Benny Wenda is lucky to be alive. Benny is a tribal leader from the forgotten land of West Papua. For speaking out against the oppression which his people suffer every day at the hands of one of Britain’s allies, Indonesia, Benny Wenda was arrested, tortured and threatened with death.

Benny managed to escape his captors and flee to Britain. He will shortly be moving to Oxford with his family. Now he wants the world to hear what is happening to his people. On Friday 18th March, Benny Wenda will launch the Free West Papua Campaign in Oxford Town Hall, with the support of local MPs Andrew Smith and Evan Harris, and local MEP Caroline Lucas and the Bishop of Oxford, Richard Harries.

West Papua is the western half of the island of New Guinea. Swathed in rainforest and still partly unexplored, it is home to 500over 250 tribes. Formerly part of the Dutch empire, West Papua was invaded by Indonesia in 1962. Seven years later, with the blessing of the UN, the Indonesians staged a sham ‘referendum’ in which they handpicked 1000 Papuan leaders and forced them at gunpoint to vote for integration into their state.

Since then, at least 1000,000 100,000 Papuans have been murdered by the Indonesian military. Papuan culture has been banned. The price for speaking out is torture, rape, disappearance or death. And the Indonesian policy of banning journalists, human rights observers and even tourists from most of West Papua has ensured that most of the world has no idea this is even happening.

The Free West Papua Campaign – a new organisation based in Oxford – has been set up to make the world listen.

Benny Wenda will be at Oxford Town Hall this Friday, with local and national politicians, to launch the campaign.

For more information: contact Paul Kingsnorth of the Free West Papua Campaign. Email:  media@freewestpapua.org

Read more about West Papua on our website: www.freewestpapua.org