Asia Pacific Report

The president of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) has welcomed the launch of a new political front, urging support for this new initiative on the “roadmap to liberation”.

Benny Wenda said the launch of the West Papua People’s Liberation Front (GR-PWP) was a  new popular movement formed to execute the national agenda of the ULMWP.

He reaffirmed the three-fold strategy as:

READ MORE: Other West Papua reports

• A visit to West Papua by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights;
• ULMWP Full membership for ULMWP of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG); and
• An internationally-supervised self-determination referendum.

“Our roadmap is clear — we will not stray in this or that direction, but remain totally focused on our end goal of independence,” Wenda said in a statement.

“By pursuing this threefold agenda, we are rebuilding the sovereignty that was stolen from us in 1962. The ULMWP roadmap is West Papua’s path to liberation.”

Wenda said that all West Papuan organisations or affiliated groups were welcome to participate in the GR-PWP, including political activists, student groups, religious organisations, Indonesian solidarity groups, the Alliance of Papuan Students, and KNPB.

‘National agenda for self-determination’
“The Liberation Front is not factional but will carry out the national agenda for self-determination. It will deepen the ULMWP’s presence on the ground, supporting the cabinet, constitution, governing structure and Green State Vision we have already put in place,” Wenda said.

“The GR-PWP has been endorsed by the Congress, the highest body of the ULMWP according to our constitution.”

Wenda said GR-PWP would have a decentralised structure, being spread across all seven customary regions of West Papua.

The capital of Jayapura would not dictate decisions to the coasts or islands — all regions would have an equal voice in the movement.

“Unity is essential to our success. Our liberation movement will only succeed when West Papuans from all regions, from all tribal groups and political factions,” Wenda said.

“The agenda belongs to all West Papuans.”

The pro-independence United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) has declared a boycott of the Indonesian elections next month and has called on Papuans to “not bow down to the system or constitution of your Indonesian occupier”.

The movement’s president Benny Wenda and prime minister Edison Waromi have announced in a joint statement rejecting the republic’s national ballot scheduled for February 14 that: “West Papuans do not need Indonesia’s elections — [our] people have already voted.”

They were referring to the first ULMWP congress held within West Papua last November in which delegates directly elected their president and prime minister.

• READ MORE: Benny Wenda’s New Year message
• West Papuans mourn the death of former Governor Lukas Enembe
• Other West Papua reports

“You also have your own constitution, cabinet, Green State Vision, military wing, and government structure,” the statement said.

“We are reclaiming the sovereignty that was stolen from us in 1963.”

At the ULMWP congress, more than 5000 Papuans from the seven customary regions and representing all political formations gathered in the capital Jayapura to decide on their future.

“With this historic event we demonstrated to the world that we are ready for independence,” said the joint statement.

Necessary conditions met
According to the 1933 Montevideo Convention, four necessary conditions are required for statehood — territory, government, a people, and international recognition.

“As a government-in-waiting, the ULMWP is fulfilling these requirements,” the statement said.

“As we continue to mourn the death of Governor Lukas Enembe — just as we have been mourning the mass displacement and killing of Papuans over the last five years — we ask all West Papuans to honour his memory by refusing participation in the system that killed him.

“Governor Lukas was killed by Indonesia because he was a firm defender of West Papuan culture and national identity.

“He rejected the colonial ‘Special Autonomy’ law, which was imposed in 2001 in a failed attempt to suppress our national ambitions.

“But the time for bowing to the will of the colonial master is over. Did West Papuan votes for Jokowi [current President Joko Widodo] stop Indonesia from stealing our resources and killing our people?

“Indonesia’s illegal rule over our mountains, forests, and sacred places must be rejected in the strongest possible terms.”

‘Respect mourning’ call
The statement urged all people living in West Papua, including Indonesian transmigrants, to respect the mourning of the former governor and his legacy.

“West Papuans are a peaceful people – we have welcomed Indonesian migrants with open arms, and one day you will live among your Melanesian cousins in a free West Papua.

“But there must be no provocations of the West Papuan landowners while we are grieving [for] the governor.”

The statement also appealed to the Indonesian government seeking “your support for Palestinian sovereignty to be honoured within your own borders”.

“The preamble to the Indonesian constitution calls for colonialism to be ‘erased from the earth’. But in West Papua, as in East Timor, you are a coloniser and a génocidaire [genocidal].

“The only way to be truthful to your constitution is to allow West Papua to finally exercise its right to self-determination. A free West Papua will be a good and peaceful neighbour, and Indonesia will no longer be a human rights pariah.

Issue no longer isolated
Wenda and Waromi said West Papua was no longer an isolated issue.

“We sit alongside our occupier as a member of the MSG [Melanesian Spearhead Group], and nearly half the world has now demanded that Indonesia allow a visit by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

“Now is the time to consolidate our progress: support the congress resolutions and the clear threefold agenda of the ULMWP, and refuse Indonesian rule by boycotting the upcoming elections.”

Veteran West Papua independence campaigner Benny Wenda has been elected as president of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP).

The ULMWP held its first ever congress in Jayapura this week, which was attended by 5000 indigenous West Papuans from all seven regions.

The congress was called in response to the ULMWP leaders’ summit in Port Vila where the leaders’ announcement that they had unilaterally dissolved the ULMWP provisional government angering many.

• READ MORE: Free West Papua campaigners convene for inaugural meeting in Jayapura

“The ULMWP has officially restored the term ‘provisional government’ which had been removed through the unconstitutional process that took place at the ULMWP Summit-II in Port Vila, Vanuatu [in August],” UNMWP congress chairman-elect Buchtar Tabuni said.

At the meeting, Reverend Edison Waromi was elected as prime minister and Diaz Gwijangge, S. Sos as head of the Judiciary Council.

Tabuni said that the appointment of executive, legislative and judicial leadership as well as the formation of constitutional and ad hoc bodies would be for five years — from 2023 until 2028 — as stipulated in the ULMWP constitution.

Honoured by election
Wenda, who is based in the United Kingdom and well-known across the South Pacific, stepped down as ULMWP leader and Menase Tabuni was appointed as president.

Menase Tabuni’s election was planned for ULMWP to maintain its presence and solidarity with the Papuan people on the ground.

“We must do this from within West Papua as well as campaigning in the international community,” he said at the time.

Wenda said he was honoured to have been elected as the ULMWP president at this “historic congress” in Port Numbay (Jayapura).

He said he and Reverend Waromi took their mandate from the people very seriously and together they would continue to work to free their people.

“I have always represented the people of West Papua, but true representation comes from election,” he said in a statement before the election.

“The people are demanding a choice, and we must listen.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

I welcome the outcome of the first ULMWP Congress in West Papua and am greatly honoured to have been elected by the people as President of the ULMWP Provisional Government, along with PM Edison Waromi. pic.twitter.com/EqE6H0yIub

— Benny Wenda (@BennyWenda) November 23, 2023