Word: irian
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...population. There are 300 million acres of teak, sandalwood, ebony and other valuable timber, at least one-fortieth of the world's oil reserves under the soil and probably far more offshore, and unmeasured quantities of copper and nickel ore. Experts estimate that Ertsberg Mountain in West Irian, which is the Indonesian half of New Guinea, contains 33 million tons of copper, gold, silver and iron ore all by itself...
...that has never been in the oil-drilling business, also signed a pact to explore. Dr. Wendell Phillips, a skillful promoter, won the only contract awarded to an individual in Indonesia; he paid a $500,000 fee and agreed to spend $17.5 million exploring onshore and offshore in West Irian...
...Many. It will require more than mere conviction to govern the area. The 800,000 Papuan tribesmen of West Irian may be the world's simplest people. They live near-naked in Stone Age savagery in high, roadless valleys surrounded by nameless, unmapped tropical forests. In some of their 150 dialects, counting goes no further than "one, two, many . . . " Their weapons are stone axes, 16-ft. spears and poisoned arrows. Cannibalism, headhunting and tribal warfare are common...
...after a brief comic-opera war launched by Indonesia's former President Sukarno, The Netherlands reluctantly handed over West Irian to a United Nations caretaker administration. The arrangement, negotiated by veteran U.S. Diplomat Ellsworth Bunker, promised the Papuans "an act of free choice" within seven years on whether to reject or retain Indonesian control. The formula was designed to save Western face, but the "free choice" has proved lamentably free of choice...
...people's representatives," who allegedly spoke for all Papuans. The Indonesian army warned that it would not be gentle with dissidents. "Many of us didn't agree to Indonesian control, but we were afraid," one of the delegates told TIME Correspondent David Greenway, who visited West Irian last week. Others were wooed with gifts of salt, tobacco, cloth, beer, outboard motors and junkets to Djakarta. Between intimidation and persuasion, the Indonesians managed to win a unanimous vote in favor of annexation...