West Papua (formerly Irian Jaya) is today the site of a covert and brutal struggle. As the West Papuan independence movement gains support, Indonesian repression of dissent grows ever more severe. In November 2001, the West Papuan independence leader Theys Eluay was murdered, apparently by officers of the Indonesian army's special forces. For the OPM guerrillas, who have fought the Indonesian army for 40 years armed with little more than spears, captured weapons and bows and arrows, the death of Theys was a call to arms - they are now talking about outright war. Australia's leaders continue to support Indonesia's territorial integrity. However, as John Martinkus's provocative essay reports, Australia may be turning a blind eye to the alleged murder and intimidation with which Jakarta seeks to maintain its rule. The United Nations has no plans to interfere, and the United States, one eye on the massive Freeport gold and copper mine and the other on Indonesia's support for the war on terror, repeats that West Papuans must accept autonomy within Indonesia as the best deal they are going to get. But the Papuans, like the East Timorese, will not accept autonomy.Is Indonesia about to repeat the mistakes of East Timor in West Papua?
Will Australia turn away from systematic human rights abuses on its back door? John Martinkus, author of the acclaimed Dirty Little War, an eyewitness account of East Timor's bloody struggle for independence, has travelled to West Papua and spoken to guerillas and Indonesian officers, politicians and ordinary people. His Quarterly Essay, Paradise Betrayed, is a groundbreaking investigation of a tragedy in the making | 
