In the first week of January 2015, hundreds of people in the Timika area of West Papua were arrested, tortured and had their homes burned down by Indonesian police and military. This took place after banners calling for an independence referendum were found, and was followed by further state violence. A Papuan man was stabbed in the head, the villages of Utikini and Bini were burned and in Timika town, 19-year-old Meki Nawipa was shot by police without warning. Many fled as refugees.
Indonesia unlawfully annexed West Papua in 1969, partly motivated by securing the world’s largest goldmine, Grasberg. This mine, situated in the Timika area, fuels the occupation and genocide. It is Indonesia’s biggest taxpayer and pays the military millions of dollars a year.
Such deals lead to a mercenary attitude among the military, and an ever-present atmosphere of terror. On 4 March, another Papuan in the Timika area was killed by ‘unknown persons’.
With an estimated 500,000 West Papuans killed since the occupation, the people continue to call for an end to this oppression. They are demanding that the UN fulfil its promise of an independence referendum, so that they can live freely in their own country.
The struggle continues to gain international momentum, and will not stop until West Papua is finally free.
