MEDIA RELEASE
OXFORD, ENGLAND, 30 April 2008: For immediate release
"Historic wrong must be
righted" say senior Labour M.P.
& former
Bishop of Oxford
ON THE EVE of the 45th anniversary of the Indonesian occupation of West Papua, two senior British parliamentarians have called on the international community to take action in support of the indigenous West Papuan people.
Tomorrow, Thursday 1st May, West Papuans all over the world will be marking four and a half decades of Indonesian military occupation of their Pacific homeland, the western half of the island of New Guinea, just a few hundred miles north of Australia.
Human rights groups have accused successive Indonesian regimes of gross human rights abuses against the indigenous West Papuan population, including thousands of deaths, torture, rape - and imprisonment for 15 years simply for peacefully raising the West Papuan independence flag.
In a powerfully worded statement, former Labour Cabinet Minister & M.P. for Oxford East, Andrew Smith MP, who now chairs the All Party Parliamentary Group on West Papua at Westminster, stated that the West Papuans should now be allowed to determine their own future – independence or inclusion in Indonesia:
"The international community owes an outstanding debt to the people of West Papua; now 45 years' overdue” said Mr Smith, “the West Papuans’ right to self-determination - shamefully over-ridden by a previous generation - must now be fulfilled."
And the former Bishop of Oxford, Lord Harries, another long time advocate for West Papua’s right to self-determination in the British Parliament remarked on his own feelings about the occupation anniversary:
“This is not a day for rejoicing but sadness that West Papua is still occupied” said Lord Harries, “But it is also a day for renewed determination that this historic wrong will be righted.”
In Downing Street tomorrow Lord Harries will join with former West Papuan political prisoner Benny Wenda to deliver a Petition to the Prime Minister Gordon Brown, calling on the UK Government to become the West Papuans’ “voice” in the international community.
To mark the anniversary, Benny Wenda said: “Many tears will be shed by my people today. That’s why I am here at the Prime Minister’s house in Downing Street. I bring with me to his door the bones of thousands of West Papuans killed by Indonesia. We need the UK to be our voice crying for freedom and justice!”
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Free West Papua Campaign will be marking the 45th anniversary of the Indonesian occupation in LONDON TOMORROW THURSDAY 1st MAY:
AT 11.00 am, former political prisoner BENNY WENDA, the West Papuan independence leader in the UK, will deliver a PETITION TO THE BRITISH PRIME MINISTER, Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP, together with LORD HARRIES of PENTREGARTH (Richard Harries, former Bishop of Oxford) at 10, Downing Street, London.
A copy of the full text of Benny Wenda's Petition to the Prime Minister is copied below.
AT 5.00 to 7.00pm, Benny Wenda and supporters of Free West Papua (UK) will hold a DEMONSTRATION outside the Indonesian Embassy, 38, Grosvenor Square, London, W1K 2HW
For interviews, please contact Richard Samuelson on
07891 235112
Co-Director, Free West Papua Campaign, Oxford, UK.
www.freewestpapua.org
EDITOR’S NOTES:
On 1 May 1963, the Netherlands, handed over its former colony of West Papua to Indonesia on the express condition that the indigenous Melanesian population should be allowed a one person – one vote referendum to choose between independence or joining Indonesia.
Knowing Indonesia would lose a free vote, the Indonesian dictator Suharto, instructed his military to select a thousand West Papuan elders and force them at gun-point to vote for Indonesia. Unsurprisingly, when the cruelly named “Act of Free Choice” finally took place in 1969, the vote was unanimous in favour of Indonesia.
Fearing damage to the West’s important economic and geo-political relations with Indonesia, the UK, USA, Australia and the Netherlands governments chose to look the other way and allow Indonesia to annex West Papua in flagrant breach of the international law on self-determination.
Working alongside exiled West Papuan independence leader and former political prisoner, Benny Wenda, the Free West Papua Campaign is an Oxford-based pressure group working to raise awareness about the plight of the West Papuans under Indonesian military occupation and to build UK and international support for an internationally-mediated West Papua peace process leading to a peaceful resolution to 45 years of conflict in accordance with the democratic will of the indigenous West Papuan people.
