WEST Papuan interim president Benny Wenda has warned of new plans by the Indonesian government to divide the territory into three provinces today as more troops were sent to the region.

He accused Jakarta of an attempt to “divide and rule his people” by carving up West Papua as another 450 troops arrived to “violently enforce its policies.

“Indonesian troops torture and stab our bodies, international corporations slice down our forests and mountains, and now the Indonesian government is trying to divide our unity. 

“We are not three separate regions, we are West Papuans, one people with one soul and one mission: freedom,” the independence leader said.

The new plans are part of the proposals for a replacement of the “special autonomy” law, which directs the government of West Papua and is due to expire later this year.

Mr Wenda’s United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) rejects the imposition of the controversial special autonomy status, which, it says, disenfranchises the people; the only solution for the nation’s future is an independence referendum, the movement contends.

More than 600,000 people have signed a petition rejecting special autonomy, while it has been branded “a sham programme” by the head of the Papuan people’s assembly, an institution under the control of Jakarta.

“Special autonomy is a dead end. It is Jakarta’s wish,” Mr Wenda charged. “A referendum and full independence is our wish. Indonesia has failed the world and failed the people of West Papua. 

“To enforce this renewal of ‘special autonomy’ even more Indonesian troops are flooding into West Papua: 450 in the last month alone. At least 6,000 new troops were sent in 2019 and over 1,000 more in 2020. 

“Indonesia is turning our land into a warzone, a martial-law colony with military checkpoints on every street corner. Civilian rule in Indonesia is a myth: the military still holds power. Retired generals experienced in genocide in East Timor continue to call the shots,” he said.

Indonesia has occupied West Papua since 1963, formally annexing the territory in the 1969 so-called Act of Free Choice, in which which just over 1,000 hand-picked people ratified rule by Jakarta in a vote held at gunpoint. 

“At every turn, they have treated us like a colonised people, less than human. We are called monkeys, spat at, forced off our land,” Mr Wenda said.

The ULMWP formed a provisional government on December 1 last year and insisted the West Papuan people were “no longer bowing down to Jakarta’s rule.”

The exiled leader is calling on the international community to help bring Indonesia to the negotiating table by withdrawing support for the special-autonomy project.

“The world may be banned from seeing what is happening in West Papua. But we can see it. And we are going to peacefully continue our long struggle for freedom until the world finally hears our cry,” Mr Wenda said.