[Reluctant Indonesians: Australia, Papua and the future of West Papua By Clinton Fernandes Scribe, $22.]

David Costello – The issue is on the backburner now but West Papua will inevitably blow up again and drag relations between Australia and Indonesia into crisis.

It doesn't take much to set the alarm bells ringing. Indonesia was outraged when Australia issued temporary protection visas to West Papuan refugees in March 2006. The Howard Government has been in damage control ever since – repeating endlessly that it does not support West Papuan independence and that in the pursuit of our "national interest" we should not meddle in Indonesian affairs.

This position, argues Canberra academic Clinton Fernandes, is not supported by ordinary Australians. The woeful human rights record of the Indonesian military (TNI) is no secret these days. Its strategy of using militias in campaigns of murder, rape and forced emigration were played out in front of the TV cameras during the rampages in East Timor in 1999. As Fernandes writes, an April 2006 Newspoll "found that more than 75 per cent of Australians supported the right of West Papuans to self-determination even if it meant independence from Indonesia". The author is well known as a strident critic of the Indonesian military.

He is a former Australian military intelligence officer who was dragged into controversy over leaks which showed the TNI used militias to destabilise East Timor in 1999. His house was raided by federal police but no charges were laid. Fernandes then wrote Reluctant Saviour, which analysed how Australia worked to keep peacekeepers out of East Timor ahead of the August 1999 ballot on independence.

His main achievement in this new book is to bring the complex West Papuan situation into focus. As expected, he dwells on the scandalous 1969 "Act of Free Choice", in which West Papua was forced at gunpoint to accept integration with Indonesia. Other incidents covered are the 2001 murder by Indonesia of indigenous leader Theys Eluay and the Timika ambush of August 2002, in which two American citizens were killed. The book also shines a light on some lesser known examples of Australian "meddling" in Indonesia. In 1957, then foreign minister Richard Casey shared US concerns about the erratic Indonesian leader Sukarno. Casey met US secretary of state John Foster Dulles and suggested "that it might be prudent to start thinking about breaking Indonesia up".

Australia did support American backing for breakaway military factions in Sumatra and Sulawesi. When these rebellions failed, Canberra and Washington increasingly saw the Indonesia military as an anti-communist bulwark. This translated to support for the repressive Suharto regime which took control after the bloody anti-communist purges of 1965-66.

West Papuan activists are still aggrieved by another incident which Fernandes describes. In May 1969, Australia, acting on a request from Jakarta, stopped two West Papuan leaders from travelling to United Nations headquarters in New York where they intended to raise concerns over the "Act of Free Choice".

While Fernandes is a scathing critic of both the TNI and Australian policy, he is no starry-eyed supporter of West Papuan independence. In fact, there are West Papuans who would be satisfied with more self-government, a better share of the revenues from mineral resources and a scaling down of the military presence. This, the author argues, could be achievable without separating from Indonesia.

But the key problem, Fernandes continues, is the TNI with its appalling human rights record, illegal rackets and contempt for civilian authority. There can be no proper discussion on what Papuans want when Indonesian soldiers can murder with impunity.

While his logic and research is impeccable, Fernandes's book is a little convoluted at times. The early chapters, in particular, could have done with a good edit. That said, this a valuable tool to understanding a most difficult problem on our doorstep.