Up from the Stone Age

Three weeks ago, Indonesia's Defense Minister Abdul Haris Nasution set off for Moscow on what he called his "West Irian mission." Last week he returned to Djakarta in triumph. His trophy was a promise of $450 million in military aid and equipment, enough to double the fighting potential of Indonesia's armed forces, and a Russian pledge to support Indonesia in its efforts to free West Irian (Netherlands New Guinea) from the Dutch "colonizers."

Shrill threats to "liberate West Irian" have long been President Sukarno's favorite device to rouse Indonesian patriotic passions and divert attention from the myriad shortcomings of his floundering economy at home. Indonesia's claim to Netherlands New Guinea is based on the fact that the Dutch administered it as part of The Netherlands East Indies along with the other islands that now make up independent Indonesia.

Pigs & Women. But the fact is that Netherlands New Guinea's Papuans want to be no part of Indonesia. They are Melanesians, with no racial kinship to the Indonesians. Their skins are darker, their languages totally different. Furthermore, the Papuans have no desire to trade Dutch colonialism for Indonesian colonialism, want to join together instead with Australian New Guinea and the Solomon Islands in a union to be called the United States of Melanesia.

As for the Dutch, they want to get out. Their territory is suffering from economic malnutrition, has brought no return from the millions of dollars sunk into it. Last year the territory's total exports of crude oil, copra, spices and skins dwindled to less than $7,000,000. But the Dutch, chastened by their mistakes in Indonesia, are reluctant to abandon New Guinea until the Papuans are ready for self-government, an eventuality that some colonial officials estimate will take 40 years, perhaps considerably longer.

Nearly half of Netherlands New Guinea's 700,000 Papuans still live in primitive villages where the cowrie shell is the medium of exchange and where women often rank below pigs on the social scale. For the primitive tribesmen of the interior, the concept of government does not exist; their only political guideposts are myth and magic. Head-hunting and cannibalism are still practiced in some areas. Some Papuan natives wear no clothes save for string, have no dishes or cooking utensils. They consider death the action of a wizard, often chop off the ends of their fingers as a sign of mourning.

Armed Assault. In the coastal areas where the Dutch exercise firm administrative control, some 30,000 Papuans attend primary school, and one lone native is a student at a university in The Netherlands. Next month the Papuans will hold their first election ever for a New Guinea-wide council, to which the Dutch will turn over the power to pass its own ordinances regulating health, marriage, crime, labor and taxes.

In the meantime, Indonesia shouts on, has twice landed armed parties in abortive raids. President Sukarno steadfastly has opposed Dutch offers of an invitation to the U.N. to send an observer to inspect colonial administration of the colony. Says Indonesia's Foreign Minister Subandrio: "Why should any U.N. mission go there? The territory belongs to Indonesia and should come back to us. That's the only basis on which Indonesia will consider any talks."

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