Above photo: From YouTube.
CALL TO ACTION:
In addition to the official petition (please see below and sign up) addressed to the United Nations and the international community, ECOTERRA Intl. and friends of Peoples close to Nature (fPcN-intercultural) together with their affiliates and supporters worldwide, call for:
BOYCOTT INDONESIA !!!– until the rights of the aboriginal peoples of West Papua are respected and their independence is restored.
West Papua (made up of the two provinces of Papua and West Papua also known as Western New Guinea – formerly Irian Jaya) is the western half of the island of New Guinea and is distinct from the independent country of the nation of Papua New Guinea. It is known by the Jakarta administration simply as Papua.
West Papua was, at various times, controlled by Germany, The Netherlands and Australia, before it was annexed by Indonesia in 1969 in a military-run election in which about 1,000 hand-picked representatives were forced to vote for ascension. West Papua was then ruled with the strongest of iron fists during Indonesia’s ‘New Order’ era under General Suharto. Suharto was a brutal dictator who savagely treated West Papuans like animals and ordered many bombings and massacres in West Papua
West Papua is home to around 312 diverse Indigenous Peoples, including some uncontacted peoples. West Papua is illegally occupied by Indonesia and the genocide against the West Papuan People is going on since 1962 unabated.
The United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, defines genocide in Article II as acts “committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” Described by the UN as an “odious scourge” (repulsive evil causing great suffering), genocide can be committed in any one of following ways: killing members of the group causing serious bodily or mental harm; inflicting conditions of life meant to bring about their destruction; preventing births within the groups; and/or forcibly transferring the children of the group to another group.
In West Papua the world’s longest‐running military occupation and genocide has killed more than 500,000 people, and is destroying the world’s second‐largest rainforest as well as 50,000 years of indigenous culture.
The peaceful protests and demands of the people of West Papua and their worldwide supporters therefore must be now enhanced by all honest people worldwide and boycotting the aggressors has become mandatory.
The aggressors are:
1) Indonesia- the post-colonial conglomerate of the so-called Republic of Indonesia is the worlds most populous Muslim majority state and oppresses the people of West Papua since 1962.
2) The mostly Anglo-American corporations robbing West Papua of its precious natural resources.
3) The USA, who sells Indonesia most of the weapons to kill innocent people and to enforce the illegal occupation.
What everyone and many people can do:
a) Stop booking Indonesia for any of your holidays, conferences and/or touristic activities.
b) Stop buying ANY Indonesian palm-oil products Indonesia is the largest producer and exporter of palm oil worldwide. Palm-oil producers and their consumers destroy natural forests worldwide (those sustainability tags are all hoaxes). Any expansion of palm oil plantations into traditionally-held forested land must STOP. Olive oil, cocos-oil and sunflower-, grapeseed- etc. oils should be found in your kitchen – but not any palm-oil!
c) Stop buying ANY products from Indonesian aquaculture (fish, shrimps etc.) – also because marine aquaculture destroys the estuarine ecosystems and freshwater aquaculture already is tainted by GMO-contaminated species.
d) Stop buying any Indomie brand instant noodles by Indofood. To eat natural food and to abstain from any instant, industrialised food is anyway more healthy.
e) Sever any business relationships< with and don’t buy any fuels, lubricants or petrochemicals from Pertamina. Inside Indonesia try to become independent from electricity produced by Perusahaan Listrik Negara. Go solar!
f) Stop buying any Indonesian car or any Toyota, Daihatsu, Suzuki or Honda produced in Indonesia and help to ensure that Indonesia can NOT manufacture the South KoreanKAI KF-X fighter plane.
g) USAmericans must ensure that their governance stops any weapons- or military-equipment-sales to Indonesia. Trump must stop selling arms for genocide!
h) Boycott the USAmerican mining firm Freeport McMoRan and their minority stakeholder – a similar robbber – the global mining giant Rio Tinto, wherever you find them or any of their robbed goods. The Grasberg mine is the largest gold and third largest copper mine in the world. Do your own research where you could block them and don’t get fooled by the fact that Freeport Indonesia abruptly stopped production on February 10, 2017 and laid off 10 percent of its mostly West-Papuan workers. It is just to enforce the hard 120-day ultimatum of February 12 set by Freeport’s CEO Richard Adkerson to the Indonesian government to back down on its new demands or else face arbitration from the mining mogul. Freeport’s involvement in West-Papua dates back to the Suharto military dictatorship, which signed over 250,000 acres of West Papuan territory in 1967. Neither Indonesia nor Freeport have any real rights to the Grasberg. The Grasberg belongs to the West-Papuans!
i) Encourage your friends in leading businesses of China, Singapore, Japan, South Korea and Malaysia and elsewhere to no longer sell their products to Indonesia.
j) Stop investors from Indonesia worldwide. Don’t let their blood-money spoil your business.
k) Disinvest your money from banks or funds involved in ANY business with Indonesia.
l) Don’t import any products from Indonesia and don’t trade with Indonesian firms unless they have provided evidence that they opt for the independence of West-Papua and have urged themselves the Indonesian government and their military to get out of West-Papua.
