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Category: ULMWP

  • How colonial puppeteer Indonesia uses ‘autonomy’ to disempower Papuans

    Carving up the Papuan provincial cake.
    Carving up the Papuan provincial cake. Graphic: Image: Lugas/tirto.id

    On Thursday, 10 March 2022, thousands of Papuan people in the Lapago Wamena Cultural Area took to the streets to paralyse Wamena city. They occupied Wamena City. They rejected the Indonesian colonial plan to expand Papua province.

    Remember: The voice of the people is the voice of God. The Papuan people, people and leaders of Indonesia, Melanesia, Pacific, Africa, European Union. USA, Australia, listen to the voices of the two million Melanesian people in West Papua who are currently on their way to being annihilated due to Indonesia’s systemic racist politics.

    The expansion of Papua provinces, Special Autonomy Volume 2 and military operations in six regencies in Papua is not a solution for West Papua. Only one order — give us the right of self-determination for the political rights of the Papuan nation in West Papua.
    Our greetings and prayers from Wamena, the heart of Papua.

    Waaa … waaa … waaa.

    SPECIAL REPORT: By Yamin Kogoya

    The above text was written by Markus Haluk, director of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) on Thursday, March 10. The text encapsulates the sentiments of Papuans protesting across West Papua and Indonesia, calling for Jakarta to stop the creation of new provinces.

    Haluk’s words were written amid escalating protests in various parts of West Papua’s customary lands and across Indonesia over Jakarta’s plans to create six new provinces under the unilaterally renewed — and unpopular — Special Autonomy Law 21/2001.

    Here is an overview of the breadth and depth of protests against this repression, with reports that at least two people have been shot dead:

    Jayapura – Mamta customary land
    Tuesday, March 8: Hundreds of students and communities clashed with Indonesian security forces at university campuses in Waena and Abepura cities, protesting against the expansion. The protest coordinator, Alfa Hisage, stated that this demonstration was to reject the creation of a new province altogether.

    Wamena – La Pago customary land
    Thursday, March 10: Doni Tabuni, the coordinator of the demonstration in the highlands of Wamena (the location that Markus Haluk refers to in his text) warned on March 10 that the expansion would wipe out Papuans. Protesters declared: “We will stop all government office activities in the Lapago region if the central government does not stop the expansion,” reported CNN Indonesia (10 March 2022).

    “The expansion will not bring prosperity to Papuans; it will only serve to benefit the elites, bring more migrants, and create more opportunities for military and human rights violations,” said Doni Tabuni.

    Paniai – Meepago customary land
    Monday, March 14: thousands of residents of Paniai took to the streets to demonstrate against the expansion of the “New Autonomous Region”, also known as “Daerah Otonomy Baru” (DOB). The demonstrators repeatedly shouted against the new proposal and do not want to join the province of Central Papua, which would become a new autonomous region.

    Petrus Yeimo, a member of the Paniai Regency Legislative Council (DPRD), said that communities are not involved in the formation of this new region.

    “That’s why we Paniai people firmly reject the expansion,” said Petrus, when he was met by the mass in front of the DPRD office (innews.id).

    Manokwari – Domberai customary land
    Tuesday, March 8: The same message also echoed in Manokwari city — a coastal town popularly known as a “city of the gospel” for its historical significance of the landing of the first two German missionaries (C.W. Ottow and J.G. Geissler) for the “Christianisation” project in the mid-1800s.

    Sorong – Domberai customary land
    Monday, March 21: A series of protests has also taken place in Sorong city, at the Western tip of West Papua, involving sections of Papuan society, including students and communities.

    Protesters in Sorong
    Protesters in Sorong carry a banner saying, “The expansion of the new autonomous region is oppression against the Papuan people.” Image: APR

    “The expansion of new autonomous region depletes our forests, depriving us of our land rights. The goal of our meeting is to convince the mayor, who is also the head of the creation of the new Southwest Papua province that we Papuans all over Sorong Raya oppose the expansion,” said action coordinator Sepnat Yewen on Monday. But they were disappointed that they were unable to see the mayor twice (Compass.com, 21 March 2022).

    Jakarta – the heartland of the colonial powerhouse
    Tuesday, March 11: Papuan students held protests in central Jakarta, calling on Jakarta to stop the colonial expansion of their homeland, during which one police officer, Ferikson Tampubolon, was injured on the head (Detiknews, 12 March 2022).

    Indonesian security forces line up against Papuan protesters in Jakarta
    Indonesian security forces line up against Papuan protesters in Jakarta. Image: APR

    South Sulawesi – an Indonesian island
    In Kendari city of South Sulawesi, the Papuan Student Association declared that the newly created provinces would not benefit Papuans. Kiminma Gwijangge, the group coordinator, said that this was a game of the political elites and rulers who control the public service in Papua and ignoring the rights and wishes of Papuans. These Papuan students demanded that the Papuan elites, who eat money and expand on behalf of Papua, be stopped immediately.

    Yahukimo – La Pago customary land
    Tuesday, March 15: Tragically, a peaceful demonstration for the same cause in the Yahukimo region did not go well. Two young men, Yakop Deal, 30, and Erson Weipsa, 22, have been martyred for this cause by the Indonesian police — the cause for which Papuan men and women courageously risked their lives to fight against fully armed, western-backed, modern security forces with advanced mechanical weapons.

    Two young Papuans gunned down and a dozen wounded
    Witness accounts of the Yahukimo tragedy stated that the protest initially went ahead safely and peacefully. However, provocation by police intelligence officers posing as journalists in the midst of the protest led to the shooting.

    It is alleged that an unidentified Indonesian person flew a drone camera during the demonstration. Seeing that action, protesters warned the Indonesian man not to use drones to record the protest, creating fear.

    The protestors also asked for his identity and whether or not he was a journalist, but he failed to respond. The crowd protested against his action. He then ran for cover towards hidden police officers who had been on standby with weapons. Immediately, members of the police fired tear gas at the crowd without asking for the person responsible for the peaceful demonstration. Soon after, police opened fire on the crowd.

    Papuan Police public relations chief Kombes Pol Ahmad Musthofa Kamal confirmed that two protesters had died, and others suffered gunshot wounds (Suara.com).

    Gathering evidence of the Yahukimu shootings by the Indonesian military.
    Gathering evidence of the Yahukimu atrocity – alleged shootings by the Indonesian military. This Papuan man was shot in the back. Image: APR

    OPM and civil society groups
    The Free Papua Movement, also known as Organisasi Papua Merdeka (OPM), and their military wing, The West Papua National Liberation Army, which was launched in the 1960s to protest against the Indonesian invasion, are opposed to the new expansion of provinces.
    Sebby Sambon, the group spokesperson released a statement that threatened to shoot Papuan elites who imposed Jakarta’s agenda onto Papuans (tribunnews.com, 12 February 2022)

    More than 700,000 people have also signed the Papuan People’s Petition which represents 111 organisations opposing Special Autonomy.

    These protests are not the first and they will not be the last. Papuans will continue to resist any policy introduced by Jakarta that threatens their lives, cultural identities, and lands.

    This is an existential war, not a political one — it is a war of survival and resisting extinction.

    The genesis of these recent protests
    Those protests are not simply a reaction against the new expansion, but a part of a movement against the Indonesian invasion that began when Papuans’ independent state was seized by the Western governments and given to Indonesia by the United Nations in 1963.

    This is a conflict between two states — the state of Papua and the state of Indonesia.
    Having the big picture is vital to prevent misrepresentation of these protesters as just another angry mob on the street demanding equal pay in Indonesia.

    However, the protests that cost those two men their lives in Yahukimo had a specific genesis. It began in 1999 when 100 Papuan delegates went to then-President Habibie and demanded independence after the collapse of Suharto’s 31-year New Order regime.

    Habibie and his cabinet were shocked by this demand, as people whom they thought were members of his family suddenly told him they no longer wanted to be part of the great Indonesian family.

    Having been shocked by this unexpected news, Habibie and his cabinet told the Papuan delegation to go home and think it over in case it had been a mistake. But this was not a mistake. It was the deepest desire of Papuans being communicated directly in a dignified manner to the country’s highest presidential palace.

    This occurred during a time of great turmoil in Indonesia’s history. Strongman national father figure Suharto, once considered immortal, no longer was. His empire had crumbled.

    Suddenly, across the archipelago, a cacophony of demonstrators unleashed more than 30 years of dormant human desires for freedom, frustrations, and fear, combined with the ravages of the Asian economic collapse.

    If there was a time when the Papuans could escape the tormented house, this was it. One hundred Papuan delegates marching to Habibie indeed made their mark in that respect.

    At this momentous time, the man who understood this deepest desire and would help Papuans escape was President Abdurrahman Wahid, better known as Gus Dur. He lives on in the memories of Papuans because of his valiant acts.

    President Gus Dur – a political messianic figure
    On 30 December 1999, or exactly two months and 10 days after being inaugurated as the 4th President, Gus Dur visited Irian Jaya (as it was known back then) with two purposes — to listen to Papuan people during the congress, which he funded, and to see the first millennium sunrise on January 1, 2000. On this day, a significant moment in human history, he chose to stand with Papuans and for Papuans.

    During his stay, he changed the region’s name from Irian Jaya to Papua and allowed the banned Papuan Morning Star flag to be flown alongside Indonesia’s red and white flag.

    Changing the name was significant for Papuans because these changes marked a significant shift in how the region would be governed. The former name symbolised Indonesia’s victory and the latter symbolized Papuan victory.

    Prior to these historical occurrences, the region was known as Netherlands New Guinea during Dutch rule, then as West Papua during a short-lived, Dutch-supported Papuan rule in 1961, then from Irian Barat to Irian Jaya when Indonesia annexed it in May 1963.

    Just as their island has been dissected and tortured by European and Asian colonial powers, so too have Papuans, being tortured with all manner of racism and violence in the name of the civilisation project.

    The messianic Gus Dur’s spark of hope instilled in the hearts of Papuans was short-lived. In July 2001, he was forced out of office after being accused of encouraging Indonesia’s disintegration. Gus Dur’s window of opportunity for Papuans to escape the tortured house was closed. The new chapter that Gus Dur wrote in Indonesia-Papua’s tale of horror was ripped out of his hands during the most pivotal year of human history — the new millennium 2000.

    The demand for independence conveyed to President Habibie a year earlier by one hundred Papuan delegates was discarded. Instead, Jakarta offered a special gift for Papuans — gift the Special Autonomy Law 21/2001.

    There was a belief among foreign observers, and Papua and Jakarta elites that this would lead to something special. It reflects Jakarta’s ability in terms of its semantic structure and highly curated selection used in law.

    Rod McGibbon, an analyst and writer on Southeast Asian politics in Jakarta, noted in a Wall Street Journal article on 14 August 2001 that despite the challenges Jakarta faces in its dealings with Irian Jaya (Papua), the Special Autonomy approach represents the best opportunity for Jakarta to begin meaningful dialogue with provincial leaders. He also predicted that if Jakarta fails special autonomy, the province will suffer further ethnic and regional conflicts in the future.

    He was right, 20 years later Special Autonomy turned out to be a big mess.

    The law consisted of 79 articles, most of which were designed to give Papuans greater control over their fate — to safeguard their land and culture.

    Furthermore, under this law, one important institution, the Papuan People’s Assembly (Majelis Rakyat Papua-MRP), together with provincial governments and the Papuan People’s Representative Council (Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat Papua-DPRP), was given the authority to deal with matters that are most important to them, such as land, population control, cultural identity, and symbols.

    Section B in the introduction part of the Special Autonomy law reads as follows: “That the Papua community as God’s creation and is a part of a civilised people, who hold high human rights, religious values, democracy, law and cultural values in the adat (customary) law community and who have the right to fairly enjoy the results of development”

    Assassination of prominent Papuan leader and Papuan chief
    Three weeks after the law was passed, popular independence leader Theys H. Eluay was killed by Indonesian special forces (Kopassus). Ryamizard Ryacudu, then-army chief of staff, who in 2014 became Jokowi’s first Defence Minister, later called the killers “heroes” (Tempo.co, August 19, 2003).

    In 2003, the Megawati Soekarnoputri government divided the province into two. She was violating a provision of the Special Autonomy Law, which was based on the idea that Papua remains a single territory. As prescribed by law, any division would need to be approved by the Papuan provincial legislature and MRP.

    Governor Lukas Enembe – Melanesian chief
    On August 22, 2019, Narasi (central Jakarta’s TV programme) invited Papua provincial Governor Lukas Enembe and others (both Papuans and Indonesians) to discuss mass demonstrations that erupted across West Papua and Indonesia after Papuan students were racially attacked in Surabaya.

    The programme host, Najwa Shihab, was shocked to hear the governor’s response. When asked about his opinion about the situation, the governor said that Papuans already had their own concept to address problems in West Papua, but they needed an agreement/treaty under international auspices — or something of the sort — because no Jakarta-made law would work in Papua.

    The host then asked, “you are a governor, but why don’t you believe the authority of Special Autonomy Law?” Governor Enembe replied, “The Special Autonomy Law 21/2001 has not worked until now.”

    The governor stressed that Papuans do not have political power or free will to make any meaningful decision.

    “We are supposed to make our own law under this Special Autonomy, but Jakarta refuses to allow it. Jakarta only gives money under this law, that’s all.”

    The statements come from Papua’s number one man and not from someone on the street. The ruling elites in Jakarta are not fazed about breaking their own laws, showing their disrespect of the Papuan people and their integrity as a nation.

    The governor is not the only official in the country’s highest office who lacks faith in the central government. Otopianus Tebai, a young Papuan senator who represents Papua in the central government said in a response to this new expansion plan that most Papuans reject the divisions (Suara.com, March 18, 2022). Divisions of which Papuans are being coerced into by the old special autonomy law renewal, which Governor Enembe declared as a total failure.

    The MRP, Papua’s highest institution established under the special autonomy law to safeguard cultural identities, no longer has the power to act as intended. This institution has been stripped of its power, as well as other things, as a result of the 2021 amendment to the law which was passed two decades ago.

    Timotius Murib, the chairman of this institution, said that the plan to create an autonomous region did not reflect the wishes of the people of Papua and would probably create more problems if Papuans were divided over it.

    The chairman emphasised the law was designed for Papuans to have specific authority to implement local laws pertaining to our affairs, but the central government removed that authority by destroying any legal or government mechanism that materialised this authority.

    Adding to these statements from the highest offices, more than 700,000 people have signed the Papuan People’s Petition, which represents 111 organisations opposing Special Autonomy.

    Indonesian Brimob forces ready to move against Papuan protesters in Jakarta
    Indonesian Brimob forces ready to move against Papuan protesters in Jakarta. Image: APR

    Deep psychological war against Papuans – ‘divide and rule’ tactic
    Despite overwhelming opposition from many segments of Papuan society, the Indonesian government persists in imposing its will upon Papuans. It is precisely this action that is causing protests and havoc in recent weeks.

    But not all Papuans are against it. Several regents (mostly Papuans) are supporting this expansion with their cronies and supporters, in conjunction with the Indonesian government, a few Papuan elites in Jakarta, and other misfits and opportunists.

    The issue has caused division among indigenous Papuans. Among the Papuans, it plays directly into identity politics, as many tribes speak different languages, live in different ancestral and customary lands, and even practise different religions.

