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Indonesia gets a free pass for an ongoing genocide, so it's not surprising nobody cares about them breaking coral.

by markdown 22d ago

SEJeff 22d ago
Care to explain for those of us unaware?
- markdown 22d ago
  The island of New Guinea is one of the most biodiverse places on earth. It hosts roughly 7% of all global species, with 60% of them being endemic. Peopled by Melanesians, it's one of the most linguistically diverse places on earth, with over 1000 languages. The east of the island became independent (from Australia) in 1975 and is now Papua New Guinea. Meanwhile, the western half was handed over to Indonesian control following the end of Dutch rule, a status formalized through the controversial, UN-backed 1969 "Act of Free Choice" in which a tiny, handpicked group of local leaders voted under military duress to integrate with Indonesia. Indonesia has been conducting a decades-long genocide of the people of West Papua. It gets little press because it's an ethnic cleansing slow-burn. Slaughter the Papuan people, replace them with Javanese, then bulldoze their forests to grow palm oil. For more, read the abstract (or the entire paper) here: https://researchers.westernsydney.edu.au/en/publications/forgotten-genocide-in-indonesia-mass-violence-resource-exploitati/ https://researchers.westernsydney.edu.au/en/publications/for... There's a timeline of the history of the "conflict" here: https://www.papuapartners.org/west-papua https://www.papuapartners.org/west-papua https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-01/west-papuan-separatists-provisional-government-to-oust-indonesia/12936404 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-01/west-papuan-separatis...
  - roster1198 22d ago
    It's ignored because Indonesia annexed West Papua when it was a Soviet client. When it annexed East Timor later, it had switched to being a US client. So this second annexation received a great deal of bad press - including, critically, the Australian far left, whose campaign led to Australia pressuring Indonesia to let it intervene militarily in 1999.
  - trompetenaccoun 22d ago
    >It gets little press because it's an ethnic cleansing slow-burn. Is it not rather down to identity? If the victims had paler skin and a different religion, we'd never stop hearing about it. But unfortunately for Papuans their complexion is too dark for international media to care and the perperators are with "You-Know-Who".
    - HappyPanacea 21d ago
      No I don't know who "You-Know-Who" is, speak plainly.
kakacik 22d ago
Well, I wouldn't call it a genocide, its not a civil war neither, maybe sometimes violent separatist movement would be the best description? There are videos of attacks from both sides, also one can still see in 2026 tribal warfare where they use their traditional spears, but ie in urban setting. Situation you describe is not unique for former colonies all around the world, how breakup of former empires was generally handled is the peak of colonial incompetence and worse, and most of Africa and Middle east are a huge mess due to that. Its one thing when one draws a nice square around Wyoming for example, another when such straight line makes you suddenly part of country led by your rival tribe, with different religion, priorities and often outright hate towards you (and usually long history of violent conflicts to build upon).
- markdown 21d ago
  > Situation you describe is not unique for former colonies all around the world This isn't a former colony. West Papua is colonised still, by the country of Indonesia. It's not a separatist movement, but an independence struggle. Of course there are attacks from both sides. You aren't suggesting that West Papuans should lie down and be ethnically cleansed without fighting back are you? And the Javanese of Indonesia aren't just a different tribe, they've a completely different race from completely different lands.
  - HappyPanacea 21d ago
    > It's not a separatist movement, but an independence struggle. What's the difference? > And the Javanese of Indonesia aren't just a different tribe, they've a completely different race from completely different lands. Why would that matter? Would it be okay if they were the same race? How do you define race?
    - markdown 21d ago
      A separatist movement is generally one where a group wants to secede and become their own country. See Alberta in Canada. An independence struggle is where a people are trying to remove an occupying force, their colonizer. Very similar, but not quite. > Why would that matter? Would it be okay if they were the same race? How do you define race? It matters when the colonizers are racial supremacists who look down on your culture, traditions, and way of life. And as a result of their POV, they confiscate your lands (because they don't accept your unwritten land ownership "titles"), wipe out your men, and replace you with their own people. > How do you define race? Head over to reddit where your trolling will be welcomed.
cwmoore 21d ago
It is not less difficult to save the orangutans while people are being killed too.

