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West Papua Separatist Movements (Indonesia)

Irian Jaya

Last modified: 2002-10-19 by sam lockton
Keywords: indonesia | irian jaya | west papua separatist | morning star flag |
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[Irian Jaya - Independists] by Sammy Kanadi

The flag of the main West Papuan separatist movement opposed to Indonesia rule and so may (in some quarters at least) have claim to be the flag of Irian Jaya.
Stuart Notholt, 8 February 1996

See also:

Morning Star flag

The Morning Star flag is the flag of West Papua and is the same as the flag of former Netherlands New Guinea. It has 13 horizontal blue and white stripes, at the hoist a vertical red stripe with a white star in the center. The design is from Nicolaas Jouwe in Hollandia (nowadays called Jayapura, 1963-1969 Sukarnapura). The 13 stripes represent the tribes, the red stripe the political struggle, the morning star is the star of hope, and the red-white-blue stands for gratitude. It was adopted on 20 November 1961, and on 1 December 1961 it was hoisted for the first time, next to the Dutch flag (a horizontal staff was attached to the top of the flagmast for this). I don't know when the flag was officially abolished. Probably on 1 October 1962 when the Dutch passed the government to UNTEA (United Nations Temporary Executive Authority), but surely before 1 May 1963 when it was transferred to Indonesia and renamed Irian Barat [West Irian]. (It was fully integrated in Indonesia in 1969, and renamed Irian Jaya in the 1970s [1976?]). When on 1 July 1971 the republic of West Papua was declared by the Free Papua Movement, the Morning Star was adopted again, but (of course) forbidden by the Indonesians.

I have a photocopy of a page from a publication of the provisional government of West Papua. It shows the flag with dimensions, but these must be wrong! A:B:C:D are 2:3:7:8, where A: flag height; B: flag length; C: width of the red stripe; D: size of the star. That would mean that eg. the star is four times the flag height! Taking a ruler I came to the next dimensions:
- ratio of the flag 2:3
- horizontal stripes all equal (so 1/13h of the flag height)
- red stripe is 3/11th of the flag length
- star approx. 2/3th - 7/8th of the width of the red stripe
Mark Sensen, 20 November 1999

The ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) news reported this morning that the 'morning star' flags were flown alongside the Indonesian flag.
Jonathan Dixon, 2 December 1999

What we saw here (Portugal) on TV was the actual hoisting of one "morning star" flag in front of a huge crowd. The flag is like our GIF in FOTW, with a darker shade of red and perhaps with a narrower red field. The hoisting of the flag seems to have been pretty peaceful. No indonesian flags where in sight anywhere.
Jorge Candeias, 3 December 1999

From KABAR IRIAN ("Iri