    A protracted horizontal conflict between these languages, cultural, and geographical lines was already being created by the creation of more regencies and districts in the past. Adding three new provinces would lead to more regencies, which means more districts, which means more security forces and settlers and more problems.

    In the midst of this drama, Jakarta is setting traps for Papuans by forcing them to face each other and preventing them from collectively confronting the system that is tearing them apart. The creation of more provinces and regions is leading to such traps since this will divide the people — which is clearly Indonesia’s ultimate goal.

    If Papuans are too busy fighting one another, then the atrocities of the elites will fly under the radar, unopposed. What West Papua needs is unity, which has been demonstrated in recent protests. Together, Papuans will always be stronger than apart in their cause, and Jakarta will stop it with all its tricks.

    If you are an imperial strategist or scammer in an empirical office somewhere in London, Canberra, Washington DC, or Jakarta, you might think that this is the best way to control and destroy a nation.

    But history shows that, all dead ancient empires and the current dying Anglo-American led Western empires use this little magical trick “divide and rule” over others until it collapses from its wicked pathological and hypocritical weights from within.

    Imperial planners in Jakarta should be focusing on overcoming their own internal weaknesses that would eventually bring them down rather than chasing after the monster they created out of West Papua.

    In this frame of mind, any vestige of hope for Papua’s restoration and unity, whether contained within or outside the law, is a threat that will be undermined at any cost.
    The term autonomy is also defined differently in Papua’s affairs because Jakarta does not intend to empower Papuans to stand on their own two feet.

    There is no real intention for Jakarta to give Papuans a chance to have some level of self-rule, which is exactly what being autonomous means in essence.

    Papua’s autonomous status seems to be all part of the settler-colonial regime: occupation, expansion, and extermination. Papuans have been told that West Papua is special, but Jakarta is undermining and paralysing any mechanism it agrees upon to convince them that that is truly not the case.

    In other words, Jakarta introduces a law, but it is Jakarta that violates it. The situation is analogous to students having a teacher who is not just negligent but hypocritical; everything the teacher believes in, they teach, not taking time to critically analyse their actions and how it all contradicts itself.

    Under the whole scheme, Indonesia is presented as a self-appointed head of the class that they are holding hostage. They believe they are the only ones capable of teaching the stupid Papuans, of civilising the naked cave men, of saving the wild beasts, and developing the underdeveloped people.

    But under the guise of the pathological civilisational myths, Jakarta poisons and destroy Papuans with food, alcohol, drugs, pornography, gambling, diseases and the ammunition which is used against them.

    Rulers in Jakarta act as narcissistic sociopaths — they promise development, happiness, or even heaven while committing genocidal and homicidal acts against Papuans.
    They portray themselves as the “civilised” and the Papuans as the “uncivilised” – a psychological manipulation that allows them to avoid accountability for their crimes. Jakarta makes Papuans sick, then prescribes medication to cure the very same illness it caused.

    A deep psychological game is being played to convince themselves (colonisers), and the Papuans (colonised) that Indonesia exists so that West Papua can be saved, improved, and developed. This pathological game is then embedded into the psyche of Papuans through all the colonial development products Jakarta sells to Papuans through education and indoctrination.

    This programming is evident in the way that a few Papuans (with Jakarta acting as the puppeteer) fool their own people by telling them that Indonesian rule will bring salvation and prosperity.

    Even the mental work of most Indonesians is being reprogrammed to view West Papua with that lens – they believe that Indonesia is saving and improving West Papua. Unbeknownst to them, this entity called “Indonesia” annihilates Papuans.

    Local Papuan elites legitimize their power by saying that their own people also have serious problems (backwardness, stupidity, poverty) and that they have solutions to solve these problems. However, the solution is Jakarta-made, not Papuan-made, and that is the problem.

    When governor Enembe said we need an international solution rather than a national one, he was conscious of these games being played against his people in his homeland.
    The Indonesian government exterminates Papuans by controlling both poison and antidote, but there is no antidote to begin with. It is all poison; the only difference is the label.

    Markus Haluk’s words
    Markus Haluk’s words make a desperate plea for help as they face what he terms “annihilation” due to Indonesia’s racism, responding to mass demonstration in his own homeland.

    His words highlight that the only viable solution is to grant the people the right to self-determination to establish their nation-state and declare that the people’s voice is the voice of God.

    As tragic and ironic as it is, it is highly unlikely that Haluk’s words “the voice of the people is the voice of God” will mean anything to the ruling class in Jakarta since in the past 20 years all the attacks, betrayals, torture, racism, and killings have been committed after these words were written on the Special Autonomy Law No 21/2001.

    Section B in the Introduction part of the law reads: “That the Papua community as God’s creation and is part of a civilized people, who hold high Human Rights, religious values, democracy, law and cultural values in the adat (customary) law community and who have the right to fairly enjoy the results of development.”

    It seems that these words are merely part of the theatrics — the drama of cruelty, torture and death.

    The full English text of the law can be accessed here: Refworld | Indonesia: Law No. 21 of 2001, On Special Autonomy for the Papua Province

    Settler-colony – the logic of ‘destroy to replace’
    Indonesia’s occupation in West Papua is not temporary — they are not simply taking resources and going home. The Indonesians want to make West Papua their permanent home.

    This is a permanent population resettlement colonial project based on the logic of destroy to replace. Papuans are being destroyed — and even worse, they are being replaced by Indonesian settlers. They are powerless to stop the annihilation and perversion of their ancestral homelands.

    To occupy and own the land is the ultimate goal of settlers. Settler states aim to eradicate Indigenous societies through what an Australian historian and scholar, Patrick Wolfe, refers to as a the “logic of elimination” in his paper, Settler colonialism and the elimination of the native (2006).

    Colonialism through population resettlement is the most destructive form of colonial project underpinned by self-righteous, pathological rationality which exterminates the original inhabitants as a moral requirement to justify the process of replacing itself.

    In this pathological project, genocide is not considered evil but a necessity to achieve its exterminating objective. That is why the assassination of Theys H. Eluay just three weeks after the passing of the Special Autonomy Law was perhaps seen as a necessary evil to satisfy this colonial project.

    West Papua: not just another one of Indonesia’s provinces
    Over the past 60 years, virtually all literature ever produced on West Papua failed to refer to it as a settler colony. The region is still treated as if it were just another province of Indonesia, and Jakarta insist on creating more provinces as if they have legal and moral rights. This is misleading and illegal considering Indonesia’s genocidal actions and the circumstances in which the region was incorporated into Indonesia in the 1960s.

    Indonesia did not merely incorporate West Papua; it invaded an independent state by military force supported by Western governments by manipulating the UN’s system.
    Our continued use of West Papua as a part of Indonesia has distorted our understanding of the nature of the Indonesianisation programme being carried out there.

    We need to scrutinise Jakarta’s activities on West Papua’s soil with a settler-colonial lens. This will help us frame our questions and structure our languages differently regarding Indonesian activities in West Papua.

    It will also help us to see how West Papua is being destroyed under settler colony, similar to how European colonisation destroyed Indigenous people in Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and Canada.

    We need to frame any administration centres of any type, whether religious, political, cultural, educational, legal, social or security forces established on West Papuan soil with a settler-colonial lens.

    This will allow us to see how Jakarta created these parasitic colonial spaces camouflaged as province and regency to occupy, expand, and eventually exterminate its original inhabitants.

    The settler-colonial system is a structure that facilitates this whole extermination project. Replacing one landscape for another, one people for another, one language for another, one system for another.

    In light of this, it would appear that any law, policy, decree, regulation, or project enacted and enforced by Jakarta serves the purpose of eradicating the Papuan population from the land and replacing them with Indonesian settlers.

    This has been done in Australia, America, Canada, and New Zealand, and now these Western powers are aiding Indonesia to do the same in West Papua.

    Physically and psychologically, these new provinces (whether materialised or not) have become new battlefields in the war on Papuans. Indeed, Papuans are being forced onto these battle grounds, as in Rome’s Colosseums, to fight for their lives.

    The most tragic outcome for Papuans is going to be Jakarta pitting brother against brother and sister against sister in Indonesian’s controlled colosseum of vile games. The blood of these young Papuans that was shed in Yahukimo during the recent demonstration, shows how Papuans are paying the ultimate price in this theatre of killing.

    A way forward
    Let the same mechanism of the UN that was used to betray West Papua 60 years ago be used to deliver overdue justice for the Papuan people.

    United States of America, the Netherlands, Indonesia and their allies of all kinds — thieves, criminals, thugs, militias and multinational bandits who betrayed the Papuan people and continue to drain them of their natural resources must take responsibility for their crimes against Papuans.

    Countless of Resolutions on West Papuan human rights issues that have been written on paper in the offices of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG), Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), African, Caribbean, and Pacific States (ACP), UN Human Rights Council (UNHC), and European Union (EU) must be materialised to end this tragic and unjust war Papuans are forced to face on their own.

    These institutions need to unite and put their words into actions if they place any value on human life.

    If no action is taken in these resolutions, their words only serve the imperial purposes, such as these meaningless words used in the Law 21/2001 on Special Autonomy, providing false hope to deceive people whose lives and lands are already at stake.

    Remember what Markus Haluk wrote on March 10 — reproduced in the introduction to this article — calling on the world’s humanity to listen to the voices of two million Papuans and to intervene.

    Yamin Kogoya is a West Papuan academic who has a Master of Applied Anthropology and Participatory Development from the Australian National University and who contributes to Asia Pacific Report. From the Lani tribe in the Papuan Highlands, he is currently living in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Wenda backs urgent UN call for action over Papuan child killings, disappearances

    Asia Pacific Report newsdesk

    A West Papuan leader has praised the “bravery and spirit” of Ukrainians defending their country against the Russian invasion while condemning the hypocrisy of a self-styled “peaceful” Indonesia that attacks “innocent civilians” in Papua.

    Responding to the global condemnation of the brutal war on Ukraine, now into its second week, United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) interim president Benny Wenda highlighted a statement by United Nation experts that has condemned “shocking abuses” against Papuans, including “child killings, disappearances, torture and mass displacement of people”.

    Wenda also stressed that the same day that Indonesia’s permanent representative to the UN said that the military attack on Ukraine was unacceptable and called for peace, reports emerged of seven young schoolboys being arrested, beaten and tortured so “horrifically” by the Indonesian military that one had died from his injuries.

    “The eyes of the world are watching in horror [at] the invasion of Ukraine,” said Wenda in a statement.

    “We feel their terror, we feel their pain and our solidarity is with these men, women and children. We see their suffering and we weep at the loss of innocent lives, the killing of children, the bombing of their homes, and for the trauma of refugees who are forced to flee their communities.”

    Wenda said the world had spoken up to condemn the actions of President Vladimir Putin and his regime.

    “The world also applauds the bravery and spirit of Ukrainians in their resistance as they defend their families, their homes, their communities, and their national identity.”

    Russian attack unacceptable
    Wenda said Indonesia’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Arrmanatha Nasir, had stated that that Russian attack on Ukraine was unacceptable and called for peace. He had said innocent civilians “will ultimately bear the brunt of this ongoing situation”.

    “But what about innocent civilians in West Papua? asked Wenda.

    “At the UN, Indonesia speaks of itself as ‘a peaceful nation’ committed to a world ‘based on peace and social justice’.

    “This, on the very same day that reports came in of seven young boys, elementary school children, being arrested, beaten and tortured so horrifically by the Indonesian military that one of the boys, Makilon Tabuni, died from his injuries.

    “The other boys were taken to hospital, seriously wounded.”

    Wenda said the Indonesian military was deliberately targeting “the young, the next generation. This, to crush our spirit and extinguish hope.

    “These are our children that [Indonesian forces are] torturing and killing, with impunity. Are they not ‘innocent civilians’, or are their lives just worth less?”

    Urgent humanitarian access
    Wenda said that this was during the same week that UN special rapporteurs had called for urgent humanitarian access and spoken of “shocking abuses against our people”, including “child killings, disappearances, torture and mass displacement of people”.

    This was an acknowledgement from the UN that Papuan people had been “crying out for”.

    Wenda said 60-100,00 people were currently displaced, without any support or aid. This was a humanitarian crisis.

    “Women forced to give birth in the bush, without medical assistance. Children are malnourished and starving. And still, Indonesia does not allow international access,” he said.

    “Our people have been suffering this, without the eyes of the world watching, for nearly 60 years.”

    In response, the Indonesian Ambassador to the UN had continued with “total denial, with shameless lies and hypocrisy”.

    “If there’s nothing to hide, then where is the access?”

    International community ‘waking up’
    Wenda said the international community was “waking up” and Indonesia could not continue to “hide your shameful secret any longer”.

    “Like the Ukrainian people, you will not crush our spirit, you will not steal our hope and we will not give up our struggle for freedom,” Wenda said.

    The ULMWP demanded that Indonesia:

    • Allow access for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and for humanitarian aid to our displaced people and to international journalists;
    • Withdraw the military;
    • Release political prisoners, including Victor Yeimo and the “Abepura Eight”; and
    • Accept the Papuan right to self-determination and end the illegal occupation of Papua.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • West Papuans to open branch office in Port Moresby, Wenda confirms

    Asia Pacific Report newsdesk

    The United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) plans to open a government branch office in the neighbouring Papua New Guinean capital of Port Moresby along with diplomacy offices to be based in Europe and the United Kingdom.

    In a New Year message from interim president Benny Wenda, he has confirmed a strategic office reshuffle around the world.

    “The headquarters will be based inside West Papua, and the international office in Port Vila,” he said in the statement.

    “We are opening a government branch in Port Moresby, and our diplomatic coordination offices will be based in the UK and Europe.

    “This is another step in our long road to reclaiming the sovereignty stolen from us by Indonesia in 1963.

    “With the formation of our constitution, provisional government, cabinet and Green State Vision, all Indonesian laws in West Papua are over.”

    Wenda said the Indonesian presence was “totally illegal, and totally redundant”.

    “With our clandestine government departments operating within our borders, all West Papuans and Indonesian migrants working under our jurisdiction are now governed by the ULMWP,” said Wenda.

    Presidential demands
    The West Papua military wing and any organisation affiliated to the West Papua National Coalition for Liberation, the West Papua National Parliament, or the Federal Republic of West Papua — the three constituent organisations within the ULMWP — were automatically considered part of the provisional government.

    “Everyone must respect our constitution, whether you are inside West Papua or part of our international solidarity networks. The world must trust us and our constitution — we want peace for all in the region and internationally, and to democratically govern ourselves,” Wenda said.

    “I encourage all NGOs, churches and religious leaders, every West Papuan inside and in exile, to unite and pray for the provisional government. Support everyone within the government working to end our long suffering and complete our 60 year struggle.”

    Wenda said the demands to the Indonesian President in 2022 remained those that had been first issued during the West Papua Uprising in 2019:

    1. Hold a referendum on West Papuan independence;
    2. Allow international supervision of any referendum;
    3. Allow the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights into West Papua in accordance with the demand of 84 UN member states;
    4. Withdraw all troops from West Papua, including the 21,000 additional troops deployed since December 2018, and end the Indonesian military’s illegal war;
    5. Release all political prisoners, including Victor Yeimo and the “Abepura Eight”; and
    6. Allow all international journalists and human rights, humanitarian and monitoring groups into West Papua to visit internally-displaced people in Nduga, Puncak, Intan Jaya, Oksibil, Maybrat and elsewhere.

