Jayapura – The West Papua National Committee (KNPB), the All Indonesia Papuan Central Highlands Indonesian Student Association (AMPTPI), the Papua Indonesia High School and University Student Association (IMPIP) and the Indonesian Student League for Democracy (LMID) in Gorontalo province held a peaceful action to commemorate Papua Annexation Day in front of the Gorontalo State University (UNG) on Wednesday May 1.
During the action they rejected the 61 years of the annexation of West Papua into Indonesia (May 1, 1963 to May 1, 2024).
"Because for us, May 1 is the start of the criminal violence against the people of Papua, as well as efforts to thwart our political rights as mandated by international law on the right to decolonisation and the right to self-determination based on United Nations Charter 73 and the mandate of the 1514 resolution of 1960", said field coordinator Elia Edowai at the action.
Edowai said that the machinations so that Papua would be handed over to Indonesia were carried out by the United States, the Netherlands and Indonesia with the approval of the New York Agreement on August 15, 1962, without involving Papuans as legal subjects based on international law. So this was a betrayal of the Papuan people.
"Aside from this, we also emphasise that the May 1, 1963 annexation was illegal. The 61 years of Indonesia colonising the Papuan people has given birth to systematic, massive and structured oppression, violence, torture, arrests, imprisonment, racism, mutilation and marginalisation."
"The West Papua nation is now threatened by genocide, ecocide and ethnocide which is being committed by Indonesian colonialism and the conspiracy of capitalisation as well as imperialism and the global oligarchy."
A similar view was conveyed by Kenditon Kogoya, another field coordinator, who said that the land of Papua has now become a military operation area to protect the interests of oligarchy and imperialism.
All of this, said Kogoya, has given birth to violence and human rights violations in West Papua. Therefore they reject militarism in the land of Papua and are demanding to be given the broadest possible right to self-determination.
"We call for the withdrawal of organic and non-organic military from the land of Papua and a halt to military operations on the land of Papua. Revoke the Omnibus Law [on Job Creation], provide the widest possible access to foreign and national journalists in the land of Papua", he concluded.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "61 Tahun Aneksasi Bangsa Papua Telah Melahirkan Penindasan Secara Sistematis".]
