ABSTRACT
The Province of North Maluku (Maluku Utara) was officially formed on 12 October 1999, having previously been part of a single Maluku province. North Maluku consists of the northern Moluccas (Maluku Islands), the southern islands still constituting the ‘rump’ Maluku. West Papua (Papua Barat) province, which occupies the Bird’s Head or Doberai Peninsula of the island of New Guinea (Papua), lies to the south-east, the Philippines to the north and the Indonesian island of Celebes (Sulawesi) to the west, beyond the Moluccan Sea. The Pacific Ocean is to the north and east and the Buru and Seram Seas to the south.