    “In 2022, we will redouble all efforts in our long struggle for the liberation of our nation,” Wenda said.

    “We will peacefully bring an end to this bloodshed.”

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • 60,000 flee as West Papua conflict deepens, poses questions for region

    SPECIAL REPORT: By Johnny Blades, RNZ Pacific journalist

    Armed conflict in West Papua continues to claim lives, displace tens of thousands of people and cause resentment at Indonesian rule.

    But despite ongoing calls for help, neighbouring countries in the Pacific Islands region remain largely silent and ineffectual in their response.

    This year, Indonesia’s military has increased operations to hunt down and respond to attacks by pro-independence fighters with West Papua National Liberation Army (WPNLA) which considers Indonesia an occupying force in its homeland.

    Since late 2018, several regencies in the Indonesian-ruled Papuan provinces have become mired in conflict, notably Nduga, Yahukimo, Intan Jaya, Puncak Jaya, Maybrat as well as Pegunungan Bintang regency on the international border with Papua New Guinea.

    The ongoing cycle of violence has created a steady trickle of deaths on both sides, and also among the many villages caught in the middle.

    Identifying the death toll is difficult, especially because Indonesian authorities restrict outside access to Papua.

    However, research by the West Papua Council of Churches points to at least 400 deaths due to the conflict in the aforementioned regencies since December 2018, including people who have fled their villages to escape military operations and then died due to the unavailability of food and medicine.

    ‘Some cross into PNG’
    “We have received reports that at least 60,000 Papuan people from our congregations have currently evacuated to the surrounding districts, including some who have crossed into Papua New Guinea,” says Reverend Socratez Sofyan Yoman, president of the Fellowship of Baptist Churches of West Papua.

    West Papuan villagers flee their homes due to armed conflict in Maybrat regency, September 2021.
    West Papuan villagers flee their homes due to the armed conflict in Maybrat regency, September 2021. Image: RNZ Pacific

    The humanitarian crisis which Yoman described has spilled over into Papua New Guinea, bringing its own security and pandemic threats to PNG border communities like Tumolbil village in remote Telefomin district.

    Reverend Yoman and others within the West Papua Council of Churches have made repeated calls for the government to pull back its forces.

    They seek a circuit-breaker to end to the conflict in Papua which remains based on unresolved grievances over the way Indonesia took control in the 1960s, and the denial of a legitimate self-determination for West Papuans.

    But it is not simply the war between Indonesia’s military and the Liberation Army or OPM fighters that has created ongoing upheavals for Papuans.

    This year has seen:

    • more arbitrary arrests and detention of Papuans for peaceful political expression;
    • treason charges for the same;
    • harassment of prominent human rights defenders;
    • more oil palm, mining and environmental degradation that threatens Papuans’ access to their land and forest;
    • a move by Indonesian lawmakers to extend an unpopular Special Autonomy Law roundly rejected by Papuans; and
    • a terror plot by alleged Muslim extremists in Merauke Regency in Papua’s south-east corner.
    Reverend Socratez Sofyan Yoman
    Reverend Socratez Sofyan Yoman … the Indonesian president and vice-president have “turned a blind eye and heart to the Papua confict”. Image: RNZ Pacific

    Not only the churches, but also Papuan customary representatives, civil society and the pro-independence movement have been calling for international help for many years, particularly for an intermediary to facilitate dialogue with Indonesia towards some sort of peaceful settlement.

    Groups frustrated with Jakarta
    The groups have expressed frustration about the way that Jakarta’s defensiveness over West Papua’s sovereignty leaves little room for solutions to end conflict in the New Guinea territory.

    On the other hand, Indonesian government officials point towards various major infrastructure projects in Papua as a sign that President Joko Widodo’s economic development campaign is creating improvements for local communities.

    Despite the risks of exacerbating the spread of covid-19 in Papua, Indonesia recently held the National Games in Jayapura, with President Widodo presiding over the opening and closing of the event, presenting it as a showcase of unity and development in the eastern region.

    “The president and vice-president of Indonesia while in Papua did not discuss the resolution of the protracted Papua conflict. They turned a blind eye and heart to the Papua confict,” says Reverend Yoman.

    Beyond the gloss of the Games, Papuans were still being taken in by authorities as treason suspects if they bore the colours of the banned Papuan Morning Star flag.

    Regional response
    At their last in-person summit before the pandemic, in 2019, Pacific Islands Forum leaders agreed to press Indonesia to allow the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights into Papua region in order for it to present them with an independent assessment of the rights situation in West Papua.

    Advocating for the UN visit, as a group in the Forum, appears to be as far out on a limb that regional countries — including Australia and New Zealand — are prepared to go on West Papua.

    However even before 2019, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights office had already been trying for years to send a team to Papua, and found it difficult securing Indonesia’s approval.

    That the visit has still not happened since the Forum push indicates that West Papua remains off limits to the international community as far as Jakarta is concerned, no matter how much it points to the pandemic as being an obstacle.

    Indonesian military forces conduct operations in Intan Jaya, Papua province.
    Indonesian military forces conduct operations in Intan Jaya, Papua province. Image: RNZ Pacific

    The question of how the Pacific can address the problem of West Papua is also re-emerging at the sub-regional level within the Melanesian Spearhead Group whose full members are PNG, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia’s Kanaks.

    The United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) is looking to unlock the voice of its people at the regional level by applying again for full membership in the MSG, after its previous application had “disappeared”.

    The ULMWP’s representative in Vanuatu, Freddy Waromi, this month submitted the application at the MSG headquarters in Port Vila.

    No voice at the table
    The organisation already has observer status in the MSG, but as Waromi said, as observers they do not have a voice at the table.

    “When we are with observer status, we always just observe in the MSG meeting, we cannot voice our voice out.

    “But with the hope that we become a full member we can have a voice in MSG and even in Pacific Islands Forum and even other important international organisations.”

    Freddie Waromi, ULMWP representative in Vanuatu
    ULMWP representative in Vanuatu Freddie Waromi … “with the hope that we become a full member we can have a voice in MSG.” Image: RNZ Pacific

    Indonesia, which is an associate member of the MSG, opposes the ULMWP’s claim to represent West Papuans.

    “They’re still encouraging them (the MSG) not to accept us,” Waromi said of Jakarta.

    He said the conflict had not abated since he fled from his homeland into PNG in 1979, but only worsened.

    “Fighting is escalating now in the highlands region of West Papua – in Nduga, in Intan Jaya, in Wamena, in Paniai – all those places, fighting between Indonesian military and the National Liberation Army of West Papua has been escalating, it’s very bad now.”

    Vanuatu consistently strong
    Vanuatu is the only country in the Pacific Islands region whose government has consistently voiced strong support for the basic rights of West Papuans over the years. Other Melanesian countries have at times raised their voice, but the key neighbouring country of PNG has been largely silent.

    The governor of PNG’s National Capital District, Powes Parkop, this month in Parliament lambasted successive PNG governments for failing to develop a strong policy on West Papua.

    Powes Parkop, the governor of Papua New Guinea's National Capital District.
    Governor Powes Parkop of Papua New Guinea’s National Capital District … “We have adopted a policy that is shameful and unethical.” Image: Johnny Blades/RNZ Pacific

    He claimed that PNG’s long silence on the conflict had been based on fear, and a “total capitulation to Indonesian aggression and illegal occupation”.

    “We have adopted a policy that is shameful and unethical,” he said of PNG’s “friends to all, enemies to none” stance.

    “How do we sleep at night when the people on the other side are subject to so much violence, racism, deaths and destruction?

    “When are we going to summon the courage to talk and speak? Why are we afraid of Indonesia?”

    Parkop’s questions also apply to the Pacific region, where Indonesia’s diplomatic influence has grown in recent years, effectively quelling some of the support that the West Papua independence movement had enjoyed.

    Time is running out for West Papuans who may soon be a minority in their own land if Indonesian transmigration is left unchecked.

    Yet that doesn’t mean the conflict will fade. Until core grievances are adequately addressed, conflict can be expected to deepen in West Papua.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Pressure mounts on Jakarta for dialogue, not brutal ‘war on Papua’

    By David Robie

    Pressure is mounting on Indonesia to back off its brutal and unsuccessful military strategy in trying to crush West Papuan resistance to its flawed rule in “the land of Papua”.

    Critics have intensified their condemnation of the intransigent “no negotiations” stance of authorities as West Papuans mark their national day today on 1 December 1961 when the banned Morning Star flag of independence was raised for the first time.

    The TNI (Indonesian military), the Polri (Indonesian police) and the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) have been locked in a conflict since Jakarta ordered a crackdown in May following a declaration of resistance groups as “terrorists”.

    Many groups have raised their criticism of Jakarta’s flawed handling of its two colonised Melanesian provinces, Papua and West Papua. Recent developments include:

    ‘Path of violence’
    Pastor Benny Giay, a member of the Papua Council of Churches, says the Indonesian government is still choosing the path of violence in dealing with the armed conflict.

    The council has come to this conclusion based on its experience of how conflicts in Papua have been handled in the past and the recent situation, involving six regencies in Papua — Intan Jaya, the Bintang Mountains, Nduga, Yahukimo, Maybrat and Puncak Papua.

    “Based on past experience and the most recent facts, we concluded that the Indonesian government is still choosing the path of violence in dealing with the Papua conflict,” said Pastor Giay, according to CNN Indonesia.

    Giay said that as a consequence of many years of armed conflict, at least 60,000 Papuans had fled into the forests or neighbouring regencies.

    He and three other pastors view this as part of what could not be separated from the politics of “systematic racism”.

    They suspect that “buzzers” — fake internet account operators — are being used by Indonesian intelligence and pro-government groups.

    These buzzers, said Pastor Giay, continued to spread hoaxes and news containing anti-Papuan views based on racism against the Papuan people.

    ‘Prolonged suffering’
    The Papua Council of Churches is calling for the United Nations Human Rights Council (Dewan HAM PBB) to visit Papua to see the humanitarian crisis directly – “the prolonged suffering of Papuans for the last 58 years.”

    The council also wants the Indonesian government to put an end to its racist policies.

    Pastor Giay and his fellow pastors have demanded that President Widodo be consistent about a statement he made on September 30, 2019, agreeing to dialogue with the ULMWP.

    “Mediated by a third party [in a similar way] as took place between the Indonesian government and the GAM (Free Aceh Movement) on August 15, 2005,” said Pastor Giay.

    Deputy Presidential Chief of Staff Jaleswari Pramodhawardani has reportedly said that the government was managing the security situation in Papua and West Papua provinces in “accordance with the law”.

    This was conveyed in response to a UN report in intimidation and violence against human rights activists in Papua, says CNN Indonesia.

    ELSHAM Papua open letter
    Open letter of protest from ELSHAM Papua. Image: Screenshot APR

    Open letter of protest
    On November 15, ELSHAM Papua sent an open letter to President Widodo protesting about the presence of non-organic troops in Papua and West Papua provinces. It says this has resulted in the deaths of many civilian victims as well as members of the TNI, Polri and the TPNPB, according to Suara Papua.

    Each time an armed conflict happened, the first casualties were mothers and children — along with the elderly — who were forced to seek shelter and were suffering, ELSHAM said.

    “What is happening at the moment, once again shows that the state has been negligent in protecting its citizens,” it said.

    “It should be the responsibility of the state to protect its citizens as mandated by the preamble to the 1945 Constitution — that the state is obliged to protect everyone regardless of their birthplace in Indonesia.”

    The open letter asked the government to withdraw all non-organic troops from Papua, for the TNI, Polri and TPNPB troops to restrain themselves, and for both warring parties to prioritise respect for human rights.

    The letter also declared that security forces should not become the “accomplices of business interests and companies” in Indonesia — and instead be the protectors of ordinary people and “good” law enforcement officials.

    The open letter was supported by 24 civil society organisations which work in human rights, justice and the environment.

    Media conference by Catholic leaders in Papua
    Media conference by Catholic leaders in Jayapura, Papua. Image: Suara Papua

    Catholic leaders protest
    On November 11, some 194 Catholic leaders in Papua called for an end to Indonesian military operations.

    Speaking on behalf of the priests, Father Alberto John Bunai said the government had been ecstatic over the success of the recent 20th National Games in Papua, but the people were “deeply saddened by the suffering of God’s communities” in Nduga, Intan Jaya, Puncak, Kiwirok and Maybrat.

    “To solve the root of the problem, what is needed is dialogue and reconciliation in a dignified manner,” Father Bunai said at a “moral call” media conference in Waena, Jayapura.

    It was the church’s duty to articulate the “cries of God’s communities” who had no voice, Father Bunai said.

    “The government must halt the ongoing military operations which have resulted in the killing of civilians, violence and people being displaced in several parts of Papua.”

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Prayer events to mark 60 years since West Papuan ‘birth’ in the Pacific

    Asia Pacific Report newsdesk

    West Papuans will peacefully mark the 60th anniversary of the birth of West Papua next week — on Wednesday, December 1.

    It is also the first anniversary of the formation of the United Liberation Movement of West Papua (ULMWP) provisional government.

    “To my people back home and around the world: this is a very significant and important day for us to remember,” said interim president Benny Wenda in a statement today.

    “When the Morning Star [flag] was raised by the New Guinea Council on December 1, 1961, they formed the embryo of the nation.

    Interim ULMWP president Benny Wenda
    Interim president Benny Wenda during the launch of the Green State Vision policy during COP26. Image: ULMWP

    “I call on everyone to celebrate this day through peaceful prayer meetings. To our international solidarity supporters, please use your freedom to show your support for our struggle, wherever you are.

    “Special flag raising ceremonies coordinated by the provisional government will take place in PNG, Vanuatu, the Netherlands, and the UK. I also invite Indonesian solidarity and all Indonesian citizens to pray for us and respect our national day, as we have respected your independence day.”

    Wenda said that on that day “we will remember people in the bush, particularly the thousands displaced by Indonesian military operations in Intan Jaya, Nduga, Puncak Jaya, Maybrat and Oksibil”.

    “We remember the two year old baby killed at the hands of the Indonesian government last month,” he said.

    Plea for ‘watchful eye’
    Wenda called on the world to keep a watchful eye on any human rights violations  in West Papua on December 1.

    “There is often bloodshed carried out by Indonesian military and police. We do not want this – we will be celebrating in a peaceful way,” he said.

    “There is no need to harass, intimidate or attack those who are peacefully praying. I call on the Indonesian government and President to leave us alone on our national day. Our time is coming, and one day we will stand side-by-side as good neighbours.

    “We will also be celebrating the announcements and progress we have made in the last two years, with our constitution, provisional government, cabinet, and recently our Green State Vision for the nation.

    “The ULMWP provisional government has consistently recognised all proclamations made in the history of our struggle by West Papuan leaders before us.

    “With these important steps we have made, I encourage my people to come together in one spirit to celebrate and move us closer to our goal of independence and self-determination for all.

    “We wish peace on West Papua, on Indonesia, the region and the whole world.”

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • West Papuans flee from ‘liberation’ conflict into remote PNG region

    SPECIAL REPORT: By Johnny Blades, RNZ Pacific journalist

    Armed conflict in West Papua has caused an exodus of displaced people into one of the most remote parts of neighbouring Papua New Guinea.

