Papua Separatist Assessment

Papua region of Indonesia locates in the west of Irian island,bordering with Papua New Guinea in east.Papua is rich in natural resources,and its geostrategic importance stems from guarding the intersection of Southeast Asia, Oceania and South Pacific. The Papua separatism threatening the unity of Indonesia seriously had generated from the Papuan awareness as "a whole nation" and the consciousness of independence which stimulated by the Dutch colonists before they retreated from the Indonesia.The main content of this paper is analysing the Papua separatism. The paper consists of five chapters. ChapterⅠi ntroduces the survey and the early history of Papua.ChapterⅡintroduces the historical background of the separatism——the origin and settlement of Papua sovereignty issue. ChapterⅢanalysises the reasons of the separatism——the historical and the ethic factors, the Indonesian government's policy errors,the external support for the separatism. ChapterⅣfocuses on the history and current status of the separatist, the content includes:the Sukarno administration,the Suharto administration and the Post-Suharto era.This Chapter also introduces the main separatist group such as "Free Papua Movement" (OPM).ChapterⅤdiscusses the future of the Papua separatism,pointing that the chances of Papua independence are very slim and explaining the reasons,at last,the paper proposes the tentative solutions to the problem of separatism.