m) Tell your friends among the 237.6 million people in Indonesia that they must force their government to give West Papua freedom. If they don’t do that also your friends in Indonesia must be seen as part of the Genocide against West Papua’s indigenous peoples and you should severe your friendship. Honest and humane people can not be associated with citizens of a rogue state, who support or do nothing against the genocidal activities of the military and governance of Indonesia.
n) Stop giving money to any of the Muslim groups or the Christian missionaries who only try to proselytize West Papuan indigenous peoples and are part of the oppression.
o) Shun all and any of the delegations from Indonesia at the UN, the conferences of the parties to the UN conventions, at any international meeting or elsewhere.
p) Hats-of-all-sorts gang-up and fight against the government-funded cyber-criminals from Indonesia, who persistently attack free speech for the Freedom of West Papua on the internet.
q) Speak Up! – and demand Freedom for West Papua (PAPUA MERDEKA!) wherever there is an opportunity.
r) Support affirmative direct action and all groups who stand up against the aggressor Indonesia wherever you can.
s) Add more points to this list by doing your own research how to boycott Indonesia effectively – and let us know!
t) Sign the petition below and spread this BOYCOTT CALL worldwide.—
West Papuan leader arrested and office raided for supporting petition
ULMWP – June 23, 2017
Today the people of West Papua once again experienced more state terror and brutality from the Indonesian military and police. As the local headquarters of the West Papua National Committee (KNPB) and People Regional Parliament (PRD) was raided by armed Indonesian troops at least one West Papuan leader was arrested and remains in detention.
As hundreds of people in Timika were gathered peacefully to hold a prayer and thanksgiving ceremony for the thousands of signatures in the Bomberay region collected manually for the grassroots petition for West Papua, the Indonesian military and police began to surround the church compound.
As soon as the local KNPB leader, Yanto Awerkion took to the stage, the Indonesian troops raided the compound. They were fully armed and made up of the Indonesian military, police, Detatchment 88 (“Anti Terror” troops), Kopassus (Special Troops) and Intelligence Services.
As the West Papuan people sat calmly on the ground and sang hymns peacefully, the Indonesian troops tried their worst to create violence and provoke the crowd by being as aggressive as possible. They smashed the gate and tore through the compound, raiding the headquarters and confiscating everything including clothes, flags and banners calling for self-determination and an Internationally Supervised Vote.
Why are the Indonesian military and police scared of clothes, flags and banners?
I have heard that as the Indonesian troops were taking everything everything, local people told them “You are poor so you take it away. We don’t need all these things”.
Yanto Awerkion, the local head of the West Papua National Committee (KNPB), was arrested by the Indonesian police for speaking about the petition for West Papuan self-determination
I am proud that the people of West Papua remained calm and peaceful, signing hymns as their gathering was raided by the Indonesian military and police. We are showing the Indonesian government that we will not be provoked by their terror and brutality. Like Mahatma Gandhi, we will fight successfully for our freedom through peace and love.
The local Chairperson of the KNPB, Yanto Awerkion was arrested by the Indonesian police and remains in detention now. There are unconfirmed reports that others have also been arrested too and I have been told that some people are still being hunted by the Indonesian police.On behalf of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP), I call for the immediate release of Yanto Awerkion and any other people who were arrested at the scene.
Why are the Indonesian military and police raiding peaceful prayer gatherings, arresting peaceful leaders and confiscating banners? Why are they so scared of this petition?
The Indonesian government has already banned the online petition in West Papua and is now trying as hard as possible to ban the manual signing of the petition too. The raiding of another peaceful prayer gathering and the arrest of another peaceful leader calling for self-determination is yet more evidence that the Indonesian government is systematically cracking down on all forms of Freedom of Expression in occupied West Papua.
Once again on behalf of the ULMWP I call upon the International Community and all international supports to please keep an eye on the deteriorating human rights situation in West Papua.
How can governments around the world remain silent when such obvious human rights violations continue to worsen unabated in occupied West Papua, less than 250km North of Australia?
According to International Law, we the people of West Papua have the right to Freedom of Expression and Assembly. The Indonesian government claims that it allows Freedom of Expression but has been specifically condemned by the United Nations for NOT allowing Freedom of Expression in West Papua. Terrible events like this one today, prove to the world once again that there is NO Freedom of Expression in occupied West Papua.
From the bottom of my heart, I urge all international supporters to please keep Signing and Sharing the petition. The people of West Papua have sacrificed their lives for what this petition represents. It is one of the only ways they can express themselves and their aspirations and now it is being systematically banned and those West Papuan people who sign it are at risk of being arrested, tortured and even killed.
In August 2017, this petition which has already collected tens of thousands of signatures, will be swum across Lake Geneva and into the hands of the United Nations to show the aspirations of the West Papuan people that we want self-determination. We will show the world that we the people of West Papua want to be free people at last in our ancestral homeland.
SIGN & SHARE THE PETITION HERE
Please help to Take Action by Signing and Sharing the Global Petition for West Papua today. My people firmly believe that one day we will finally be free at last.
Benny Wenda
West Papuan Independence Leader
Spokesperson for the united Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP)
This statement, written by West Papuan Independence Leader Benny Wenda was originally published on his website.