    The latest flashpoint in the conflict is in the Indonesian-administered Bintang Mountains regency, where state forces are pursuing West Papua Liberation Army fighters who they blame for recent attacks on health workers in Kiwirok district.

    Since violence surged in Kiriwok last month, Indonesian security forces have targetted suspected village strongholds of the OPM-Free Papua Movement’s military wing.

    At least 2000 people are recorded by local groups to have fled from the conflict either to other parts of Bintang Mountains (Pegunungan Bintang) or crossed illegally into the adjacent region over the international border.

    Hundreds of people have fled across to Tumolbil, in Yapsie sub-district of the PNG province of West Sepik, situated right on the border.

    A spokesman for the OPM, Jeffrey Bomanak, said that those fleeing were running from Indonesian military operations, including helicopter assaults, which he claimed had caused significant destruction in around 14 villages.

    “Our people, they cannot stay with that situation, so they are crossing to the Papua New Guinea side.

    “I already contacted my network, our soldiers from OPM, TPN (Liberation Army). They already confirmed 47 families in Tumolbil.”

    Evidence of the influx
    A teacher in Yapsie, Paul Alp, said he saw evidence of the influx in Tumolbil last week.

    “It is easy to get into Papua New Guinea from Indonesia. There are mountains but they know how to get around to climb those mountains into Papua New Guinea.

    “There are foot tracks,” he explained, adding that Papua New Guineans sometimes went across to the Indonesian side, usually to access a better level of basic services.

    A village destroyed in Pengunungan Bintang regency, Papua province.
    A village destroyed in Pengunungan Bintang regency, Papua province. Image: ULMWP/RNZ

    Alp said West Papuans who had come to Tumolbil were not necessarily staying for more than a week or so before returning to the other side.

    He and others in the remote district confirmed that illegal border crossings have occurred for years, but that it had increased sharply since last month.

    For decades, the PNG government’s policy on refugees from West Papua has been to place them in border camps, the main one being at East Awin in Western Province, with support from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

    Thousands of displaced Papuan have ended up at East Awin, but many others who come across simply melt into the general populace among various remote villages along the porous border region.

    Threadbare security
    Sergeant Terry Dap is one of a handful of policemen in the entire Telefomin district covering 16,333 sq km and with a population of around 50,000.

    He said a lot of people had come across to Tumolbil in recent weeks, including OPM fighters.

    “There’s a fight going on, on the other side, between the Indonesians and the West Papuan freedom fighters.

    “So there’s a lot of disruption there [in Tumolbil]. So I went there, and I talked to the ward development officer of Yapsie LLG [Local Level Government area], and he said he needed immediate assistance from the authorities in Vanimo [capital of West Sepik].”

    “They want military and police, to protect the sovereignty of Papua New Guinea, and to protect properties to make sure the fight doesn’t come into PNG.”

    Sergeant Dap said he had emailed the provincial authorities with this request, and was awaiting feedback.

    Papua New Guinea police
    Papua New Guinea police … “There’s a fight going on, on the other side, between the Indonesians and the West Papuan freedom fighters.” Image: Johnny Blades/RNZ

    More civilians crossing over
    According to Bomanak, the impacts of displacement from recent attacks in Kiwirok district are ongoing.

    “This problem now is as we have damage in village, more civilians will cross over in Papua New Guinea side.

    “Five to six hundred villagers, civillians, mothers and children, they’re still in three locations, out in jungle in Kiwirok, and they’re still on their way to Papua New Guinea,” he warned.

    On the PNG side, Sergeant Dap said some of the people coming across from West Papua have traditional or family links to the community of Tulmolbil

    But their presence on PNG soil creates risk for locals who are fearful their communities could get caught in the crossfire of Indonesian military pursuing the Papuan fighters.

    Dap said he spoke with the OPM fighters who had come to Tumolbil, and encouraged them not to stay long.

    “I’ve talked to their commander. They said there’s another group of people coming – about one thousand-plus coming in,” he said.

    “I told them, just stay for some days and then you go back, because this is another country, so you don’t need to come in. You go back to your own country and then stay there.”

    Violence in mountainous Pengunungan Bintang regency, near the border with PNG, October 2021.
    Clashes in the mountainous Pengunungan Bintang regency, near the border with PNG, in October 2021. Image: RNZ

    The policeman has also been involved in efforts by PNG authorities to encourage vaccination against covid-19.

    Mistrust of covid vaccines is deep in PNG, where only around 2 or 3 percent of the population has been inoculated, while a delta-fuelled third wave of the pandemic is causing daily casualties.

    Sergeant Dap said convincing people to get vaccinated was difficult enough without illegal border crossings adding to the spread of the virus and the sense of fear.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Baby killed by Indonesian military as Papuans flee to PNG, claims Wenda

    Asia Pacific Report newsdesk

    Two small babies were shot by the Indonesian military in Intan Jaya two days ago, claims the United Liberation Movement of West Papua (ULMWP).

    One of them has died, and the other is in critical condition. Thousands more West Papuans have been displaced in Intan Jaya and Maybrat as Indonesia bombs villages.

    Hundreds of internal refugees are fleeing into PNG.

    Baby Nopelinus Sondegau
    Two-year-old Nopelinus Sondegau, a Papuan baby alleged to have been killed by the Indonesian military. Image: ULMWP

    One two-year-old, Nopelinus Sondegau, was killed by the Indonesian forces, ULMWP interim president Benny Wenda said in a statement.

    A five-year old, Yoakim Majau, was also shot. The bullet was still in the baby’s shoulder.

    “These killings are happening under the eye of the world while the Indonesian President [Joko Widodo] and ministers pretend that nothing is happening during talks with Pacific and Melanesian leaders,” said Wenda.

    “These killings are happening as Indonesia tries to turn West Papua’s killing fields into a tourist destination.”

    Wenda called for urgent United Nations intervention.

    “Indonesia cannot use coronavirus as an excuse to delay the visit of the UN High Commissioner, recently called for by the Basque Parliament, any longer,” he said.

    “Indonesia has hosted national games in West Papua during coronavirus, Indonesia has sent thousands of troops to West Papua during coronavirus, now Indonesia is killing small children during coronavirus.

    “There can be no more excuses. Amnesty International, Red Cross, all international journalists, must be allowed in to monitor this urgent situation.

    “My people are screaming for help. Where is the world?”

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Indonesian Games ‘held on bones of Papuans’, accuses Benny Wenda

    Asia Pacific Report newsdesk

    The interim president of the United Liberation Movement of West Papua (ULMWP) has accused Indonesia of holding its 20th National Games “on the bones of my people”.

    “While we mourn for three years of Indonesian military operations, these games are a dance on top of our graves, on top of our suffering, on top of our cries,” Benny Wenda said today in a statement.

    “I call on my people to ignore these games and focus on liberating us from this tyranny.”

    The two-week Papuan Games (PON XX), centred mainly on the new Lukas Enembe Stadium complex in Jayapura, were opened on Saturday by President Joko Widodo.

    Wenda said that the ULMWP had gathered new information that in the past three years at least 26 local West Papuan political figures and 20 intellectual and religious leaders had died in suspicious circumstances after speaking out about human rights and injustice.

    “Some of them were official heads of their local districts, others were prominent church people,” said Wenda in the statement.

    “Many turned up dead in hotel rooms after unexplained heart attacks, usually with no forensic evidence available.

    ‘Systematic killing’
    “This is systematic killing, part of Jakarta’s plan to wipe out all resistance to its rule in West Papua.

    “These deaths have occurred at the same time that Indonesia has sent more than 20,000 new troops into West Papua. They are killing us because we are different, because we are Black.”

    Wenda said that while President Widodo visited “my land like a tourist”, more than 50,000 people had been internally displaced by Indonesian military operations in Nduga, Intan Jaya, Puncak and Sorong since December 2018.

    Lukas Enembe Stadium
    The Lukas Enembe Stadium and the Papuan National Games complex. Image: Tribun News

    “High school children and elders were recently arrested and blindfolded like animals in Maybrat. The PON XX is a PR exercise by the Indonesian government to cover up the evidence of mass killings,” Wenda said.

    “Any use of the Morning Star flag, or even its colours, has been totally banned during the games. One Papuan Catholic preacher was arrested for wearing a Morning Star [independence] flag t-shirt during a football match.

    “Our Papuan rowing team was banned from the games for wearing red, white and blue, the colours of our flag.

    “This has happened at the same time as 17 people were arrested for holding the Morning Star in Jakarta. A West Papuan woman was sexually assaulted by police during the arrests.

    Papuan Games a ‘PR stunt’
    “Indonesia continues to hold this PR stunt even while Vanuatu and PNG call for a UN visit to West Papua in line with the call of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) and the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States.”

    President Joko Widodo
    Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, who officially inaugurated the National Games last Saturday, buys nokens – traditional Papuan woven bags – from a craftswoman in Jayapura. Image: President Widodo’s FB page

    Wenda said there was no reason Indonesia could not allow the visit of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to take place.

    He asked that if Indonesia wanted to use the covid-19 crisis as an excuse to stop the visit, why was the Jakarta government sending tens of thousands of troops into West Papua.

    “Why are they holding the National Games in the middle of military operations and a pandemic?” Wenda asked.

    “President Widodo, do not ignore my call to find the peaceful solution that is good for your people and my people.”

    The ULMWP repeated its call to “sit down to arrange a peaceful referendum, to uphold the principle of self-determination enshrined by the international community”, Wenda said.

    “You cannot pretend that nothing is happening in West Papua. The world is beginning to watch.”

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Wenda blames nurse’s death on Indonesian military crackdown for Papuan mining, palm oil

    Asia Pacific Report newsdesk

    The United Liberation Movement of West Papua has blamed the Indonesian military over the attack at a hospital in Kiwirok, near the Papua New Guinean border, in which a nurse was killed.

    Interim president Benny Wenda of the ULMWP has issued a statement in response to accusations by the Indonesian authorities against the West Papuan army, saying that the upsurge in violence is because of the militarisation of the region to protect business and a “destroy them” policy directive from Jakarta against West Papuan resistance.

    Indonesia has accused the West Papuan army of attacking the hospital and killing nurse Gabriella Meliani in Kiwirok.

    But Wenda claimed, according to sources he has spoken to, the clash was started by an Indonesian migrant doctor threatening people with a pistol.

    “This triggered a West Papua Army investigation. A nurse fled from the scene and fell down a slope, fatally injuring herself,” said Wenda.

    Indonesia had deployed more than 21,000 new troops since December 2018, displacing tens of thousands of civilians from Nduga, Intan Jaya, Puncak Jaya and Sorong.

    Not keeping Papuans safe
    “These troops are not there to defend Indonesia’s ‘sovereignty’ or keep my people safe; they are there to protect illegal mining operations, to defend the palm oil plantations that are destroying our rainforest, and to help build the Trans-Papua Highway that will be used for Indonesian business – not for the people of West Papua,” Wenda said.

    “The Indonesian government is creating violence and chaos to feed these troops. As the head of the Indonesian Parliament, Bambang Soesatyo, ordered, ‘destroy them first. We will discuss human rights matters later’.

    “He reiterated this statement [on Monday], and was backed by Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs, Mahfud Md.”

    Benny Wenda
    United Liberation Movement of West Papua leader Benny Wenda on a visit to New Zealand in 2013. Image: Del Abcede/APR

    The killing of Pastor Yeremia Zanambani and his two brothers in April last year was an example of how this policy worked.

    “Indonesian soldiers murdered the two brothers in April last year. Months later troops tortured and killed the pastor,” Wenda said.

    Indonesian soldiers to blame
    “In both cases, the military blamed the West Papua Army for the attacks – but Indonesia’s own human rights commission and military courts found that Indonesian soldiers were to blame. A similar pattern will unfold with the events in Kiwirok.”

    Wenda said Indonesia must allow the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights into West Papua to investigate this violence and produce an independent, fact-based report, in line with the call of 84 international states.

    “Indonesia’s ban on media, human rights groups and aid agencies from entering West Papua must be immediately lifted. If Indonesia is telling the truth about these events, why continue to hide West Papua from the world?,” he said.

    “This war will never end until President Widodo sits down with me to solve this issue. This is not about ‘development’, about how many bridges and roads are built.

    “This is about our sovereignty, our right to self-determination — our survival.”

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Colonial border between PNG and West Papua ‘will fall like Berlin Wall’

    Asia Pacific Report newsdesk

    A West Papuan group seeking self-determination has greeted Papua New Guinea on its 46th anniversary of independence, predicting that one day the artificial colonial border separating the two would “fall like the Berlin Wall”.

    “Happy 46th independence anniversary to Papua New Guinea. We send a message of solidarity from your brothers on the other half of New Guinea,” said interim president Benny Wenda of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP).

    “We are there with you in spirit for this great celebration.

    “I know that one day all of New Guinea, from Sorong to Samarai, will celebrate true independence and enjoy God’s creation on our green island. This is our long-term dream.

    “With one half unfree, our island is not complete.

    “We are one island, with one ancestor. Just because a colonial border separates us, does not mean we are destined to be apart forever.

    “One day this artificial line will fall like the Berlin Wall, bringing our people together once more.”

    Wenda said in a statement it was in “my heart’s dream to see elders from each half of the island meet and watch their grandchildren dance together in peace like the Bird of Paradise”.

    He said Papuans continued to dream of liberating the people of West Papua from tyranny, 21st colonialism imposed by the Indonesian government.

    “You have reached your 46th year of sovereignty – we have been fighting for the last 58 years for independence and freedom,” said Wenda.

    Benny Wenda Sky
    Exiled Papuan leader Benny Wenda … “the new generation, in West Papua and PNG, must fight to liberate the rest of New Guinea”. Image: Office of Benny Wenda

    “We will pray for your celebrations and thank the forefathers who liberated PNG.”

    On the other side of the island, said Wenda, Papuans still struggled for their freedom, but their forefathers had already set their destiny.

    “Now the new generation, in West Papua and PNG, must fight to liberate the rest of New Guinea,” he said.

    “One day we will join these independence celebrations hand-in-hand, with the Morning Star [banned in Indonesia] raised alongside the PNG flag. We will stand together and celebrate together.”

    While Papua New Guinea gained its independence from Australia in 1975, West Papuans declared independence in 1961 but this was overturned in a non-democratic referendum in 1969 — the so-called Act of Free Choice — after Indonesian paratroopers had invaded Papua, then a colony of The Netherlands.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Wenda appeals to NZ, West to supply covid vaccines direct to Papuans

    Asia Pacific Report newsdesk

    A pro-independence movement in West Papua has appealed to several Western countries — including New Zealand — to provide urgent humanitarian help by supplying covid vaccines directly to the Papuans to cope with the “double crisis” in the Indonesian-ruled region.

    Benny Wenda, interim president of the Provisional Government of West Papua, said today he had made the appeal by writing to the foreign ministers of Britain, Australia, New Zealand and the US.

    “I have also written to the President of the European Commission, the WHO [World Health Organisation] and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights regarding the escalating covid-19 situation in our land,” he said in a statement.

    “This new crisis is a further existential threat to my people.”

    Indonesia had caused a double crisis for the people of West Papua by launching military operations in the middle of the pandemic, Wenda said, as he had warned.

