KKB Mau Disikat Pemerintah, Benny Wenda Berani-beraninya Kirim Surat Ini ke Jokowi

We know what this order will lead to: more killing, more torture, more suffering of my people. Speaker of the Indonesian house, Bambang Soesatyo, has urged to the Government to ‘destroy them first. We will discuss human rights matters later.’ This is the mentality that led to the torture and killing of Pastor Yeremia Zanambani last year. This is the attitude that resulted in three men being beaten to death in a hospital in February this year. This is why Amnesty Indonesia has already condemned the speaker. In the last 24 hours we have reports that people are fleeing the villages in anticipation of the crackdown. Helicopters are being deployed over the villages, reminding me of what happened in 1977 when I was a child.

President Widodo, you are admitting that there is a war going on in West Papua. Why was a Brigadier General stationed in there in the first place if there is no war? Why have you deployed over 21,000 new troops in the last three years? We are not talking about ‘criminal’ groups or gangs, we are talking about combatants in a national liberation struggle to expel an illegal coloniser. The West Papua Army is defending our independence, our forest, our mountain. The military wing of the West Papuan struggle is not a ‘criminal’ group; it is committed to following international humanitarian law and the laws of armed conflict, unlike the Indonesian state.

West Papua was listed on the UN Special Committee on Decolonization as a non-self-governing territory before Indonesia invaded in 1962 and held the fraudulent Act of No Choice in 1969. We are struggling for our fundamental right to defend our state, legally sovereign since 1961. Indonesia fought for its independence and sovereignty from the Dutch colonial power, like East Timor fought for independence by any means. Did this make the people of Indonesia or East Timor ‘criminals’ or ‘terrorists’ under international law? Like them, we are continuing our legitimate struggle to regain our stolen independence.

The Indonesian President must immediately withdraw the military from West Papua. Your troops and helicopters have done nothing but strike fear into women and children in the villages. Your occupation forces are terrorists, intimidating and harassing the people of West Papua on every street corner. You must allow the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights into West Papua, in accordance with the demand of 84 international states, to show the world what is really happening on the ground.

Instead of reacting with further human rights abuses, you must sit down with me, President to President, and find a way to peacefully resolve our conflict. Military force cannot solve this 60-year-old issue; only an internationally-mediated referendum can. For the good of my people and for the good of your people, let us sit down and find a just solution that will last forever.

Benny Wenda

Interim President

ULMWP Provisional Government

Terjemahannya sebagai berikut:

Presiden Interim menanggapi perintah keras Presiden Widodo di Papua Barat

Sebagai Presiden Interim bangsa Papua Barat, saya mengeluarkan tanggapan ini atas perintah keras Presiden Indonesia Widodo di Papua Barat.

Indonesia mencoba sekali lagi untuk melabeli Tentara Papua Barat dan perjuangan rakyat Papua Barat sebagai 'penjahat' dan 'teroris'. Indonesia telah secara ilegal menginvasi dan menduduki negara kami selama hampir 60 tahun, menjadikan orang-orang saya melakukan genosida. Invasi dan pendudukan ilegal adalah tindakan kriminal. Genosida adalah tindakan teroris. Perlawanan terhadap ini sah dan perlu.