BENNY WENDA’S PETITION TO PRIME MINISTER GODON BROWN
FREE WEST PAPUA CAMPAIGN
PO Box 656, OXFORD OX3 3AP, England, UK
www.freewestpapua.org
Tel: 07891 235112
E-Mail office@freewestpapua.org
1st May 2008
Rt Hon. Gordon Brown MP,
PRIME MINISTER,
10, Downing Street,
LONDON SW1A 2AA
Dear Prime Minister,
I am here at your house in Downing Street today with greetings from the people of West Papua to you and the people of the United Kingdom.
This is a very sad day for my people. 45 years ago today, Indonesia occupied our beloved homeland – WEST PAPUA.
Many tears will be shed by my people today. That’s why I am here. I bring with me to your door the bones of thousands of West Papuans killed by Indonesia. They started killing us from the very first day they invaded our Land on 1 May 1963 – and they are still killing, torturing, raping, intimidating and imprisoning us to this day. Indonesia never cared about us human beings. They only wanted our gold, copper, gas and our trees.
For 45 years we have been crying for FREEDOM, but no-one heard us.
But today we Papuans also have HOPE that one day we will be FREE! So I want to say THANK YOU to all the people of the United Kingdom who are now giving my people strong support, solidarity, respect and love. Prime Minister, as I travel around your country, I have found that your people have very good hearts. Justice and fairness are very important values for the British people. So when they hear what Indonesia is doing to my people, their big question is only this: “What can I do to help you?” From Aberdeen to Exeter, Liverpool to Norwich, Aberystwyth to Guernsey (I cannot mention all the places we have visited), in Amnesty International, Churches, universities, Trade Unions, political parties, groups who care for Nature and in our own village in Oxford, we have met some of the best people in the world. You must be very proud to be their leader.
And in the British Parliament, West Papua has very good friends too, especially Andrew Smith and Lord Harries. We Papuans are always praying for them and thanking God because they are speaking out strongly from deep in their hearts for justice for my people. Here in the UK they are free to say the Government is wrong. Now I am learning what is true democracy.
When I tell my people back home about the support we now have in the UK it gives them strength to carry on.
So now I want to tell you, Prime Minister, one thing that is confusing for me. I hear you on TV speaking out so strongly about Burma and Zimbabwe and you say in your speech “no injustice can last forever” but why do you and your Ministers not say the same about what is happening in West Papua?
Your Foreign Secretary David Miliband says Indonesia is now a democracy. Maybe they have democracy in Jakarta, but our people are not free to campaign democratically for self-determination. If we Papuans can have a “Free West Papua Party”, like your Plaid Cymru or Scottish National Party, and speak freely and raise our freedom flag without being put in prison - then we will be living in a democracy.
Your Minister Meg Munn said what Indonesia is doing in West Papua is “a model” for the world. Does she mean she wants other countries to murder, rape and torture like Indonesia does? And Meg Munn also still says we Papuans “voted to join Indonesia” in the 1969 Act of NO Choice. We want to ask if a British general election would be legal if British soldiers rounded up a thousand people and forced them at gun-point to vote for the neo-Nazi British National Party?
And your Minister Lord Malloch-Brown says the human rights abuses my people suffer every day are “a relatively minor kind”.
Your Ministers always try to tell the world that things are getting better for my people. This is not true. Why do your Ministers always try to make excuses for what Indonesia is doing to my people? Torture and rape and killing is wrong anywhere it happens – in Burma, Zimbabwe and in West Papua.
When I tell my people back home what British Ministers are saying about West Papua, I have to tell you this is very hurtful for them. It’s very hurtful for Papuans to hear these words from London when my people are crying from a prison cell (15 years for peacefully raising our flag). It’s very hurtful for them to hear these words when my people are hiding from the Indonesian military in the jungle or crying at the grave of our loved-ones shot dead by Indonesian soldiers.
So today is 45 years since Indonesia occupied West Papua. We don’t want to be here in London in 5 years time for the 50th anniversary. I want to be back in my homeland with my people, not living in fear anymore, but free to be just normal human beings, playing with our children, listening to the stories of our elders, singing our songs and dancing our dances, going to our gardens to grow vegetables and to the forests to hunt for pigs. And maybe our children will grow up to be a doctor or a teacher, or maybe they will choose to live our simple life in the village just like our ancestors did. This is our Papuan dream. Is it so much to ask?
We Papuans cannot ever be free without help from good people all around the world. Prime Minister, we need Great Britain to be our voice.
God Bless you and all your Ministers.
Yours faithfully,
Benny Wenda
Leader of the West Papuan Independence Movement—UK
& Chairman of DeMMaK, the Koteka Tribal Assembly