Indonesia gets a free pass for an ongoing genocide, so it's not surprising nobody cares about them breaking coral.

SEJeff 22d ago

Care to explain for those of us unaware?

markdown 22d ago
The island of New Guinea is one of the most biodiverse places on earth. It hosts roughly 7% of all global species, with 60% of them being endemic. Peopled by Melanesians, it's one of the most linguistically diverse places on earth, with over 1000 languages. The east of the island became independent (from Australia) in 1975 and is now Papua New Guinea. Meanwhile, the western half was handed over to Indonesian control following the end of Dutch rule, a status formalized through the controversial, UN-backed 1969 "Act of Free Choice" in which a tiny, handpicked group of local leaders voted under military duress to integrate with Indonesia. Indonesia has been conducting a decades-long genocide of the people of West Papua. It gets little press because it's an ethnic cleansing slow-burn. Slaughter the Papuan people, replace them with Javanese, then bulldoze their forests to grow palm oil. For more, read the abstract (or the entire paper) here: https://researchers.westernsydney.edu.au/en/publications/forgotten-genocide-in-indonesia-mass-violence-resource-exploitati/ https://researchers.westernsydney.edu.au/en/publications/for... There's a timeline of the history of the "conflict" here: https://www.papuapartners.org/west-papua https://www.papuapartners.org/west-papua https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-01/west-papuan-separatists-provisional-government-to-oust-indonesia/12936404 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-01/west-papuan-separatis...
- roster1198 22d ago
  It's ignored because Indonesia annexed West Papua when it was a Soviet client. When it annexed East Timor later, it had switched to being a US client. So this second annexation received a great deal of bad press - including, critically, the Australian far left, whose campaign led to Australia pressuring Indonesia to let it intervene militarily in 1999.
- trompetenaccoun 22d ago
  >It gets little press because it's an ethnic cleansing slow-burn. Is it not rather down to identity? If the victims had paler skin and a different religion, we'd never stop hearing about it. But unfortunately for Papuans their complexion is too dark for international media to care and the perperators are with "You-Know-Who".
  - HappyPanacea 21d ago
    No I don't know who "You-Know-Who" is, speak plainly.

kakacik 22d ago

Well, I wouldn't call it a genocide, its not a civil war neither, maybe sometimes violent separatist movement would be the best description? There are videos of attacks from both sides, also one can still see in 2026 tribal warfare where they use their traditional spears, but ie in urban setting. Situation you describe is not unique for former colonies all around the world, how breakup of former empires was generally handled is the peak of colonial incompetence and worse, and most of Africa and Middle east are a huge mess due to that. Its one thing when one draws a nice square around Wyoming for example, another when such straight line makes you suddenly part of country led by your rival tribe, with different religion, priorities and often outright hate towards you (and usually long history of violent conflicts to build upon).

markdown 21d ago
> Situation you describe is not unique for former colonies all around the world This isn't a former colony. West Papua is colonised still, by the country of Indonesia. It's not a separatist movement, but an independence struggle. Of course there are attacks from both sides. You aren't suggesting that West Papuans should lie down and be ethnically cleansed without fighting back are you? And the Javanese of Indonesia aren't just a different tribe, they've a completely different race from completely different lands.
- HappyPanacea 21d ago
  > It's not a separatist movement, but an independence struggle. What's the difference? > And the Javanese of Indonesia aren't just a different tribe, they've a completely different race from completely different lands. Why would that matter? Would it be okay if they were the same race? How do you define race?
  - markdown 21d ago
    A separatist movement is generally one where a group wants to secede and become their own country. See Alberta in Canada. An independence struggle is where a people are trying to remove an occupying force, their colonizer. Very similar, but not quite. > Why would that matter? Would it be okay if they were the same race? How do you define race? It matters when the colonizers are racial supremacists who look down on your culture, traditions, and way of life. And as a result of their POV, they confiscate your lands (because they don't accept your unwritten land ownership "titles"), wipe out your men, and replace you with their own people. > How do you define race? Head over to reddit where your trolling will be welcomed.

cwmoore 21d ago

It is not less difficult to save the orangutans while people are being killed too.