Word: irian
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Indonesia, once a bastion of noisy self-righteous anticolonialism, last week formally took over a remote, primitive piece of real estate that can hardly be considered anything but a colony. By means of a blatantly rigged referendum, the Indonesians annexed West Irian, the western half of the rugged South Pacific island of New Guinea...
...anyone would want the impoverished, California-size region nearly defies understanding. Indeed, the government of Indonesia's President Suharto, who commanded the forces ordered to "liberate" West Irian from Dutch control in 1962, long ago lost any real enthusiasm for the remote and unrewarding territory. But Indonesia's sense of Manifest Destiny was involved. For decades, Indonesians have always rallied to the cry "From Sabang to Merauke!" -from the westernmost island of the 3,000-island archipelago to the easternmost hamlet in West Irian. Said Frans Kaisieppo, the governor of West Irian: "It has become a religious conviction...
...foremost possibility was Indonesia's biggest vessel, the dilapidated, Soviet-built cruiser Irian, once referred to by wags as "Sukarno's floating cocktail lounge." Washington accepted the proposal last week. Hanoi rejected it on the ground that Indonesia, which thwarted a Communist takeover 2½ years ago, is "not neutral." Chuckled one British official: "Why don't we try to get the North Koreans to offer the Pueblo...
...deft negotiator. As Ambassador to Argentina, he dealt with Dictator Juan Peron during a period of rabid Argentine anti-Americanism, had the satisfaction of seeing him exiled. In other troubleshooting assignments, he served as a mediator between Indonesia's Sukarno and The Netherlands during the 1962 West Irian crisis and as a go-between in the Yemen controversy a year later. Most recently-and impressively-he served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Organization of American States during the delicate 1965 Dominican negotiations...
...never before operated in Indonesia are investigating the scene too. One visitor last week was Eastern Air Lines President Floyd Hall, in Djakarta to talk about the possibilities of a joint operation in the islands with Garuda Airways, the national airline. U.S. Steel is contemplating nickel mining in West Irian, Freeport Sulphur is surveying copper prospects, and no fewer than 19 companies are competing for the right to drill for offshore oil around the big islands of Sumatra, Java and Borneo...