Indonesia is in chaos, as massive protests have erupted over corruption, economic hardship, and police brutality. I call on all my people to get ready for another escalation back home. West Papua is ready to depart from this dying empire.

This time, the protestors’ conflict is not only with the TNI, but with the DPR, the Parliament that is supposed to represent them. The Indonesian government is showing that they do not have the trust of their own people. How can they claim legitimacy over a different nation, illegally occupied for sixty years?

Protests were triggered by the killing of a taxi driver in Jakarta by the Brimob police unit. These murderers have terrorised West Papua for years. As well as killing ten civilians during the 2023 Wamena massacre, they are also responsible for the recent executions of Tobias Silak, Charles Kogoya, Yosia Keiya, and 13-year-old Ronaldus Duwitau. Indonesians are now experiencing a tiny fraction of what West Papuans go through every day.

At the same time as protests have engulfed Jakarta, a massive wave of repression is occurring in Sorong, West Papua. Indonesia must stop the transfer of the four Papuan political prisoners to Makassar, and immediately release Sayang Mandabayan, along with her husband Yan Manggaprouw and the sixteen other activists arrested for refusing the prisoners’ transfer out of West Papua.

Through transmigration, increased militarisation, and the industrial developments in Merauke, Raja Ampat and Intan Jaya, the war criminal Prabowo is speeding up the destruction of West Papua. Now his own people have turned on him. He has only been in power for a year, and yet Indonesia is collapsing.

While the ULMWP supports the anti-government action, this is not our struggle. West Papuans oppose Prabowo as we have opposed every leader of the Indonesian occupation. We are fighting for the liberation of West Papua, not for the improvement of Indonesia’s democracy. For over half a century we have suffered rape, torture, arbitrary arrest, exploitation, political imprisonment, genocide, ecocide, and the destruction of our ancestral land. We are ready to leave.

The ULMWP calls on the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) and the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) to provide assurances for West Papuans during these dangerous times. The escalating situation in Indonesia is a reminder that we are not safe under colonial rule. West Papuans are a Pacific and Melanesian people and for our own security we need a voice in these political forums.

To my people, I ask you to be vigilant. West Papuans living in Jakarta or other parts of Indonesia should make preparations to return home. Remember that in 1998, similar protests led to the fall of Suharto, and ultimately the freedom of East Timor and the Papuan Spring. During that revolutionary process we came close to gaining freedom through the Papua Presidium Council (PDP), before our momentum was thwarted by the execution of Theys Eluay and the imprisonment of other leaders, including myself. The ULMWP is ready to play the role of the PDP and take charge of our country when the coloniser leaves. West Papuans are ready to run our own affairs.

Benny Wenda
President
ULMWP


Protests in Sorong