videotape that details allegations of the burning of villages, schools and churches in West Papua by the Indonesian armed forces (TNI) has recently been smuggled out and shown on SBS television. Repression by Indonesian military and special forces (Kopassus), is resulting in deaths and people being driven into the jungles without food.
News is emerging of the TNI/Kopassus murdering 10 Papuans on Nov 5 including independence leader Yustinus Murib. (AAP report). A 2SER radio Interview with Mark Davis, SBS Dateline presenter, reveals the full horror story of West Papua. Read the previous feature, and reports (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) of
the ongoing military atrocities in the Highlands region.
Formerly a Dutch colony, the problem of West Papua is all but forgotten in the west. In 1969 the territory was annexed by Indonesia after an UN auspiced 'Act of Choice' in which less than one per cent of the population participated, and with those who did participate being subject to intimidation.
An independence movement, the OPM (Organisasi Papua Merdeka, Free Papua Movement), has been active for more than 40 years resisting the Indonesian colonisation and large multinational companies such as Rio Tinto. With the current round of Indonesian military repression and terrorism, the Papuan Independence movement has appealed to the governments of Indonesia, Australia, the United Nations, and various other interested parties pleading for international intervention to end the military assault.