Numbers

I must have a dark sense of humour but I laughed out loud when I read this paragraph provided by the Indonesian consul-general as his argument that genocide could not possibly be happening in Irian Jaya.

In 1935, the population of West Papua was about 700,000. By 2000, however, the population was 2,220,034. Between 1980 and 1990 the average population growth was 3.34 per cent, well above the national level of 1.74 per cent. From 1990 to 2000, population growth of 3.22 per cent was recorded in West Papua, still well above the national level of 1.49 per cent for the period. It is true that migrants account for a significant slice of this increase in population, but that is the national trend throughout Indonesia.

A "significant slice". Now that's what I call authentic diplomat gibberish.