    “Just yesterday, villagers from the West Moskona district were attacked by troops after attending a peaceful worship session against ‘Special Autonomy’, fleeing to the forests and the city of Bintuni,” he said.

    “Woman and children are afraid to return to their villages in case the military and police arrest or attack them.”

    50,000 plus displaced
    “More than 50,000 people have been displaced in Nduga, Puncak and Intan Jaya over the past two and a half years. Their homes have been destroyed, their churches burned and their schools occupied by soldiers.

    “They are left in internal displacement camps, where the virus will spread rapidly. Already in the cities, patients are being turned away or treated in cars outside the hospital.”

    Western countries and the WHO had an urgent moral obligation to give vaccine doses direct the local Papuan government for distribution, Wenda said.

    “As the 2018 Asmat health crisis showed, Jakarta cannot be trusted with the health of the West Papuan people,” he said.

    “Over nearly 60 years of colonisation we have seen a chronic failure to develop health facilities in West Papua, leaving us dying on top of the natural riches Indonesia is extracting. If Jakarta is allowed to hold the reigns of vaccine development, my people will suffer further.”

    Wenda said the developments were part of a “continued genocide against my people”.

    “Our forests have been torn down, our mountains decapitated, our way of life destroyed. Indonesia restricts healthcare and enforces a colonial education whilst killing anyone who speaks out for self-determination,” Wenda said.

    “Launching military operations in the middle of a pandemic is a policy designed to further wipe out our population. We need urgent international assistance, direct to the local Papuan government, not through the colonial occupier.”

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • West Papua unhappy over never-ending MSG membership tragedies

    ANALYSIS: By Yamin Kogoya in Port Moresby

    When I ring home to West Papua, my village people often ask me about the rumours that they have heard, of an upcoming Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) meeting. They ask, “When is the MSG meeting?” and if West Papua will be accepted as a full member.

    I tell them that I don’t know, and then, with a dispirited voice, they say to me that they will continue to pray for our membership.

    I respond the way I do because of two things: I truly don’t know of any proposed dates for the meeting, and I also don’t want to give false hope to the West Papuan people.

    The MSG often changes the date of their scheduled meetings at the last second, which unfortunately is becoming the norm for it.

    The foreign ministerial meetings and Leaders’ Summit of this regional body was scheduled for June 15 to June 17, 2021, but, unfortunately, it has been postponed again.

    It is now being rescheduled for June 22 to June 25, with no guarantee that this new date won’t be postponed further.

    Past Leader Summits were held in 2018 and February 2019, just before covid-19 hit in Suva, Fiji, where the ULMWP leaders addressed the meeting.

    Another significant year
    In 2016 it was another significant year for both MSG and West Papua. The Leaders’ Summit was held in July that year in Honiara, the capital of the Solomon Islands, and was supposed to be the moment that everyone thought West Papua would be finally accepted as a full member.

    Melanesian Spearhead Group headquarters in Port Vila, Vanuatu
    The Melanesian Spearhead Group headquarters in Port Vila, Vanuatu … membership rejected in 2016 due to some criteria issue that West Papua did not meet. Image: Jamie Tahana /RNZ

    But, again, it was rejected due to some criteria issue that West Papua did not meet.

    The semantic rhetoric in the media surrounding this momentous point of West Papua national liberation – advocated by the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) back then – gave a lot of false hope and disappointment to the Papuan people.

    The climate at that time was forecast with anxiety and anticipation, like expecting your team to score a goal in the final of the FIFA World Cup. Hundreds of Papuans were fasting and praying in West Papua, supported by grassroot solidarities across Oceania.

    But tragically, the MSG leaders failed to score the goal everyone had cheered for.

    This tragedy was captured in the words of Melanesian leaders at that time. Joe Natuman, then Vanuatu’s deputy prime minister, said that “West Papua was sold out for 30 pieces of silver”, as reported by Asia-Pacific Report on July 20.

    West Papuans 'sold out' 200716
    “West Papuans sold out for ’30 pieces of silver’, says Natuman” – Asia Pacific Report, 20 July 2016. Image: APR

    At that time, the MSG’s Director-General Amena Yauvoli said: “I believe the MSG Secretariat has been working hard to formalise membership criteria from observer to full member.” Unfortunately, this hard work, never bore any fruit.

    Other forces at work
    Even though it was justifiable to grant ULMWP’s full membership in MSG, as expressed by Prime Minister Manasseh Sogovare when he hosted four Melanesian prime ministers of Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Fiji during the 23rd MSG Special Leader’s Summit in Honiara in 2016, there were other forces at work behind the scenes: sorting out the criteria of what constitutes “Melanesia”.

    Given these unfolding events regarding the fate of Melanesia, the late Grand Chief Michael Somare, one of the key founding fathers of the independent state of Papua New Guinea and MSG, also said on 14 July 2016: “We must make the right choice on West Papua.”

    In the same week, the Vanuatu Ambassador to Brussels at that time, Roy Mickey Joy, said, “The Melanesian Spearhead Group is too politicised; it has lost its Melanesian integrity and what it stood for.”

    For the Melanesian leaders, changing and postponing dates and sorting criteria for MSG’s membership seems inconsequential, but it is a matter of life and death for Papuans.

    Unfortunately, this tragic drama is playing out like a horror movie wherein innocent people are being chased by a monster, desperate to seek and enter a safe family home, but refused entry.

    Many Melanesian prominent leaders are passing away

    Deaths of leaders
    These tragedies have also been marked by the recent loss of many of the Melanesian leaders. For decades, they dedicated their lives to open the MSG’s door for the abandoned Melanesian family – Papuans.

    On 4 September 2014, Dr John Ondawame, one of the exiled Free Papua Movement (OPM) leaders who tirelessly lobbied the MSG leaders and countries, died in Port Vila. Another prominent Vanuatu-based West Papuan independent leader, Andy Ayamiseba, died in Canberra in February 2020.

    Tongan Prime minister ‘Akilisi Pohiva, an outspoken proponent of West Papua’s cause, also died in 2019. We have recently lost Grand Chief Michael Somare, the founder of MSG and the state of Papua New Guinea, in 2021.

    In West Papua, Klemen Tinal, the Vice-Governor of Papua’s province, from the Damal tribe of Papua’s central highlands, died in Jakarta on 21 May 2021. Papuans can only lament these tragic losses with endless grief as many prominent churches and tribal and independent leaders continue to die in this war.

    Adding to these heartaches, the people of West Papua and Vanuatu also lost another great leader. Pastor Allen Nafuki, a prominent social justice campaigner, died on Sunday, 13 June 2021 — just two days before another proposed MSG meeting, which has now been rescheduled again, for June 22.

    Pastor Nafuki was responsible for bringing warring factions of Papuan resistance groups together in Port Vila in 2014, which helped precipitate much of the ULMWP’s international success. Vanuatu, West Papua, and communities across Oceania mourn the loss of this great beacon of hope for our region.

    Shared the Papuan burden
    Saturday, June 19, was announced as the day of mourning for Pastor Nafuki in West Papua. His picture and words of condolences have been printed and displayed across West Papua as they mourn for the great loss of their great father and friend who shared their burden for four decades.

    The ULMWP leadership paid their tributes to the late Pastor Nafuki through ULMWP’s executive director Markus Haluk’s words: “Reverend Nafuki is a father, shepherd and figure of truth for both Vanuatu and West Papua.”

    In another statement, ULMWP interim President Benny Wenda, said: “This is a great loss – but we also celebrate his legacy. He helped combine the destiny of the people of West Papua with the Republic of Vanuatu and helped bring about Papuan unity in 2014.”

    Papuans and their solidarity groups continue to put pressure on MSG

    Despite these tragedies and losses, Papuans and their solidary groups still fix their eyes on MSG.

    Matthew C Wale, the Solomon Islands opposition leader, tweeted:

    “MSG Leaders cannot continue to postpone the admission of West Papua into the group. It’s time the word ‘Spearhead’ in the title is given meaningful use. 30 pieces of silver & a mercenary approach cannot be the way decide the application for full membership.”

    Free West Papua Campaign Facebook page has also been inundated with photos of Papuans holding banners supporting West Papua admission into MSG.
    Image: Free West Papua campaign

    Bring West Papua back to the Melanesian family
    Bring West Papua back to the Melanesian family is the main message Papuans are trying to convey to the Melanesian leaders across the social media world. Although Melanesia itself is a colonial invention, Papuans take their identity as part of Melanesia seriously. They feel threatened by the large influx of Indonesian migrants into their ancestral land.

    In response to these growing demands, the MSG leaders granted observer status to ULMWP in 2015. However, Papuans insist that elevating it to full membership status will boost their confidence as they carry their cause to the wider world.

    This will legitimise the home-based regional support before asking anyone else for help. It also means someone out there recognises the 60 years of tragedy, as the world kicked West Papua around as they saw fit for their own selfish interests.

    The beginning of Papuan tragedies
    The modern history of West Papua since 1963 has been tainted with tragic stories of betrayal. It started when the Dutch prepared Papuans for independence on December 1, 1961, but then withdrew without saying anything.

    The controversial New York Agreement followed this betrayal in 1962, which gave the green light to Indonesia to re-colonise West Papua, sealing its fate with a sham Act of Free Choice in 1969.

    Ever since, Papuans have been trying to share these stories with the world, unfortunately, their fate was ultimately decided during that agreement. Two prominent Papuan leaders, Willem Zonggonau and Clemens Runawery, fled West Papua to Papua New Guinea to fly to New York to inform the United Nations that the Act of Free Choice was corrupt, but were stopped by the Australian government.

    The cover-ups of these betrayals and prohibition of international media and the UN to visit West Papua persist. Unlike the Palestinians, Papuan stories hardly make global headline news, remaining a secret war of the 21st century somewhere between Asia and the Pacific.

    The Greeks and MSG’s tragedies
    Today, West Papuans and their solidarity groups around the world continue to knock on the MSG’s doors. But the fact that the MSG leaders are reluctant to open their arms and embrace Papuans as part of their larger Melanesian nation-states, only adds another episode of tragedy in their liberation stories.

    The MSG’s decisions on ULMWP’s application for full membership are not in the hands of some celestial beings beyond human comprehension. These decisions that affect human lives are in the hands of individuals just like you and I, with family and conscience.

    This is true to what’s been happening in MSG and true to what had happened in the New York Agreement in 1962 or any other meetings held between the Netherlands, Indonesia, and Western governments about Papua’s fate.

    Mortal human beings, titled leaders, ministers, kings, and queens continue to make decisions that bring calamities to human lives, driven by self-deluded, egotistical importance, righteousness, greed, and power.

    We make wrong decisions for the right reasons and make right decisions for the wrong reasons, or sometimes are unable to make any decision at all, with all sorts of reasons, influenced by misleading information, misjudgement, and misunderstanding. Ancient Greeks wrote about these tragedies in the fifth century BC, but these tragedies are still unfolding in front of our eyes.

    Although the famous Greek Tragedy was set in a distant past in different cultural contexts, the basic theme is still relevant today because it tells us about the decisions we make about our relationship with other people, the consequences, and the unfairness of life itself.

    What happened and what is still happening to West Papuan people reflect these tragedies – being cheated, mistreated for decades, and forgotten by nations around the world as they turn their back on their fellow humans. MSG’s indecisiveness about West Papua’s full membership adds to this prolonged history of mistreatment of the Papuan people.

    MSG is at a crossroads
    These are uncertain times as humankind is slowly but surely being re-programmed to think and feel specific ways under the cursed covid-19 pandemic. It seems that the old world is dying, and a new one is being born, and we are in the middle of it – at a crossroads, gazing at some cataclysmic collapse looming all around.

    In this kind of climactic moment, a hero is needed to make bold decisions and set a precedent for future generations. These pressures compel us to reflect on these tragedies and ask why the Melanesian Spearhead Group was formed in the first place over 40 years ago.

    Was it to save Melanesia? Or destroy it?

    Overdue smile
    In Port Vila, October 2016, when Sogovare met and told Pastor Nafuki and West Papuan leaders Jacob Rumbiak, Benny Wenda, and Andy Ayamiseba about granting West Papua full membership, according to the Vanuatu Daily Post, the pastor “smiled a long overdue smile and breathed a sigh of relief, saying, ‘Now I can go to my home island of Erromango and have a peaceful sleep with my grandchildren, with no disturbance whatsoever’.”

    The beloved Pastor Nafuki, the chairman of Vanuatu Free West Papua Association, died on Sunday, 13 June 2021, just two days before when the MSG meeting was due, which has been postponed for another week.

    He is now certainly at peace on his island with his family, but the thing that thrilled him to utter these words, West Papua membership in MSG, is still unresolved.

    How long will the MSG leaders drag out these overdue smiles, tragedies, and betrayals? What should I tell Papuan villages who fast and pray every day for your decision?

    Should I tell them I don’t know? Or say, “yes, your prayers have been answered”, that the rest of the Melanesian family has now welcomed West Papua?

    West Papuans have been waiting a painfully long time for recognition, for salvation, for independence.

    • Yamin Kogoya is a West Papuan academic who has a Master of Applied Anthropology and Participatory Development from the Australian National University who contributes to Asia Pacific Report. From the Lani tribe in the Papuan Highlands, he is currently living in the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.
    • Other Yamin Kogoya articles

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • West Papua closes national mourning for Pastor Nafuki – prays for MSG

    By Benny Mawel in Jayapura

    The United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) has held national mourning ceremonies at the weekend for the death of Vanuatu independence campaigner Father Allen Nafuki and prayed for the Papuan people to be accepted as full members of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG).

    The closing ceremonies were held in both Jayapura and at the ULMWP office in Wamena on Saturday.

    “Interim President Benny Wenda announced national mourning with Vanuatu. Today, we close our mourning with our brother Vanuatu,” said Markus Haluk, head of the ULMWP Office in West Papua, in his closing remarks.

    Pastor Allen Nafuki RIP 150621
    Pastor Allen Nafuki … highly regarded in West Papua. Image: ULMWP

    The ceremony in Wamena was marked by slaughtering 6 pigs, while in Jayapura 2 pigs were slaughtered with traditional Melanesian earth oven cooking  — known as “bakar batu” in West Papua and as “mumu” in other parts of Melanesia.

    Haluk said that the closing of mourning also started with prayer and fasting for 9 days. The people of West Papua together with the prayer group also performed a koronka prayer in support of the forthcoming MSG meeting.

    The head of the ULMWP Legislature, Edison Waromi, said that the joint prayer to close and escort the spirit of Pastor Allen Nafuki was an important part of the series of struggles of the Papuan people to be free from Indonesian colonialism.

    Pastor Allen was regarded highly by the people of West Papua, as an advocate for Papuan independence with the governments of Melanesian countries throughout his life.

    “Prayer and fasting are also important because the power of prayer is the power of struggle. Consistent prayer while carrying out acts of liberation will become a reality,” said Waromi.

    “With prayers and fasting, the Papuan people with the ULMWP will be accepted as full members of the MSG.”

    This article has been translated by an Asia Pacific Report correspondent from Tabloid Jubi and is republished with permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Nine reasons why Jakarta has branded Papuan armed rebels as ‘terrorists’

    By Benny Mawel in Jayapura

    The United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) believes that the Indonesian government has nine motives behind the branding of National Liberation Army of West Papua as terrorists.

