HIV/AIDS is spreading among tribal peoples

West Papua has a rate of HIV/AIDS at least 15 times the rate in Indonesia as a whole. The province is home to 312 tribes who have suffered extreme oppression and violence since the Indonesian occupation in the 1960s. Many tribespeople even believe that the Indonesian military is introducing HIV/AIDS deliberately in order to wipe them out.

HIV/AIDS was virtually unknown among the Bushmen of the Central Kalahari in Botswana before the government evicted them from their land. But in New Xade resettlement camp in 2002, at least 40 percent  of Bushman deaths were due to AIDS.