Jacob Rumbiak

Who is 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. 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, with a BA and Masters. 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.