    Executive director Markus Haluk of ULMWP said this during a seminar and book discussion “Demanding Dignity, Papuans Are Punished” in Jayapura on Friday.

    He said it was believed that one of the reasons the Indonesian government labels armed groups as terrorists was to stem and limit ULMWP diplomacy in various Melanesian countries, the Pacific, and in other countries worldwide.

    “We’ve been reading that since a few months ago,” said Haluk.

    He said the Indonesian the government continued to strive to increase its influence in a number of international forums attended by the ULMWP delegation.

    In these various forums, the Indonesian delegation strived to minimise the role of the Papuan delegation.

    “They started with the issue [that] Papua could not afford to pay the dues (For the Melanesian Spearhead Group). Papua has already handled [the various efforts].

    ‘Terrorism’ issue raised again
    “[Then] Indonesia raised the issue of terrorism again,” said Haluk, who delivered a presentation entitled “Revealing the government’s motivation with the terrorist label to Papua”.

    According to him, the terrorist brand was also an attempt to silence and isolate the movement of indigenous Papuans.

    As a result, whatever the activities of the indigenous Papuans are they would come to the attention of the Indonesian government because they were associated with the terrorist label.

    “The terrorist label is a way of isolating the Papuan issue and silencing Papuans’ freedom of expression,” Haluk said.

    Haluk said that the effort to silence the expressions of indigenous Papuans was part of the Indonesian government’s efforts to pass a revision of Law No. 21/2001 on Papua’s Special Autonomy.

    This happened because the Papuan people continued to reject the Indonesian government’s efforts to extend the Special Autonomy Law, including by holding demonstrations and collecting the signatures of the Papuan People’s Petition (PRP).

    “Clearly, there was the arrest of Victor Yeimo, spokesman for the [international West Papua National Committee] and the PRP. There have been expulsions of students from Cenderawasih University student dormitories and flats, internet access has been cut off,” Haluk said.

    Easier for Indonesian weapons
    “Haluk suspects that the terrorist label for armed groups (West Papua National Liberation Army) is an effort to smooth the way for procurement of weapons and combat equipment for the TNI/POLRI (Indonesia National Army/Indonesia National Police).

    The designation of armed groups in Papua as terrorists would also increase the opportunity for members of the TNI/POLRI to participate in various cooperation exercises in dealing with terrorists with other countries and increase the opportunity to obtain funds for handling terrorists from the European Union, United States, Australia and New Zealand.

    Haluk said that the terrorist label would also be a means of intimidation against executive and legislative officials in Papua.

    In addition, the terrorist label would facilitate the state’s efforts to secure investment and the interests of national and international investors.

    “Indonesian political elites play a big role in investment interests, for example in forest concession rights, selling alcoholic beverages, and mining,” he said.

    The labeling of terrorists could even be used as a stage for politicians to contest the general election in Indonesia.

    “[It could be] a political stage for the sake of the legislative and presidential elections in 2024, as well as for the interests of the local Papuan political stage, for example, seizing the leadership of the Democratic Party in Papua, or the 2023 Papuan gubernatorial election,” Haluk said.

    ‘Branding’ not new
    The president of the Fellowship of West Papua Baptist Churches, Reverend Dr Socratez Sofyan Yoman, who is also a member of the Papuan Church Council, said that the label of terrorists was not new.

    “The label appeared in the 1960s. [There is a label] Free Papua Organisation, separatist, KKB, KKBS, GPK, [then now] we are facing the terrorist label. It’s a repetition of all those [labels],” he said.

    According to Yoman, the various labels were created to smooth over or legalise the actions of the state apparatus to commit violence against Papuans.

    “Papuans continue to be tortured and killed in their own country,” said Reverend Yoman.

    This article from Tabloid Jubi has been translated by a Pacific Media Centre correspondent and is republished with permission.

     

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Wenda accuses Jakarta’s military of ‘massacre’ after killing of 3 Papuans

    Asia Pacific Report newsdesk

    The United Liberation Movement of West Papua has accused Indonesian “colonial forces” of a new massacre with the killing of three civilians, “adding to the hundreds of thousands of West Papuans killed during six decades of occupation”.

    Interim president Benny Wenda of the ULMWP has also claimed that Jakarta has put the entire population of 4.4 million “at risk of being swiped out” by Indonesian security forces by being labelled “terrorist”.

    In a statement, Wenda said a husband and wife, Patianus Kogoya, 45, and Paitena Murib, 43, had been killed at Nipuralome village, along with another Papuan man, Erialek Kogoya, 55.

    “They were shot dead by joint security services on June 4 in Ilaga, Puncak regency. Three others, including a five year old child, were wounded during the massacre,” he said.

    “Local churches have confirmed the incident, even as the colonial Indonesian police have spread hoaxes to hide their murders.”

    Wenda said cold blooded murder was becoming the culture for the security forces.

    “West Papua is the site of massacre on top of massacre, from Paniai to Nduga to Intan Jaya to Puncak. This is heart-breaking news following the killing of our religious leaders like Pastor Zanambani,” he said.

    ‘Count more of our dead’
    “We now have to count more of our dead. How much longer will this continue?”

    Wenda said Indonesia had labelled the OPM (Free Papua Moivement) “terrorist”.

    “The OPM is all West Papuans who have hopes for freedom and self-determination, all organisations that fight for justice and liberation in West Papua,” he said.

    “I am OPM, the ULMWP is OPM. If you label the OPM ‘terrorist’, you are labelling the entire population of West Papua ‘terrorist’.

    “The Indonesian state is targeting all West Papuans for elimination – the evidence is there in Ilaga last week, with unarmed civilians being gunned down.

    “How do they justify this killing? With the ‘terrorist’ label.”

    Wenda claimed these “stigmatising labels” were part of Jakarta’s systematic plan to justify its presence in West Papua and the “deployment of 21,000 troops to our land”.

    He said that the ULMWP continued its urgent call for Indonesia to allow the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights into West Papua.

    “Intervention is needed now. What is happening in Palestine is happening in West Papua,” he said.

    Wenda appealed to solidarity groups in the Pacific and internationally to speak up for “freedom and justice”.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Papuan resistance slams Indonesian internet gag amid leader crackdown

    Asia Pacific Report newsdesk

    Indonesia has cut off the internet in West Papua to conceal its crackdown on the peaceful liberation movement, says a leading Papuan campaigner.

    Benny Wenda, interim president of the United Liberation Movement of West Papua (ULMWP), has condemned the internet gag while Indonesia’s leading English-language daily newspaper, The Jakarta Post, has also criticised Jakarta’s actions.

    In an editorial last Friday, the Post said that many people “suspect that the disruption to the [Papua] internet service in April was actually a deliberate move to silence anti-government critics and activists”.

    “The government has been cutting off Papua from the outside world for decades by measures that included restricting foreign visitors, especially foreign journalists,” the newspaper said.

    Jakarta remained “stubbornly insistent on maintaining its isolation policy for Papua”.

    Erik Walela, secretary of the ULMWP’s “Department of Political Affairs”, is now in hiding, and two of his relatives — Abi, 32, and Anno, 31 — were arrested by the Indonesian colonial police on June 1.

    Victor Yeimo, spokesperson of the KNPB, had already been arrested.

    Stigmatised as ‘terrorists’
    “I am concerned that all the ULMWP leaders and departments inside West Papua are now at risk after Indonesia has tried to stigmatise us as ‘terrorists’,” said Wenda.

    “The head of Indonesia’s National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) has stated that it considers the entire liberation movement, including anyone associated with me, to be terrorists.

    “Anyone who stands up to injustice in West Papua is now in danger. Indonesia is cutting off the internet to conceal its crackdown and military operations, continuing its long tradition of concealing information from the world by banning international journalists and spreading propaganda.

    “The only way anyone can currently access the internet inside is by standing near a military, police, or government building.”

    Wenda said Indonesian authorities had tried to label Papuan pro-independence groups “separatists”, “armed criminal groups”, and in 2019, “monkeys’”.

    “Now they are labelling us ‘terrorists’. This is nothing but more discrimination against the entire people of West Papua and our struggle to uphold our basic right to self-determination,” he said.

    “I want to remind the United Nations and the Pacific and Melanesian leaders that Indonesia is misusing the issue of terrorism to crush our fundamental struggle for the liberation of our land from illegal occupation and colonisation.”

    21,000 troops deployed
    More than 21,000 troops had been deployed in less than three years, including last month ‘Satan’s forces’ implicated in genocide in East Timor, said Wenda.

    Densus 88, trained by the West, were also using their skills “against my people”.

    These operations were being carried out on the direct order of the President and the head of the Parliament.

    “My people are traumatised, scared to go to their gardens, to hunt or fish. Everywhere they turn there are military posts and bases,” said Wenda.

    “How long will the world ignore my call? How long can the world watch what is happening to my people and stand by?”

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Wenda condemns Indonesia’s UN genocide vote for Papua ‘hypocrisy’

    Asia Pacific Report newsdesk

    An exiled West Papuan leader has condemned Indonesian for “hypocrisy” in speaking out about Myanmar and Palestine while voting at the United Nations to ignore genocide and ethnic cleansing.

    The leading English-language daily newspaper, The Jakarta Post, has also criticised Jakarta’s UN vote.

    “We are thankful that Indonesian leaders show solidarity with the suffering of the Palestinians and Myanmarese, but Indonesia is desperately trying to cover up its own crimes against humanity in West Papua,” said interim president Benny Wenda of the United Liberation Movement of West Papua (ULMWP).

    Benny Wenda
    West Papuan leader Benny Wenda … Indonesia claims to “fight for humanity”, but the truth is the opposite. Image: Del Abcede/APR

    At the UN General Assembly last week, Indonesia defied the overwhelming majority of the international community and joined North Korea, Russia and China in rejecting a resolution on “the prevention of genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity”.

    Voting in favour of the RP2 resolution were 115 states while 28 abstained and 15 voted against.

    The Jakarta Post said in an editorial that to find Indonesia on the “no” list was “perplexing”.

    “The country that had at one time championed for the inclusion of human rights and democratic principles in the ASEAN Charter is now seen as voting against attempts to uphold those very principles internationally,” the newspaper said.

    “Recent events in Myanmar and in the occupied Palestinian territory raise questions about the failure of the international community to intervene and stop bloodshed in these two countries.”

    ‘Real reason’ for vote
    The Jakarta Post     said there was speculation about the “real reason” behind the no vote.

    “One is the spectre of R2P being invoked against Indonesia over the Papuan question. In spite of the recent escalation of violence in Papua, the situation on the ground is still too far to merit international intervention,” the newspaper claimed.

    However, while the Indonesian Foreign Minister claimed to “fight for humanity”, the truth was the opposite, said Wenda in a statement.

    “They are committing crimes against humanity in West Papua and trying to ensure their perpetual impunity at the UN,” he said.

    Indonesian leaders often talked about the right to self-determination and human rights, and the Indonesian constitution’s preamble called for “any form of alien occupation” to be “erased from the earth”, noted Wenda.

    “But in West Papua, the Indonesian government is carrying out the very abuses it claims to oppose. Their refusal to accept the UN resolution is clearly the consequence of ‘the Papuan question’,” he said.

    “The evidence is now overwhelming that Indonesia has committed crimes against humanity, colonialism, ethnic cleansing and genocide in West Papua.

    Women, children killed
    “The same week as the UN vote, the Indonesian military – including ‘Satan’s troops’ implicated in genocide in East Timor – were attacking Papuan villages, killing unarmed women and children and adding to the over 50,000 people displaced since December 2018.

    “The stated aim of the operations is to ‘wipe out’ all resistance to Indonesian colonialism,” Wenda said.

    “When you displace villagers, they lose their hunting ground, their home, their entire way of life.

    “This is systematic ethnic cleansing, part of a long-running strategy of Jakarta’s occupation to take over our lands and populate it with Indonesian settlers and multi-national corporations. This is the intent, and we need action before it is too late.”

    Wenda said that after Papuans declaring resistance to the illegal occupation “terrorism”, Indonesia had launched a massive crack down.

    “Victor Yeimo, one of our most popular peaceful resistance leaders, has already been arrested. Frans Wasini, a member of the ULMWP’s Department of Political Affairs, was also arrested,” he said.

    “In the city [Jayapura], students at the University of Cenderawasih are being dragged out of their dorms by the police and military and made homeless. Anyone who speaks out about West Papua, human rights abuses and genocide, is now at risk of being arrested, tortured or killed.

    Arrested ‘must be released’
    “Victor Yeimo, Frans Wasini, and all those arrested by the Indonesian colonial regime must be released immediately.”

    Wenda described the deployment of more than  21,000 troops, killing religious leaders, occupying schools, shooting children dead as “state terrorism, crimes against the people of West Papua”.

    Such developments had shown more clearly than ever the need for Indonesia to stop blocking the visit by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Eight-four countries have already called for the visit.

    “There can be no more delays. The troops must be withdrawn, and the UN allowed in before more catastrophe strikes.”

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Free Victor Yeimo now, says exiled Papuan leader Benny Wenda

    Asia Pacific Report newsdesk

    An exiled West Papuan leader has demanded the immediate release of arrested campaigner Victor Yeimo, saying that his detention was a “sign to the world” that the Indonesian government was using its terrorist designation as a smokescreen to further repress Papuans.

    Indonesian police arrested Yeimo, one of the most prominent leaders inside West Papua, on allegations of makar – treason.

    Yeimo is spokesperson of the West Papua National Committee (Komite Nasional Papua Barat, KNPB), regarded as peaceful civil society disobedience organisation active within Papua.

    “Any West Papuans who speak out about injustice – church leaders, local politicians, journalists – are now at risk of being labelled a ‘criminal’ or ‘terrorist’ and arrested or killed,” said Benny Wenda, interim president of the United Liberation Movement of West Papua (ULMWP) in a statement.

    “What is Victor Yeimo’s crime? To resist the Indonesian occupation through peacefully mobilising the people to defend their right to self-determination,” he said.

    “He is accused of ‘masterminding’ the 2019 West Papua Uprising, which was started by Indonesian racism and violence, and ended in a bloodbath caused by Indonesian troops.

    “Indonesia constantly creates violence and uses propaganda – and the fact that international journalists continue to be barred from entering – to blame it on West Papuans.

    Many labels to ‘deligitimise’ resistance
    “Jakarta has used many labels to try and delegitimise resistance to its genocidal project: ‘armed criminal group’ (KKB), ‘wild terrorist gang’, ‘separatist’.

    “Indonesia has lost the political, moral and legal argument, and has nothing left but brute force and stigmatising labels.”

    Wenda said that Indonesia was trying to distract attention from the huge military operations it is launching in Nduga, Intan Jaya and Puncak Jaya.

    Around 700 people from 19 villages have already been displaced over the past two weeks.

    “Indonesia is using its ‘Satan Troops’, trained in the genocide in East Timor, to attempt to wipe out the entire Indigenous population. From the 1965 military operations to the 1977 Operasi Koteka, we carry the trauma of Indonesian military operations.

    “What is beginning now is a 21st century version of this. Jakarta has no interest in pursuing a peaceful solution to this crisis.”

    Wenda called on President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and the Indonesian police to release Yeimo immediately.

