the United States had poor relations with Indonesia, because of its secret support of antigovernment rebels in
Sumatra and its unwillingness to support the Indonesian claim to West New Guinea.[2] Indonesia was also displeased with the
"virtually unanimous hostility of the American press" in its international campaign for West New Guinea.[5] And in early 1959 a
counselor wrote a memo on behalf of the US Ambassador suggesting a plan for "special United Nations trusteeship over the territory
[7]
for a limited number of years, at the end of which time sovereignty would be turned over to Indonesia".

At the inauguration of PresidentJohn F. Kennedy in 1961, the United States Ambassador to Indonesia, supported by the White House
National Security Council, proposed a seven-point plan "to prevent Indonesia from falling under communist control and to win it
over to the west", which included promising Indonesia reunion with West New Guinea.[2] The Government's Bureau of European
Affairs, Central Intelligence Agency and US Secretary of State Dean Rusk opposed the plan, both because of hostility towards the
Indonesian President Sukarno, who had collaborated with the Japanese,[3] and support for the Netherlands, a NATO ally.[2][8] The
Dutch position argued that the native Papuan people were racially different from Indonesia, that incorporation into Indonesia would
be "substitution of brown colonialism for white colonialism", and that the "backward" Papuans were not ready for independence;
while the Indonesian position argued that Indonesia was already ethnically diverse, that Indonesia wanted to reunite territories
separated by colonialism, and that Dutch arguments about democracy were "a trick" to create "at the doorstep of Indonesia a puppet
[8]
state... under Dutch tutelage".[8]

By March 1961 Indonesia had indicated agreement for United Nations trusteeship on
condition that it would not be called a trusteeship.[9] Both supporters of Indonesia
and supporters of the Netherlands in the administration cast their positions as
favorable to anticolonialism. Although the idea of Papuan independence appealed to
senior advisers in the US Government, few thought it realistic. US officials were
also concerned about world opinion in favor of Indonesia; diplomatic displays of
Third World solidarity were increasing, and in January 1962, Egypt closed its Suez
Canal to Dutch ships as a protest against the Netherlands' New Guinea policy. In
mid-January, Robert Kennedy, President Kennedy's brother, traveled to Jakarta and
announced that the United States, "as a former colony, is committed to anti-
colonialism".[8]

President Kennedy later met with both the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph
Luns and Sukarno, with both agreeing to a United Nations Trusteeship but
Joseph Luns Dutch Minister of
disagreeing on the details. When the United States sponsored a "compromise" Foreign Affairs from 1956 to 1971,
resolution in the United Nations which Indonesia opposed, relations with Indonesia under 7 consecutive cabinets.
soured. In December, National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy decisively
advised Kennedy towards a more pro-Indonesian position, lest the "Soviet bloc...
draw Indonesia even closer to it".[2] American-mediated secret Ambassadorial level talks began in March 1962, without
preconditions, but Sukarno was skeptical of American intentions.[2] The talks were held at the Huntland estate at Middleburg,
Virginia.[10] An outline of the plan by American diplomat Ellsworth Bunker in 1962 proposed that the Netherlands transfer control
over New Guinea to neutral United Nations administrators, who would be gradually replaced by Indonesian administrators, and then
completely to Indonesia, which would then be required to organize a referendum "to give the Papuans freedom" with the United
Nations secretary general and other United Nations personnel.[4] The Netherlands responded that the proposal was a "shocking
betrayal by the United States",[2] originally wanting the referendum to take place under UN administration, although after the United
States threatened to make the negotiations public, it acceded with the addition of a "right to self-determination" into the agreement.[2]
Foreign minister Subandrio, who regarded UN supervision and organization of the referendum as a "humiliation for Indonesia", only
agreed to a set of pared-down guidelines for the plebiscite[4] when the United States threatened to "switch sides and support the
Dutch".[2] The final version of the agreement provided the following parameters for the "act of free choice":

1. Musyawarah (consultative councils) would be instructed on procedures to assess the will of the population
2. The actual date of the act would be completed before 1969
3. The question in the act would allow the inhabitants to decide whether to stay or to separate from Indonesia
4. All adults would be allowed to participate in the act of free choice
On 15 August 1962, representatives from Indonesia and the Netherlands signed the "Agreement between the Republic of Indonesia
and the Kingdom of the Netherlands Concerning West New Guinea (West Irian)" at the United Nations Headquarters in New York
City.[6]

Implementation
Some members of the quasi-legislative New Guinea Council established under the Dutch were disappointed that the Netherlands had
signed the agreement without consulting the Council. Nevertheless, the Council decided to support the agreement, and to cooperate
with United Nations and Indonesian authorities in keeping peace and order. A small minority of Council members, including
Nicolaas Jouwe, refused to support the Agreement and went into exile in the Netherlands.[6] The period of United Nations
ork Agreement.[11]
administration ended on 1 May 1963, as envisioned by the New Y

