Hacker News Reader

Comment by kakacik | Hacker News Reader

Well, I wouldn't call it a genocide, its not a civil war neither, maybe sometimes violent separatist movement would be the best description? There are videos of attacks from both sides, also one can still see in 2026 tribal warfare where they use their traditional spears, but ie in urban setting.

Situation you describe is not unique for former colonies all around the world, how breakup of former empires was generally handled is the peak of colonial incompetence and worse, and most of Africa and Middle east are a huge mess due to that.

Its one thing when one draws a nice square around Wyoming for example, another when such straight line makes you suddenly part of country led by your rival tribe, with different religion, priorities and often outright hate towards you (and usually long history of violent conflicts to build upon).

View on HN

> Situation you describe is not unique for former colonies all around the world

This isn't a former colony. West Papua is colonised still, by the country of Indonesia.

It's not a separatist movement, but an independence struggle. Of course there are attacks from both sides. You aren't suggesting that West Papuans should lie down and be ethnically cleansed without fighting back are you?

And the Javanese of Indonesia aren't just a different tribe, they've a completely different race from completely different lands.

> It's not a separatist movement, but an independence struggle.

What's the difference?

> And the Javanese of Indonesia aren't just a different tribe, they've a completely different race from completely different lands.

Why would that matter? Would it be okay if they were the same race? How do you define race?

A separatist movement is generally one where a group wants to secede and become their own country. See Alberta in Canada.

An independence struggle is where a people are trying to remove an occupying force, their colonizer.

Very similar, but not quite.

> Why would that matter? Would it be okay if they were the same race? How do you define race?

It matters when the colonizers are racial supremacists who look down on your culture, traditions, and way of life. And as a result of their POV, they confiscate your lands (because they don't accept your unwritten land ownership "titles"), wipe out your men, and replace you with their own people.

> How do you define race?

Head over to reddit where your trolling will be welcomed.

So according to you, American Revolutionary War was a separatist movement but not an independence struggle? > Head over to reddit where your trolling will be welcomed.

Race is a term with a rather vague meaning, if I remember genetics correctly both groups here belongs to the East Asian branch of Humanity although to distant branch, which made me question what the different races are here, understanding you definition of race would have been helpful to understand why you used it instead of ethnic groups.

No trolling here, your weird definition of an independence struggle was definitely a good reason to ask you to define your terms.

> So according to you, American Revolutionary War was a separatist movement but not an independence struggle?

It was both, but yes, more a separatist movement. It was British colonisers separating from their government, not a colonised people overthrowing their colonisers.

Javanese: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Javanese_people#/media...

Papuans (NSFW): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigenous_people_of_New_Guine...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com