Jacob Rumbiak

Jacob Rumbiak is a West Papuan academic and political leader who has been in self-imposed exile in Australia after escaping from detention as a political prisoner for ten years in Indonesian gaols. Rumbiak is the Foreign Affairs representative of the Federated Republic of West Papua declared at the conclusion of the Third Papuan People's Congress on 19 October 2011. Rumbiak's advice from within West Papua to not attend the Congress for security reasons was vindicated in the crack-down which led to six deaths, hundreds of arrests and the sentencing of five of the principal figures to three years gaol each for treason.

Rumbiak was born in Yabon in the highland district of Ayamaru in Dutch New Guinea and was eight years old when the UN handed his country over to Indonesia in 1963. His parents are from Biak-Numfoor Island on the north coast. Both were primary school teachers, his father also a Protestant pastor. His mother died in 1982 when he was studying in West Java.

In 1967 his family fled to the jungle from the Indonesian military which had overtaken West Papua. There they were protected by the Free Papua Organization (OPM). Jacob became involved with the OPM and at a young age became a commander of troops. He finally returned to the towns and was exiled with an education scholarship to Java in 1978. Rumbiak graduated from the Indonesia University of Education in Bandung (where he spent nine years), with a BA (1982 Maths) and Masters (1987 Geography). By 1987 Jacob was an academic at the Indonesian National Scientific Institute; the Physical Geography Research Institute for East Indonesia; and the Environment Resource Institute of Indonesia.

In 1987 he was appointed to teach in Astronomy and Meteorology at Cenderawasih University in Jayapura. Jacob became increasingly politicised, and committed to a non-violent campaign of resistance based on universal concepts like ‘justice, peace and love’ he began educating student activists. Together with Dr Thomas Wainggai he established the West Melanesia Council. In 1988 Dr Wainggai and his wife were arrested, and the next year Jacob took refuge in the PNG Consulate in Jayapura. Despite the Indonesian assurances of his safety, when Jacob left the Consulate he was arrested, and in 1989 then sentenced to life imprisonment for subversion.

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