West Papua National Committee holds 6th leadership meeting in Jayapura

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Suara Papua – May 20, 2024
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KNPB central leadership issuing press release after 6th leadership meeting in Jayapura – May 15, 2024 (SP)
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Jayapura – The West Papua National Committee (KNPB), based on its organisational mechanisms, held its 6th Leadership Meeting (Rapim) at Port Numbay in Jayapura, Papua, between May 13 and 15.

The meeting, which was attended by 32 regional KNPB administrators and consulates, discussed and decided on various internal organisational issue both in Papua and the struggle of the Papuan nation internationally.

In a statement, KNPB Central Chairperson Warpo Sampari Wetipo said that during the three-day meeting, they decided on eight positions and solutions.

Among other things, he said that they called on the Papuan people to increase solidarity in the collective struggle, to anticipate patterns of division and to participate in organising the struggles of political and sectoral organisations.

In addition to this, he said, looking at the existing dynamics of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP), the leadership meeting decided that the KNPB will leave this situation and take a permanent position as a national media outside of the results of the ULMWP official Summit (KTT) in Vanuatu and the temporary government's unilateral congress in Sentani. In taking a position as a media, the KNPB will play a role of mediation in overcoming all divisions in the struggle both at home and abroad.

"In order to coordinate the agenda of struggle internationally, both legally and politically, we ask all leaders and diplomats abroad to actively coordinate with each other in order to unite the strategy of lobbying and diplomacy", Wetipo said on Monday May 20.

The leadership meeting also agreed to push for the Nieuw Guinea Raad (the New Guinea Council, NGR) as a democratic institution to remain within the ULMWP.

The KNPB emphasised that the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) is a national liberation army, so it decided and asks that the TPNPB continue to improve its function of defending the ordinary people.

The following is the full statement of the results of the KNPB's 6th Leadership Meeting on May 13-15, 2024:

  • Seeing the threat of Indonesian colonialism that is so massive in West Papua, with a pattern and strategy of divide and rule which is making the threat of genocide, ecocide and ethnocide increasingly apparent, the Rapim reiterates that national liberation is an urgent agenda for the Papuan nation. Therefore, we call in the people of Papua to increase solidarity and mutual struggle, anticipate the patterns of divide and rule by the colonisers and participate in organising themselves in the organisations of political and sectoral struggle in the land of Papua.
     
  • The KNPB continues to encourage open consolidation from within and outside the country through the Papua People's Petition (PRP), the pre-KTT ULMWP, the ULMWP Summit and ULMWP Working Meeting (Raker). In its development, we view that there have been various enemy infiltrations and there is a lack of good faith from several foreign and domestic leaders to unite to coordinate the structure and agenda. In addition to the indecisive detection and strict resistance to the divisive efforts managed by the enemy, this has also been caused more by changes in the form of the ULMWP from an open democracy (coordinative) to semi-constitutional (UUDS) and the declaration of the provisional government, where factional political ambitions played a greater role than prioritising the consolidation of a greater unity of struggle.
     
  • The KNPB views that both the official ULMWP results of the ULMWP Summit in Vanuatu and the unilateral government of the ULMWP maintain the same form of constitution (UUDS) even though this is only distinguished by the terms organisation and government. The KNPB Rapim views the contents of the ULMWP Constitution starting from the opening concepts that do not accommodate all the differences that shape the characteristics of the nationality of Papua, to the contents of various chapter that do not represent the interests of all groups in the struggle, as not being a rule for struggle that should be used in a period of struggle.
     
  • Looking at the recent dynamics of the ULMWP, the KNPB Rapim decided that the KNPB will leave this situation and take a permanent position as a national media outside the official ULMWP Summit in Vanuatu and the results of the unilateral government congress of the provisional government in Sentani. By placing itself as a media, the KNPB will play the role of mediation in all divisions of struggle both at home and abroad, namely by actively building coordination between all parties and participating in the agenda of the joint struggle regardless of their respective factional roots.
     
  • In order to coordinate the agenda of struggle internationally both legally and politically, we ask all leaders and diplomats abroad to actively coordinate with each other to unite the strategy of lobbing and its diplomacy.
     
  • The Rapim agreed to push for the Nieuw Guinea Raad as a democratic institution to remain within the ULMWP in order to play its role of conveying the ideas of the unity of struggle in ULMWP.
     
  • The Rapim reiterated that the TPNPB is a national liberation army, so that the KNPB Rapim decided and is asking that the TPNPB continued to improve its function of defense of the people and all organisations of struggle without political factionalism. The Rapim asks that in the TPNPB guerrilla struggle consistently prioritise humanitarian principles in accordance with humanitarian law.
     
  • The KNPB Rapim is of the view that president elect Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto is a symbol of the continued power of colonialism, capitalism and militarism in the land of Papua. The KNPB together with the Papuan people will not remain silent. The Papuan nation will rise up to continue the struggle in a peaceful and dignified manner. Therefore, we ask for the solidarity of the Indonesian people and the world that loves humanity and independence to participate in supporting the struggle for the national liberation of West Papua.

[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "KNPB Gelar Rapim VI, Ini Delapan Poin Keputusannya".]

Source: https://suarapapua.com/2024/05/20/knpb-gelar-rapim-vi-ini-delapan-poin-keputusannya/

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