We are delighted to bring you news of an extremely successful conference jointly organized by the International Lawyers for West Papua and the Free West Papua Campaign in Oxford recently. In this newsletter we bring you a brief summary of the conference, as well as a short analysis of the impact it is already having in West Papua, Indonesia and around the world.
Also, don’t miss the details below of our developing partnership with Lush, upcoming events, protests and planned developments for the campaign. Thank you as always for you ongoing, vital support.
West Papua – The Road to Freedom
More than 100 lawyers, politicians, activists and media representatives gathered in Oxford on August 2 for the West Papua – Road to Freedom conference jointly organized by the International Lawyers for West Papua and the Free West Papua campaign. The conference is a vital step in the ongoing campaign for Papuans to have the right to self-determination so cruelly denied to them in the so-called Act of Free Choice in 1969 and ever since.
Speakers at the conference included Victor Yeimo, an activist from West Papua recently released from prison who bravely travelled undercover to the conference and spoke on behalf of his fellow activists in West Papua. Victor was joined on stage by Clement Ronawery, a witness to the 1969 Act of Free Choice who has lived in exile in Papua New Guinea for over 40 years unable to return home. Other speakers included John Saltford, a recognized expert on the Act of Free Choice, Benny Wenda, Louis Yandeken a leading lawyer from Papua New Guinea and Charles Foster, a barrister from Oxford both of whom are part of the International Lawyers for West Papua. Benny Giay joined the conference by skype from West Papua and bravely articulated the current situation in his home province. Andrew Smith MP and Jennifer Robinson from ILWP chaired the conference. You can listen to an audio stream of the conference here, see photos here and news reports from around the world the here.
Thousands of Papuans filled the streets of Jayapura and all other major cities in West Papua on August 2 to show their support for the conference and to make their demands for the right to self-determination and freedom for the Papuan people (see pictures here). Children and the elderly joined in and the streets of Jayapura were so full people could not get to work! This was one of the largest independence demonstrations ever to take place in West Papua and went ahead despite a huge police presence. We feel this marks the beginning of a new wave of West Papuan struggle for self determination. There were also demonstrations in Jakarta and for the first time ever a large demonstration in Papua New Guinea. Photos from the demonstrations can be seen in the news section of our website.
The conference and the huge solidarity demonstrations have clearly had an impact on the Indonesian Government which has responded with typical anger and a total lack of constructive engagement. Within hours of the conference, we were informed that the Indonesian Government had summoned the British Ambassador in Jakarta to discuss the conference and recalled their Ambassador to London for emergency talks. The Government put out a series of blunt comments that the conference and supporting rallies were merely a small number of ‘separatists’ intent on causing trouble but behind the scenes we know that they are genuinely concerned about the growing calls for self-determination coming from within West Papua and from around the world.
In recent days, the Indonesian President himself has called for all ‘separatists’ to be arrested and personally called for Benny Wenda to be returned to Indonesia and arrested. Whilst we are doing all we can to ensure Benny’s continued safety, and that of activists in West Papua, we are also delighted that the pressure from all of us through our ongoing campaigns is making a real difference.
Leaked military report
The Green Left Weekly in Australia has reported on a leaked report from the notorious Indonesian special forces unit, Kopassus, that has served to draw attention to the ongoing brutal occupation of West Papua by Indonesia. It is well worth a read.
Lush campaign
We would like to thank Lush for their ongoing support for the Free West Papua campaign. Lush contributed funds to the campaign, as well as inviting Benny and Maria to speak and perform at their recent Lushfest event for all Lush staff. We are currently talking to Lush about further ways they can support the campaign – watch this space (and hopefully their shops in the UK!).
Prisoner News
We are very pleased to report that Buchtar Tabuni, the chairman of KNPB, the West Papua National Committee was one of 656 prisoners in Papua to receive remission of his sentence, granted to prisoners on Indonesia's independence day. On his release Buchtar said 'They think that with my release on this day, it means that I will show my love and affection for Indonesia, but that is not so. I will continue my struggle for this nation even more radically than before.'
However we must not forget the many political prisoners still being held in appalling conditions in West Papua. For example Filep Karma continues to be held in prison and denied important health care. He has refused remission for the second year running. Read his statement and more news on Buchtar here.
Melkianus Bleskadit has just been sentenced to two years’ imprisonment for flag raising while Daniel Yenu was sentenced to seven months under the dubious charge of makar (subversion). See the Amnesty International statement on both these cases.
We plan to bring you much more updates on West Papuan prisoners soon including information on how you can support them.
Upcoming events
We will be holding one of our regular demonstrations outside the Indonesian embassy in London on Monday 5th September at 12am till 2pm. Meet us outside the embassy at Grosvenor Square to remind Indonesia of the huge demonstrations that took place on 2nd August and to join the call for the release of Filep Karma.
Planned developments
As you will be aware, the Free West Papua campaign is run entirely by volunteers who are passionate about human rights and the right for Papuans to self-determination. This does, however, limit our capacity at times but right now we have a great team of volunteers who are working with Benny, Maria and others to ensure we build on the moment of the recent conference and other developments to move closer towards the goal of self-determination.
We are therefore currently looking at re-building the freewestpapua.org web site to turn it from a news portal into a more campaign-focused site, and are also currently strengthening out ability to support the International Lawyers for West Papua and the International Parliamentarians for West Papua.
If you are able to offer any support – whether skills, time or money – to this vital campaign, please contact us at
Many thanks,
Benny Wenda and the Free West Papua Campaign