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UN must be allowed access to West Papua after latest violence leaves hundreds displaced, interim president insists

INTERIM West Papuan president Benny Wenda called for urgent intervention from the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross today as hundreds fled renewed Indonesian violence.

At least 600 people have taken shelter in a Catholic compound after three men were executed by Indonesian soldiers last week at a health centre, where one of them had been receiving treatment for a gunshot wound, Mr Wenda said.

“Those displaced by these operations will have no access to healthcare. They cannot tend to their crops. The children cannot go to school,” Mr Wenda said.

According to the West Papuan independence leader, about 50,000 people have been displaced by Indonesian military operations since December 2018, in acts he sees as genocidal.

“The Indonesian state has imposed martial law, using the Covid-19 crisis as a cover to conduct military operations. As the West Papua Council of Churches, the four Protestant denominations in our nation, put it in a statement on February 5: ‘The Land of Papua has become a military operation area’,” he said.

Mr Wenda was elected as the interim president of a provisional government on December 1. Indonesia has refused to enter talks with Mr Wenda, who has been living in exile in Britain since 2003 after his escape from prison.

This year sees West Papua’s “special autonomy” status coming to an end. Jakarta favours its renewal, while Mr Wenda’s United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) insists the only way to resolve a decades-long conflict is to hold a referendum on independence.

Indonesia has occupied the former Dutch colony since 1963 and formally annexed the archipelago through the 1969 Act of Free Choice, in which just over 1,000 West Papuans were forced to vote in favour, many at gunpoint.

At least 500,000 people, mainly West Papuans, have been killed since 1969. Indonesian forces have mounted frequent military operations over the years to crush the independence movement that have included bombings and the alleged use of chemical weapons.

“Regional leaders must pay attention to what is taking place in West Papua. Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific Islands Forum: Indonesia is hiding behind claims of ‘sovereignty’ to crush my people. This is not an ‘internal matter,’ this is a question of military occupation and colonialism,” he said.

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