FREE WEST PAPUA CAMPAIGN

www.freewestpapua.org

Oxford, England, 24^th April 2008

Dear friends of West Papua,

45^th Anniversary of Indonesia’s illegal occupation of West Papua: DEMO & MEDIA ACTION: 1 MAY 2008

1 MAY 1963 – 1 MAY 2008

45 YEARS of OPPRESSION…

45 YEARS of HOPE for FREEDOM!

For a crime against any human being to last for a whole year is a tragedy. For a crime against an entire nation to last for 45 YEARS is a disgrace.

A week from now, Thursday 1 May 2008, West Papuans and their friends all over the world will be marking the 45^th anniversary of Indonesia’s illegal occupation of their homeland.

1 May 2008 will be a DAY OF SHAME FOR INDONESIA, its brutal military and for Western governments, including the UK, which have colluded, conspired with and apologised for the crimes of successive Indonesian regimes – and continue to do so right up to the present day.

For West Papuans, 1 May 2008 will be a day of tears and hope;

TEARS for the thousands of their loved ones, murdered, raped, tortured and imprisoned during 45 years of Indonesian colonial rule. – and for the freedom cruelly stolen from them by Indonesia through the 1969 Act of NO Choice.

HOPE that one day, sooner or later, the red & white flag of Indonesia, the symbol oppression, will be finally torn down and the Morning Star freedom flag raised in its place.

WEST PAPUA NEEDS YOUR HELP!

Without determined peaceful action inside and outside West Papua, the anniversary will go almost completely unnoticed by the outside World. All of us outside West Papua who care deeply for our fellow human beings and who value the freedom and peace we enjoy ourselves, must not allow this to happen! We must not allow Indonesia to get away with murder!

Here are 2 ways YOU can make a real difference:

1) JOIN BENNY WENDA & FREE WEST PAPUA (UK) in London on 1 MAY!

2) MEDIA ACTION: TELL THE WORLD’S MEDIA YOU WANT WEST PAPUA NEWS!

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1) JOIN BENNY WENDA & FREE WEST PAPUA (UK) in London on 1 MAY!

DEMO AGAINST 45 YEARS OF INDONESIAN OCCUPATION: 1 MAY 2008

Indonesian Embassy, LONDON.

Date: Thursday 1 MAY 2008

Time: 5.00 to 7.00pm

NB: Please note TIME IS DIFFERENT from our usual monthly vigils.

Place: Outside the Indonesian Embassy,

38, Grosvenor Square, London, W1K 2HW

(Nearest Tube Marble Arch. For map see: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&tab=wl )

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2) MEDIA ACTION: TELL THE WORLD’S MEDIA YOU WANT WEST PAPUA NEWS!

Please e-mail the BBC, ITN, Channel 4 News, the NEWSPAPERS (national & local) to tell them you want them to start reporting news from West Papua. Please write with your own personal response to the current situation in West Papua -- or here’s an idea of what you could say:

“Dear .....

I wonder how many of your viewers/listeners/readers could find WEST PAPUA on a map of the world? Most of us in Britain know about oppression in Burma, Tibet & Zimbabwe, but how many of us know that a million and a half indigenous West Papuans, on the western half of the island of New Guinea, just a few hundred miles north of Australia, are suffering under Indonesian military occupation? If you remember East Timor in the 1990’s, you’ll know exactly what I mean.

But if we haven’t heard about West Papua, and I hadn’t until recently, it’s not our fault. Indonesia doesn’t want us to know its dirty West Papua secret. It doesn't want us to know that it annexed West Papua via a sham referendum in which they forced a thousand Papuan elders at gun-point to vote to join Indonesia and that since then the brutal Indonesian military has wiped out at least 10% of the indigenous Melanesian population and tortured, raped and imprisoned countless others. That’s why the Indonesian government doesn’t allow foreign journalists permission to report from West Papua and that’s why you may not have ever heard of West Papua – until now.

And you may not also be aware that with the full support of the British, US and Australian governments, Western multi-nationals such as BP & Rio Tinto, are right there inside occupied West Papua extracting natural gas, copper & gold. They don’t want us to know about West Papua either.

1 May 2008 marks a very grim anniversary: 45 years of Indonesia’s illegal occupation of West Papua. For most of those 45 years, the Papuans’ cry for freedom and justice has gone unheard by the outside world. It’s time to start to put that right.

Even after 45 years, the Indonesian government still doesn’t want us to know what they’re doing in West Papua. The only way we will only ever find out is when (e.g. The Guardian, the BBC etc) starts to tell us the truth.

Yours .....”

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If you have any existing media contacts, please put them to good use! Here are some postal & e-mail addresses for the British "broadsheet" newspapers: (always include your name, postal address and a daytime phone number)

The Guardian

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ,

The Editor, The Guardian, 119 Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3ER.

  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

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The Times

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The Editor, The Times, 1, Pennington Street, LONDON E98 1XY

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

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The Independent

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The Editor, The Independent, Independent House, 191 Marsh Wall, London E14 9RS.

* News Desk - This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

* Foreign Desk - This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

* Features - This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

* Business & City - This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ,

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The Daily Telegraph

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

The Editor, The Daily Telegraph, 111, Buckingham Palace Road, London SW1W 0DT

  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

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And here are some key British TV & Radio news e-mail addresses:

BBC:

BBC Indonesia correspondent: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

BBC Asia correspondent: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ,

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ,

ITN / Channel 4 News:

ITN Asia correspondent:   This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ,

THANK YOU for anything you can do to ensure the 45^th anniversary is noticed in Britain and around the world. If possible, please let me, Richard Samuelson, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it know of any replies you receive.

Papua Merdeka!

Free West Papua!

Solidarity…

Richard

Richard Samuelson

Free West Papua Campaign, Oxford, UK