Interim President: UN must raise West Papua after six killed in new Indonesian massacre
September 23, 2026
On behalf of the ULMWP and the West Papuan people, I wholeheartedly condemn the brutal massacre of six West Papuan civilians by the Indonesian military in Yahukimo.
Ten Papuan gold-panners were shot and six killed by Indonesian security forces in Samboga Village, Yahukimo Regency on 18 September. The men were already being monitored by drone as they left the panning site in the evening, and were shot as they encountered a roadblock on the public road into the village. No warning shots were fired and there was no exchange of fire between the Indonesian military and the West Papuan National Liberation Army (TPNPB). The names of the victims are as follows: Yonas Aje (22), Pilatus Porpom (25), Daniel Timuka (19), Kani Borpom (20), Yanus Patika (28), and Elli Timuka (28).
According to the TPNPB press release, the victims’ bodies have yet to be evacuated by churches or humanitarian groups because the site remains under strict control of the military. The viciousness and cruelty of the Indonesian coloniser knows no limits: not only do they kill civilians at will, they also refuse to release their bodies to their families.
These ten civilian gold miners were victims of the Indonesian occupation twice over. First, they were dispossessed by the takeover of their ancestral lands. Second, they were murdered for trying to make a living in the new world the occupation has created. Their names are added to the more than sixty West Papuan civilians murdered by the Indonesian state in 2026 alone.
The ULMWP also condemns the death sentence handed down to Karel Fatem, an Indigenous West Papuan TPNPB member who is set to be the first political prisoner executed by the Indonesian state in over a decade. The TPNPB are not criminals or terrorists, they do not bomb or attack in Java or Sumatra: they are the West Papuan home guard. It is not the TPNPB who turned West Papua into a killing field. There have always been West Papuans who defend themselves, their environment, their mountains and their forests. We demand that the Indonesian courts immediately reverse its sentence and frees all West Papuan political prisoners.
This latest massacre demonstrates how vital it is that Pacific nations maintain their pressure on Indonesia to allow a UN Human Rights visit. The Pacific Islands Forum last month reaffirmed their 2019 call for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to be allowed into West Papua, while MSG leaders suggested that Indonesia’s Associate Membership would be reviewed if no visit materialises. We applaud our Pacific family’s bravery in standing up for human rights in West Papua and invite all Pacific leaders to make the same stand at the 2026 UN General Assembly. Justice and peace in West Papua can only come through international pressure.
Free West Papua.
Benny Wenda
Interim President
ULMWP