    “International governments and organisations must put immediate pressure on the Indonesian authorities to halt this sham prosecution,” he said.

    “We have our Provisional Government, constitution, and newly formed cabinet. We must come together and show the Indonesian government and the world that we are ready to take over the administration of our country.”

    ‘Mastermind’ accusation
    The Jakarta Post reports that the police accuse Yeimo of being the “mastermind” behind the civil unrest and of committing treason, as well as inciting violence and social unrest, insulting the national flag and anthem, and carrying weapons without a permit.

    Emanuel Gobay, one of a group of Papuan lawyers representing Yeimo, said his client had not yet been officially charged. Treason can carry a sentence of life in jail.

    Protests convulsed Indonesia’s provinces of Papua and West Papua, widely collectively known as West Papua, for several weeks in August/September 2019.

    The sometimes violent unrest erupted after a mob taunted Papuan students in Surabaya, Indonesia’s second city on the island of Java, with racial epithets, calling them “monkeys”, over accusations they had desecrated a national flag.

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    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Free Victor Yeimo now, says exiled Papuan leader Benny Wenda

    Asia Pacific Report newsdesk

    An exiled West Papuan leader has demanded the immediate release of arrested campaigner Victor Yeimo, saying that his detention was a “sign to the world” that the Indonesian government was using its terrorist designation as a smokescreen to further repress Papuans.

    Indonesian police arrested Yeimo, one of the most prominent leaders inside West Papua, on allegations of makar – treason.

    Yeimo is spokesperson of the West Papua National Committee (Komite Nasional Papua Barat, KNPB), regarded as peaceful civil society disobedience organisation active within Papua.

    “Any West Papuans who speak out about injustice – church leaders, local politicians, journalists – are now at risk of being labelled a ‘criminal’ or ‘terrorist’ and arrested or killed,” said Benny Wenda, interim president of the United Liberation Movement of West Papua (ULMWP) in a statement.

    “What is Victor Yeimo’s crime? To resist the Indonesian occupation through peacefully mobilising the people to defend their right to self-determination,” he said.

    “He is accused of ‘masterminding’ the 2019 West Papua Uprising, which was started by Indonesian racism and violence, and ended in a bloodbath caused by Indonesian troops.

    “Indonesia constantly creates violence and uses propaganda – and the fact that international journalists continue to be barred from entering – to blame it on West Papuans.

    Many labels to ‘deligitimise’ resistance
    “Jakarta has used many labels to try and delegitimise resistance to its genocidal project: ‘armed criminal group’ (KKB), ‘wild terrorist gang’, ‘separatist’.

    “Indonesia has lost the political, moral and legal argument, and has nothing left but brute force and stigmatising labels.”

    Wenda said that Indonesia was trying to distract attention from the huge military operations it is launching in Nduga, Intan Jaya and Puncak Jaya.

    Around 700 people from 19 villages have already been displaced over the past two weeks.

    “Indonesia is using its ‘Satan Troops’, trained in the genocide in East Timor, to attempt to wipe out the entire Indigenous population. From the 1965 military operations to the 1977 Operasi Koteka, we carry the trauma of Indonesian military operations.

    “What is beginning now is a 21st century version of this. Jakarta has no interest in pursuing a peaceful solution to this crisis.”

    Wenda called on President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and the Indonesian police to release Yeimo immediately.

    “International governments and organisations must put immediate pressure on the Indonesian authorities to halt this sham prosecution,” he said.

    “We have our Provisional Government, constitution, and newly formed cabinet. We must come together and show the Indonesian government and the world that we are ready to take over the administration of our country.”

    ‘Mastermind’ accusation
    The Jakarta Post reports that the police accuse Yeimo of being the “mastermind” behind the civil unrest and of committing treason, as well as inciting violence and social unrest, insulting the national flag and anthem, and carrying weapons without a permit.

    Emanuel Gobay, one of a group of Papuan lawyers representing Yeimo, said his client had not yet been officially charged. Treason can carry a sentence of life in jail.

    Protests convulsed Indonesia’s provinces of Papua and West Papua, widely collectively known as West Papua, for several weeks in August/September 2019.

    The sometimes violent unrest erupted after a mob taunted Papuan students in Surabaya, Indonesia’s second city on the island of Java, with racial epithets, calling them “monkeys”, over accusations they had desecrated a national flag.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Vanuatu must maintain strong support for West Papua, says Regenvanu

    By Anita Roberts in Port Vila

    Vanuatu needs to continue to maintain its strong support for West Papua by ensuring that the United Liberation Movement of West Papua (ULMWP)’s application for full membership in the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) is listed on the agenda during the MSG Leaders Meeting soon.

    Opposition leader and former Minister of Foreign Affairs Ralph Regenvanu made this declaration in a media conference.

    ULMWP’s application for full membership status was not considered at the Senior Officials Meeting, the first of three meetings that will happen, he said on Monday.

    “While I was still the Foreign Affairs Minister, I attended the last MSG Meeting in Fiji. At that meeting, the MSG Leaders accepted that the application of ULMWP was ready to be considered at the next MSG Leaders Meeting,” Regenvanu said.

    “Now we are in the process leading up to the next meeting.

    “The fact that it was not on the agenda at the Senior Officials Meeting suggests that no one has put it on the agenda.

    “Therefore, I’m calling onto the Prime Minister to make sure Vanuatu places that item on agenda for consideration and also for him to come out publicly and declare that Vanuatu will support the application for ULMWP membership.

    Vanuatu should ‘push strongly’
    “I would like for the Vanuatu government to push strongly to make sure the application is accepted.”

    Regenvanu said a lot of work had been done during his term as the Foreign Affairs Minister that had attracted the international community into dealing with human rights issues in West Papua.

    “There has been no further progress than what we already accomplished in 2019. This is an opportunity for the government to show that it is maintaining the strong support for West Papua through getting MSG to approve the ULMWP application.”

    Vanuatu needed to advocate strongly with other MSG countries to make sure the agenda was passed, said the Opposition Leader.

    ULMWP already has observer status in the regional group whose full members are Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia’s Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS).

    Anita Roberts is a reporter on the Vanuatu Daily Post.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Vanuatu must maintain strong support for West Papua, says Regenvanu

    By Anita Roberts in Port Vila

    Vanuatu needs to continue to maintain its strong support for West Papua by ensuring that the United Liberation Movement of West Papua (ULMWP)’s application for full membership in the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) is listed on the agenda during the MSG Leaders Meeting soon.

    Opposition leader and former Minister of Foreign Affairs Ralph Regenvanu made this declaration in a media conference.

    ULMWP’s application for full membership status was not considered at the Senior Officials Meeting, the first of three meetings that will happen, he said on Monday.

    “While I was still the Foreign Affairs Minister, I attended the last MSG Meeting in Fiji. At that meeting, the MSG Leaders accepted that the application of ULMWP was ready to be considered at the next MSG Leaders Meeting,” Regenvanu said.

    “Now we are in the process leading up to the next meeting.

    “The fact that it was not on the agenda at the Senior Officials Meeting suggests that no one has put it on the agenda.

    “Therefore, I’m calling onto the Prime Minister to make sure Vanuatu places that item on agenda for consideration and also for him to come out publicly and declare that Vanuatu will support the application for ULMWP membership.

    Vanuatu should ‘push strongly’
    “I would like for the Vanuatu government to push strongly to make sure the application is accepted.”

    Regenvanu said a lot of work had been done during his term as the Foreign Affairs Minister that had attracted the international community into dealing with human rights issues in West Papua.

    “There has been no further progress than what we already accomplished in 2019. This is an opportunity for the government to show that it is maintaining the strong support for West Papua through getting MSG to approve the ULMWP application.”

    Vanuatu needed to advocate strongly with other MSG countries to make sure the agenda was passed, said the Opposition Leader.

    ULMWP already has observer status in the regional group whose full members are Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia’s Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS).

    Anita Roberts is a reporter on the Vanuatu Daily Post.

    .pf-button.pf-button-excerpt { display: none; }

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • ‘Gagged’ West Papuan envoy to raise self-determination issue again at UN

    Asia Pacific Report newsdesk

    A West Papuan envoy who was gagged while addressing the United Nations Permanent  Forum on Indigenous Issues two years ago is due to speak again today.

    For six years, John Anari, leader of the West Papua Liberation Organisation (WPLO) and an “ambassador” of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP), has been appealing to the forum to push for the Indonesian-ruled Melanesian region to be put back on the Trusteeship Council.

    He is speaking for the two groups combined as the West Papua Indigenous Organisation (WPIO), or Organisasi Pribumi Papua Barat.

    West Papuan envoy John Anari’s petitioning letter to the UN Secretary-General. Image: PMC screenshot

    “I believe West Papua has been a UN Trust Territory since 1962 when the
    General Assembly authorised [the] United Nations and Indonesia’s administration of West Papua,” he is expected to say in his short decaration.

    “I believe there is a moral and legal obligation for news of the authorisation, General Assembly resolution 1752 (XVII), to be placed on the agenda of the United Nations Trusteeship Council so that the Council can then ask the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for its advisory opinion on the proper status of West Papua in relation to the Charter of the United Nations.

    John Anari West Papua in NY
    West Papuan envoy John Anari and the Morning Star in Times Square, New York. Image: FB screenshot

    “To restore United Nations awareness of the sovereign and human rights of our people, for
    six years I have been asking this Permanent Forum [PFII] to advise the Economic and Social Council that it can and should place the missing agenda item on the agenda of the Trusteeship Council.

    “Not only has this forum failed to relay our request, two years ago the moderator attempted to stop my reiteration of our request. This year I am also petitioning the Secretary-General to put news of the United Nations subjugation of West Papua on the agenda of the Trusteeship Council.

    “If this forum will not relay our request, I ask you to explain to the international news media why this forum has not told the Economic and Social Council about General Assembly resolution 1752 under which West Papua is still suffering foreign administration and looting.”

    The petition has been presented to the Secretary-General, António Guterres.

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    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • ‘Gagged’ West Papuan envoy to raise self-determination issue again at UN

    Asia Pacific Report newsdesk

    A West Papuan envoy who was gagged while addressing the United Nations Permanent  Forum on Indigenous Issues two years ago is due to speak again today.

    For six years, John Anari, leader of the West Papua Liberation Organisation (WPLO) and an “ambassador” of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP), has been appealing to the forum to push for the Indonesian-ruled Melanesian region to be put back on the UN Trusteeship Council.

    He is speaking for the two groups combined as the West Papua Indigenous Organisation (WPIO), or Organisasi Pribumi Papua Barat.

    West Papua letter to UN John Anari 22042021
    West Papuan envoy John Anari’s petitioning letter to the UN Secretary-General. Image: PMC screenshot

    “I believe West Papua has been a UN Trust Territory since 1962 when the
    General Assembly authorised [the] United Nations and Indonesia’s administration of West Papua,” he is expected to say in his short decaration.

    “I believe there is a moral and legal obligation for news of the authorisation, General Assembly resolution 1752 (XVII), to be placed on the agenda of the United Nations Trusteeship Council so that the Council can then ask the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for its advisory opinion on the proper status of West Papua in relation to the Charter of the United Nations.

    John Anari West Papua in NY
    West Papuan envoy John Anari and the Morning Star in Times Square, New York. Image: FB screenshot

    “To restore United Nations awareness of the sovereign and human rights of our people, for
    six years I have been asking this Permanent Forum [UNPFII] to advise the Economic and Social Council that it can and should place the missing agenda item on the agenda of the Trusteeship Council.

    “Not only has this forum failed to relay our request, two years ago the moderator attempted to stop my reiteration of our request. This year I am also petitioning the Secretary-General to put news of the United Nations subjugation of West Papua on the agenda of the Trusteeship Council.

    “If this forum will not relay our request, I ask you to explain to the international news media why this forum has not told the Economic and Social Council about General Assembly resolution 1752 under which West Papua is still suffering foreign administration and looting.”

    The petition has been presented to the Secretary-General, António Guterres.

     

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Teen killed as Indonesian police tell Papuans: ‘You’re legitimate target! Shoot!’

    Asia Pacific Report newsdesk

    A 17-year-old youth has become the latest victim of Indonesia’s six-decades-long colonisation of West Papua, alleges the United Liberation Movement of West Papua.

    “Killed on March 6, Melianus Nayagau has been murdered in Intan Jaya, where Indonesian military operations have displaced thousands of my people,” said ULMWP interim president Benny Wenda in a statement today.

    Separately, a video has shown an Indonesian police chief in Java telling demonstrating West Papuan students that they are “a legitimate target”, and giving the order to “shoot”, said the ULMWP website.

    “This is the reality of what we face in West Papua. As the people of West Papua resist Jakarta’s re-imposition of ‘Special Autonomy’, Papuan students are being beaten by Indonesian nationalist gangs and arrested by colonial police,” Wenda said.

    The cold-blooded killing and viral video came just after the Indonesian military killed a 36-year-old deaf disabled man, Donatus Mirip, on February 27.

    “As I previously stated, three West Papuan men were tortured and murdered in a West Papuan hospital by Indonesian soldiers on February 15,” Wenda said.

    Late last year, West Papuan pastor Yeremia Zanambani, Catholic catechist Rufinus Tigau and other religious figures were tortured, shot and killed by troops, and three school children were executed by an Indonesian state death squad on November 20, 2020, reports the ULMWP website.

    Burning bodies
    Several soldiers were recently found to have killed two other family members of Pastor Zanambani last year, burning the bodies and throwing their ashes into a local river.

    Tens of thousands of West Papuans have been displaced by these military operations since December 2018.

    Hundreds have died from lack of water, food and medicine, in the middle of a global pandemic, said Wenda.

    “As the largest religious organisation in our nation, the West Papua Council of Churches, has stated, ‘The Land of Papua has become a Military Operation Area’.

    “No one can deny that this is an absolute humanitarian catastrophe, a pattern of systematic human rights abuses targeted at the Indigenous population of West Papua by the Indonesian colonial regime.

    “This is serial, repeated murder of the young, of religious figures, of displaced women and children. We are treated with inhumanity on our own land.”

    The ULMWP website said Indonesia’s response to this undeniable disaster had been to deploy 1350 more highly armed troops to West Papua yesterday, joining the thousands of additional security personnel deployed since 2019.

    ‘Concealing the blood’
    “The Indonesian state is trying to conceal the blood that is dripping from its hands,” said Wenda.

    At the UN Human Rights Council last month, the Indonesian Foreign Minister denounced “double standards” and “politicisation” of the council, something Indonesia had done more to promote than any other state, Wenda said.

    “While they take a noble stand on the Palestinian and Myanmar struggles, they lie to the world about what they are doing to their own neighbours in West Papua,” he said.

    “I’m calling on the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to pay urgent attention to the situation in West Papua. This is not one-off killings and human rights violations.

    “This is a systematic attempt to subjugate the Indigenous population, to destroy our will to resist, to eliminate our culture and way of life. But we will not give up until we win back our right to self-determination, stolen from us in the 1960s.

    “We need regional leaders in Melanesia and the Pacific to listen to our cry. All 83 countries that support the visit of the UN High Commissioner to West Papua must redouble efforts to ensure the visit takes place as a matter of extreme urgency, before more of my people are murdered.

    “As I have stated since 2019, I am ready to sit down with the Indonesian President to find a just solution to live in peace and harmony in West Papua.”