Fernando Ortiz-Sanz, the United Nations Secretary-General's representative in New Guinea, observed and approved the process of
musyawarah during March and April 1969 for the final Act of Free Choice, although recommending that the councils be enlarged to
ork Agreement.[4] In his report, he said that the majority of petitions he
better comply with the adult eligibility provision of the New Y
received from the New Guineans were pro-Indonesian, although this assessment of
local opinion is contradicted by reports from foreign embassies.[11] Between July
and August 1969, the Act of Free Choice overwhelmingly concluded in favor of
staying with Indonesia.[4] Professor of International Law H.F. Van Panhuys
attributes the lopsided results to the lack of demilitarization of the territory, the
process of musyawarah ("talking until an unanimous decision is reached... [was] not The New York Agreement fulfilled the
conductive to an atmosphere in which people could secretly and therefore fearlessly dream of a "Republic of Indonesia
express their preference"), and the lack of an option for union with the from Sabang to Merauke".[6]
Indonesian flags mark those
Netherlands.[4]
settlements within the regions of
Aceh (left) and West New Guinea,
At the United Nations General Assembly, a group of African states, led by Ghana,
both highlighted.
denounced the Act of Free Choice "Moslem imperialism" and "Asian racialism".
Other states such as India refuted the charges and celebrated Indonesian unity. In
October 1969 the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution 84 to 0 with 30 abstentions[6] that noted "with appreciation
the fulfillment... [of] the 1962 Agreement" and thanked Indonesia for "its efforts to promote the economic and social development of
West Irian".[11] The dissenting African states proposed an amendment to direct a second referendum in 1975, but it failed because of
Indonesian and American opposition.[12] The Dutch government accepted the results, and said that the process was compliant with
the New York Agreement.[4] Reflecting on the vote, retired under-secretary-general Chakravarthy Narasimhan said in 2001, "The
mood at the United Nations was to get rid of this problem as quickly as possible",[12] and "[M]y heart isn't bleeding [for the
Papuans]".[11] The United States partially achieved its goal "to win [Indonesia] over to the West", although the Indonesia–Malaysia
confrontation and the struggling Indonesian economy cooled relations.[2]

For Indonesia, the implementation of the New York Agreement completed the early Indonesian nationalist goal of what Sukarno
called a "Republic of Indonesia from Sabang to Merauke", and represented successful resistance against partition on ethnic or
religious grounds.[6] On the other hand, the implementation of the New York Agreement is one of the most cited grievances of the
militant Free Papua Movement (OPM), and the years immediately following its implementation were the most violent in the
emerging guerrilla conflict with independence supporters, as OPM fighters kidnapped and attacked police, military, and transmigrant
targets while the Indonesian military strafed whole villages in response.[12] Although supporters of independence for West New
Guinea regard the Act of Free Choice as illegitimate and noncompliant with the New York Agreement, the United Nations officially
maintains that West New Guinea's status as part of Indonesia is "final".[12] In 2002, a nationalist assembly of Papuans led by
independence activist Theys Eluay declared the New York Agreement "unlawful and morally unacceptable, because Representatives
from [West New Guinea] were not involved in it".[12]

References
1. Charter of the United Nations article 103.(https://www.un.org/en/documents/charter/chapter16.shtml)
2. "95/03/06 Foreign Relations, 1961-63, Vol XXIII, Southeast Asia" (http://dosfan.lib.uic.edu/ERC/frus/summaries/9503
06_FRUS_XXIII_1961-63.html). Foreign Relations Series. United States Department of State. 1995-03-06. Retrieved
2011-06-24.
3. Penders, Christian Lambert Maria (2002).The West New Guinea Debacle: Dutch Decolonization and Indonesia:
1945-1962. University of Hawaii Press. pp. 49–68.
4. van Panhuys, H.F. (1980). "3.4 The Questionof Western New Guinea". International Law in the Netherlands. 3. Brill
Publishers. pp. 189–198.
5. Bone, Robert C. (2009).The Dynamics of the West New Guinea Problem. Equinox Publishing. pp. 135–153.
6. Adam, Asvi Warman; Anwar, Dewi Fortuna (2005).Violent Internal Conflicts in Asia Pacific: Histories, Political
Economics, and Policies. Yayasan Obor Indonesia. p. 219.
7. "Despatch From the Embassy in Indonesia to the Department of State. No.905"(https://history.state.gov/historicaldo
cuments/frus1958-60v17/d203). Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958–1960. V
olume XVII, Indonesia,
Document 203. United States Department of State. 1959-05-26. Retrieved 2015-04-21.
 8. Kivimäki, Timo (2003). US–Indonesian Hegemonic Bargaining: Strength of W
eakness. Ashgate Publishing. pp. 136–
138.
9. "Telegram From the Embassy in Indonesia tothe Department of State"(https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/
frus1961-63v23/d150). Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961–1963. V
olume XXIII, SouthEast Asia,
Document 150. United States Department of State. 1961-03-03. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
10. Maral S. Kalbian, Margaret T. Peters (May 2013). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination:
Huntland" (http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/Counties/Loudoun/053-0487_Huntland_2013_NRHP _final.pdf)
(PDF). Virginia Department of Historic Resources.
11. Saltford, John (2003). The United Nations and the Indonesian T
akeover of West Papua, 1962-1969. Psychology
Press. pp. 172, 181–183.
12. Heidbüchel, Esther (2007).The West Papua Conflict in Indonesia: Actors, Issues, and Approaches. Johannes
Herrmann Verlag. pp. 39–43, 74.

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