Jim Elmslie traces events in Irian Jaya/West Papua from the departure of the Dutch in 1963 to December 1999. The majority of the indigenous people of the area consider themselves West Papuans living in the land of West Papua, a country incorporated into the Indonesian state without their consent or approval. Made up of Melanesian peoples, the western part of New Guinea is one of the least developed places on earth with the largest expanses outside the Amazon of untouched and, in some cases still unexplored, rainforest and wilderness. It is a region ripe for economic exploitation. Irian Jaya under the Gun chronicles the rapid changes that are taking place under the guise of Indonesian economic development and its generally pro-crony, pro-military, pro-multinational corporation, and anti-Papuan thrust. It describes what can happen to an indigenous population when insensitive governments and avaricious multinationals are more concerned about profits than the environment or the people inhabiting the land.

This book describes the historical development of the Irian Jaya guerrilla struggle for independence from Indonesia. The OPM, Organisasi Papua Merdeka, has been fighting Indonesian rule in West New Guinea since 1969; the military presence there was established in 1962. The author believes that the great majority of West Papuans support the OPM. The Indonesian Transmigration programme has forcible alienated clan land and sponsored settlers from Java. As a result of this policy 10,000 Papuans fled Irian Jaya in mid-1984 to seek safety in Papua New Guinea. The exodus was more than 1 per cent of the indigenous population. The OPM has almost no foreign allies. Both Papua New Guinea and Australia emphasize that Irian Jaya is part of Indonesia and thus an internal matter. The author predicts that greater autonomy for Irian Jaya would be more likely to result from political pressure on Jakarta than from a military victory by OPM.

Irian Jaya is the official name of the western half of New Guinea, a province of Indonesia since the 1960s. Its inhabitants are generally untouched by civilization, and most of their hundreds of native languages and cultures remain unstudied. Van Enk and de Vries gained access to one of the most isolated parts of Irian Jaya in order to study the Korowai, a tribe in southern Irian Jaya. The Korowai still use stone tools, live in tree-houses, and have no knowledge of the outside world. Van Enk and de Vries provide the first study of the Korowai language and culture. They reproduce oral texts that show patterns of grammar, discourse, and culture, and discuss the phonological, morphological, and syntactical aspects of the language. In the process, van Enk and de Vries reveal a number of key semantic fields and conceptual patterns such as kinship, counting, the role of lunar phases, and Korowai cosmology.

This is history at its best. From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya is readable, informative, gripping, and above all honest. From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya helps readers understand the life and role of a missionary through real life examples of missionaries throughout history. We see these men and women as fallible and human in their failures as well as their successes. These great leaders of missions are presented as real people, and not super-saints. This second edition covers all 2,000 years of mission history with a special emphasis on the modern era, including chapters focused on the Muslim world, Third World missions, and a comparison of missions in Korea and Japan. It also contains both a general and an “illustration” index where readers can easily locate particular missionaries, stories, or incidents. New design graphics, photographs, and maps help make this a compelling book. From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya is as informative and intriguing as it is inspiring—an invaluable resource for missionaries, mission agencies, students, and all who are concerned about the spreading of the gospel throughout the world.