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • West Papua needs urgent Red Cross intervention over crisis, says Wenda

    A Catholic priest from Bilogai parish, Father Yustinus Rahangiar, and several civil servants in Intan Jaya, accompany local residents to take wounded Janus Bagau (lying on the stretcher) to the community health center. Image: Suara Papua.

    Asia Pacific Report

    The Indonesian state is causing a renewed humanitarian crisis in West Papua. Three young West Papuan men have been murdered by the Indonesian military in Intan Jaya Regency, and hundreds of residents have now fled the area in fear.

    Indonesia must urgently allow the International Committee of the Red Cross and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights into West Papua, says the leader of a “provisional” Papuan government.

    The authorities in Jakarta have been blamed for “causing a renewed humanitarian crisis”.

    Benny Wenda, interim president of the United Liberation Movement of West Papua provisional government, said in a statement that three young Papuan men had been murdered by the Indonesian military in Intan Jaya regency.

    Hundreds of residents had now “fled the area in fear”.

    Wenda also called on Pacific nations to pay close attention to what was happening in West Papua.

    The three men, Janius Bagau were, Justinus Bagau and Soni Bagau, were alleged to have been tortured and killed on February 15 in a health centre where one of them was receiving treatment after being shot in the arm by a soldier.

    Amnesty statement of concern
    Amnesty Indonesia has issued an urgent statement of concern over the killings.

    “Fearing more acts of violence, at least 600 men, women and children have been displaced by the military’s actions, seeking shelter in a Catholic compound,” said the statement.

    “They join over 50,000 West Papuans internally displaced by Indonesian operations since December 2018. Over 400 have died from a lack of medical treatment and supplies. Indonesia is ethnically cleansing my people.”

    Wenda said that people displaced by the operations would have no access to healthcare.

    “They cannot tend to their crops. The children cannot go to school. In the middle of a pandemic, Indonesia continues to kill us West Papuans and force us from our homes by our thousands.

    “The Indonesian state has imposed martial law, using the covid-19 crisis as a cover to conduct military operations.

    “As the West Papua Council of Churches, the four Protestant denominations in our nation, put it in a statement on February 5, ‘The Land of Papua has become a military operation area’.

    International monitoring
    The ULMWP provisional government demanded that Indonesia immediately allow the international community into West Papua to assist civilians affected by military operations. It said:

    • Indonesia must allow the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights into West Papua to conduct an investigation into the human rights situation, in accordance with the call of 83 international states; and
    • Indonesia must invite the International Committee of the Red Cross into West Papua. The Red Cross was banned from entering in 2009.

    “Regional leaders must pay attention to what is taking place in West Papua,” said Wenda.

    “Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific Islands Forum: Indonesia is hiding behind claims of ‘sovereignty’ to crush my people.

    “This is not an ‘internal matter’, this is a question of military occupation and colonialism.

    “Our right to self-determination under international law is bullet-proof. Indonesia has lost the moral, political and legal argument, and has turned to the last thing it has left: brute violence.

    “We need urgent action to protect my people.”

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    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • West Papua needs urgent Red Cross intervention over crisis, says Wenda

    Asia Pacific Report

    The Indonesian state is causing a renewed humanitarian crisis in West Papua. Three young West Papuan men have been murdered by the Indonesian military in Intan Jaya Regency, and hundreds of residents have now fled the area in fear.

    Indonesia must urgently allow the International Committee of the Red Cross and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights into West Papua, says the leader of a “provisional” Papuan government.

    The authorities in Jakarta have been blamed for “causing a renewed humanitarian crisis”.

    Benny Wenda, interim president of the United Liberation Movement of West Papua provisional government, said in a statement that three young Papuan men had been murdered by the Indonesian military in Intan Jaya regency.

    Hundreds of residents had now “fled the area in fear”.

    Wenda also called on Pacific nations to pay close attention to what was happening in West Papua.

    The three men, Janius Bagau were, Justinus Bagau and Soni Bagau, were alleged to have been tortured and killed on February 15 in a health centre where one of them was receiving treatment after being shot in the arm by a soldier.

    Amnesty statement of concern
    Amnesty Indonesia has issued an urgent statement of concern over the killings.

    “Fearing more acts of violence, at least 600 men, women and children have been displaced by the military’s actions, seeking shelter in a Catholic compound,” said the statement.

    “They join over 50,000 West Papuans internally displaced by Indonesian operations since December 2018. Over 400 have died from a lack of medical treatment and supplies. Indonesia is ethnically cleansing my people.”

    Wenda said that people displaced by the operations would have no access to healthcare.

    “They cannot tend to their crops. The children cannot go to school. In the middle of a pandemic, Indonesia continues to kill us West Papuans and force us from our homes by our thousands.

    “The Indonesian state has imposed martial law, using the covid-19 crisis as a cover to conduct military operations.

    “As the West Papua Council of Churches, the four Protestant denominations in our nation, put it in a statement on February 5, ‘The Land of Papua has become a military operation area’.

    International monitoring
    The ULMWP provisional government demanded that Indonesia immediately allow the international community into West Papua to assist civilians affected by military operations. It said:

    • Indonesia must allow the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights into West Papua to conduct an investigation into the human rights situation, in accordance with the call of 83 international states; and
    • Indonesia must invite the International Committee of the Red Cross into West Papua. The Red Cross was banned from entering in 2009.

    “Regional leaders must pay attention to what is taking place in West Papua,” said Wenda.

    “Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific Islands Forum: Indonesia is hiding behind claims of ‘sovereignty’ to crush my people.

    “This is not an ‘internal matter’, this is a question of military occupation and colonialism.

    “Our right to self-determination under international law is bullet-proof. Indonesia has lost the moral, political and legal argument, and has turned to the last thing it has left: brute violence.

    “We need urgent action to protect my people.”

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • West Papuans send prayers for the recovery of Sir Michael Somare

    Get well wishes for Sir Michael Somare from Jayapura … Sir Michael (centre) is pictured in Port Moresby in February 2018 with the United Liberation Movement of West Papua chairman Benny Wenda and secretary-general Rex Rumakiek along with MSG leaders. Image: Markus Haluk/Tabloid Jubi

    By Benny Mawel in Jayapura

    The United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) has sent prayers for the recovery of the former Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, Sir Michael Somare, who is critically ill with pancreatic cancer.

    Sir Michael, who is also the founder of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG), is a figure who has played an important role in supporting ULMWP to become a member of the group.

    Now 84, Sir Michael is being treated at the Pacific International Hospital in Port Moresby, as reported by Asia Pacific Report.

    PNG’s The National newspaper said that Cardinal Sir John Ribat had celebrated a special Eucharist with Sir Michael and his wife, Lady Veronica, at his hospital bed.

    The executive director of ULMWP in West Papua, Markus Haluk, said the movement and the people of West Papua also sent prayers for the recovery of Sir Michael Somare.

    “The people of West Papua [send] healing prayers for Sir Michael Somare,” Haluk told Jubi yesterday.

    Haluk said that the news of Sir Michael Somare’s health condition reminded him of the meeting between ULMWP leaders and Sir Michael Somare at the MSG forum in Port Moresby in February 2018.

    ‘Look to the future’
    “I remember a message from Sir Somare, ‘West Papua don’t look at the past, but look to the future. I have opened my heart, you [ULMWP] are not alone anymore,” said Haluk.

    Haluk also remembered that a few minutes later the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea at the time, Peter O’Neill, came to the MSG meeting venue.

    ULMWP leaders were standing and chatting with Sir Michael Somare.

    Haluk, realising O’Neill had arrived, wanted to turn around and greet the prime minister, but Somare prevented him.

    “Sir Somare grabbed my shoulder, winked at me, telling me, ‘Don’t turn to face PM O’Neill. Later he will come in your midst ‘. I also followed Sir Somare’s body language,” said Haluk.

    What Sir Michael Somare said came to pass. After Peter O’Neill greeted all invited guests, ambassadors and MSG delegates, O’Neill went to Somare’s circle with the ULMWP delegates.

    “I spontaneously greeted PM O’Neill. ‘Nopase waaa… waaa… waaa…’ (Papuan greetings to an honourable figure). Sir Somare gasped at my greeting. O’Neill greeted, ‘waa… waa… waa… Thanks Bro ‘.

    “Then we shook hands with PM O’Neill,” said Haluk.

    ‘That’s Papuan politics’
    Haluk said he was very impressed with the meeting.

    “That’s Papuan politics, Melanesian politics. Everything flows from our hearts. [We] understand each other, acknowledge each other. You are important to me. We both need each other. Continue to keep the fellowship alive,” said Haluk.

    Haluk said the West Papuan people remember the stories and services of great figures such as Sir Michael Somare.

    According to Haluk, the people from Sorong to Samarai sent prayers for the recovery of Sir Michael Somare.

    “Commemorating all the great services and sacrifices for the Papuan people, from Jayapura, West Papua, we send sincere prayers for healing to Sir Somare. I hope you get better soon,” said Haluk.

    This article has been translated by an Asia Pacific Report correspondent from Tabloid Jubi and published with permission.

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    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • West Papuans send prayers for the recovery of Sir Michael Somare

    By Benny Mawel in Jayapura

    The United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) has sent prayers for the recovery of the former Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, Sir Michael Somare, who is critically ill with pancreatic cancer.

    Sir Michael, who is also the founder of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG), is a figure who has played an important role in supporting ULMWP to become a member of the group.

    Now 84, Sir Michael is being treated at the Pacific International Hospital in Port Moresby, as reported by Asia Pacific Report.

    PNG’s The National newspaper said that Cardinal Sir John Ribat had celebrated a special Eucharist with Sir Michael and his wife, Lady Veronica, at his hospital bed.

    The executive director of ULMWP in West Papua, Markus Haluk, said the movement and the people of West Papua also sent prayers for the recovery of Sir Michael Somare.

    “The people of West Papua [send] healing prayers for Sir Michael Somare,” Haluk told Jubi yesterday.

    Haluk said that the news of Sir Michael Somare’s health condition reminded him of the meeting between ULMWP leaders and Sir Michael Somare at the MSG forum in Port Moresby in February 2018.

    ‘Look to the future’
    “I remember a message from Sir Somare, ‘West Papua don’t look at the past, but look to the future. I have opened my heart, you [ULMWP] are not alone anymore,” said Haluk.

    The National 230221
    “Get well, Sir Michael” – today’s front page banner headline in The National. Image: The National screenshot APR

    Haluk also remembers that a few minutes later the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea at the time, Peter O’Neill, came to the MSG meeting venue.

    ULMWP leaders were standing and chatting with Sir Michael Somare.

    Haluk, realising O’Neill had arrived, wanted to turn around and greet the prime minister, but Somare prevented him.

    “Sir Somare grabbed my shoulder, winked at me, telling me, ‘Don’t turn to face PM O’Neill. Later he will come in your midst ‘. I also followed Sir Somare’s body language,” said Haluk.

    What Sir Michael Somare said came to pass. After Peter O’Neill greeted all invited guests, ambassadors and MSG delegates, O’Neill went to Somare’s circle with the ULMWP delegates.

    “I spontaneously greeted PM O’Neill. ‘Nopase waaa… waaa… waaa…’ (Papuan greetings to an honourable figure). Sir Somare gasped at my greeting. O’Neill greeted, ‘waa… waa… waa… Thanks Bro ‘.

    “Then we shook hands with PM O’Neill,” said Haluk.

    ‘That’s Papuan politics’
    Haluk said he was very impressed with the meeting.

    “That’s Papuan politics, Melanesian politics. Everything flows from our hearts. [We] understand each other, acknowledge each other. You are important to me. We both need each other. Continue to keep the fellowship alive,” said Haluk.

    Haluk said the West Papuan people remember the stories and services of great figures such as Sir Michael Somare.

    According to Haluk, the people from Sorong to Samarai sent prayers for the recovery of Sir Michael Somare.

    “Commemorating all the great services and sacrifices for the Papuan people, from Jayapura, West Papua, we send sincere prayers for healing to Sir Somare. I hope you get better soon,” said Haluk.

    This article has been translated by an Asia Pacific Report correspondent from Tabloid Jubi and published with permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Reject Jakarta’s ‘divide and rule’ Papua provinces strategy, warns Wenda

    Exiled Papuan leader Benny Wenda … “we are going to peacefully continue our long struggle for freedom until the world finally hears our cry”. Image: Office of Benny Wenda

    Asia Pacific Report newsdesk

    Indonesia is trying again to “divide and rule my people” by further carving Papua into three new provinces, warns interim president Benny Wenda of the United Liberation Movement of West Papua (ULMWP).

    And he says that Jakarta is bringing in another 450 troops in to “violently enforce” its policies.

    “Indonesian troops torture and stab our bodies, international corporations slice down our forests and mountains, and now the Indonesian government is trying to divide our unity,” Wenda said in a statement.

    “We are not three separate regions – we are West Papuans, one people with one soul and one mission: freedom.

    “The people of West Papua have rejected these proposals, part of the renewal of the 2001 ‘Special Autonomy’ legislation.

    “Over 600,000 of us have signed a petition rejecting ‘Special Autonomy’. Even the head of the Papuan People’s Assembly, an institution set up by Jakarta, has rejected the sham programme.

    Wenda said ‘Special Autonomy’ was “a dead end”.

    ‘Indonesia has failed the world’
    “It is Jakarta’s wish. A referendum and full independence is our wish. Indonesia has failed the world, and failed the people of West Papua,” he said.

    To enforce this renewal of Special Autonomy, even more Indonesian troops were flooding into West Papua – 450 in the last month alone.

    At least 6000 new troops were sent in 2019 and more than 1000 more in 2020.

    “Indonesia is turning our land into a war zone, a martial law colony with military check points on every street corner,” Wenda said.

    “Civilian rule in Indonesia is a myth: the military still holds power. Retired generals experienced in genocide in East Timor continue to call the shots.

    “Indonesia has done this to us many times before. In 1963, they invaded our land. They held the fraudulent Act of No Choice in 1969, against the desires of all West Papuans.

    “At every turn, they have treated us like a colonised people, less than human. We are called monkeys, spat at, forced off our land.”

    Papuans rejected Indonesian law
    From 1 December 2020, Papuans had rejected all Indonesian law and formed the ULMWP Provisional Government.

    “We are no longer bowing down to Jakarta’s rule. I call on all my people to unite and refuse all Indonesian law. We are establishing our own sovereign government,” said Wenda.

    “As the legitimate representative of the people of West Papua, the provisional government is peacefully demanding the following:

    1.The withdrawal of all Indonesian troops from West Papua;
    2. An end to all forms of racism and discrimination against Melanesian West Papuans;
    3. Immediate access to West Papua for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, in accordance with the call of 83 international states;
    4. Cancellation of ‘Special Autonomy’ and an immediate referendum on independence; and
    5. For all international states and multinational corporations to cease any and all funding for Jakarta’s ‘Special Autonomy’.”

    Wenda saidf the international community must help to force Indonesia to negotiate by withdrawing all support for the “failed ‘Special Autonomy’ project”.

    “The world may be banned from seeing what is happening in West Papua. But we can see it,” Wenda said.

    And we are going to peacefully continue our long struggle for freedom until the world finally hears our cry.

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    This post was originally published on Radio Free.