Interim President: Indonesia has kidnapped Pesta Babi star to hide ecocide
June 2, 2026
Indonesia has kidnapped and threatened Mama Yasinta Moiwend (Mama Sinta), one of the Marind tribe featured in the documentary Pesta Babi, into denying the film and its message.
Pesta Babi, which focuses on the Merauke sugarcane megaproject, reveals a simple fact: that Indonesia is destroying West Papua’s ancestral forest for profit. It is a moderate film, which does not show the real truth – that all West Papuans want freedom and independence instead of colonial ‘development’. Despite this, Indonesia has done everything they can to destroy it.
In a series of social media videos, Mama Sinta publically distanced herself from Pesta Babi, stating that she was exploited by the filmmakers. She was later presented to a police station in Jakarta, where she filed charges against LBH Papua Merauke, an organisation involved in producing the film. Her family have stated they have not been able to contact her for the past week.
Mama Sinta has clearly been kidnapped by the colonial TNI. Why else would she be in Jakarta, away from the community she has spent her life fighting to protect? Why else would she change her views so suddenly?
Against her will, the Indonesian state has forced Mama Sinta to issue a statement retracting her involvement in the film. For West Papuans, this is not a new phenomenon. Indonesia has always used any means they can to divide our spirit: bribery, threats, arbitrary arrests, beatings and torture. Those who they cannot silence they simply kill. Mama Sinta is just like the elders who were forced at gunpoint to vote against West Papuan independence during the Act of No Choice. Merdeka remained in their hearts, even if they raised their hands against it.
No doubt Mama Sinta was afraid of what would happen to her if she did not agree to the TNI’s demands. At a time when violence has ramped up across West Papua, with nearly forty civilians massacred in the past two months, all Papuans are aware of the dangers of speaking out. This is why she recanted.
The Indonesian state response to Pesta Babi – from kidnapping its star to violently shutting down screenings of the film – clearly demonstrates their overwhelming fear of being found out. Indonesia is terrified that their own people, their youth and students, will discover what their government is doing to West Papua. The filmmakers deserve thanks for exposing Indonesia’s ecocide in Merauke. I call on them, and all Indonesian solidarity groups to stay strong: deepen your support for West Papua, oppose your country’s ongoing occupation, genocide and crimes against humanity.
This crackdown is just one small example of Indonesia’s policy of repression in West Papua. They are only able to get away with their crimes because they have transformed West Papua into the Pacific North Korea: journalists are bannedfrom entering, along with NGOs like Amnesty and the Red Cross. Over six years have passed since Indonesia vowed to allow the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit West Papua, and still they refuse access. This is not how a democracy behaves.
Benny Wenda
President
ULMWP
Photo from Tempo