Indonesia’s Repression Hasn’t Broken the West Papuan Freedom Struggle – Jacobin magazine

Absolutely. Thats a very good comparison. Recently, my colleagues and I have been facilitating dialogue between Palestinians and Papuans. The hypocrisy of the Indonesian government is immense they support the Palestinian right to self-determination and have even set up an embassy in Ramallah. But at the same time, they rigorously maintain a colonial occupation in West Papua.

In addition to the combination of small pockets of armed resistance in the countryside and a powerful civilian uprising in the cities and towns, there are two other dynamics. The first is that many independence leaders are based outside the country, where they are much freer to speak their mind and to move around. They formed a coalition in Vanuatu in December 2014.

I was there for that meeting. It established the United Liberation Movement for West Papua, an umbrella group that has brought together three large coalitions, all with roots inside the country. The current chair of that organization is Benny Wenda, who is based in Oxford, England.

As well as that, theres the Free Papua MovementWest Papua National Liberation Army (OPMTPNPB). Both groups insist that West Papua is a sovereign nation, and both want their country back. They want independence.

The other dynamic is really interesting, I think. Nothing this significant occurred during the East Timor liberation struggle. Theres a newly formed group of Indonesian solidarity activists who go by the acronym FRIWest Papua, which means the Indonesian Peoples Front for West Papua (Front Rakyat Indonesia untuk West Papua).

They have bases in more than a dozen cities and provinces across Indonesia. They are all Indonesians, and are mostly university students, but theyve also got links with civil society organizations and mass-based organizations from around Indonesia. They include Muslims and Christians, so it is multiethnic, multireligious, and they support the right of West Papuans to self-determination. There was no similar Indonesia-wide organization supporting East Timorese independence during their struggle under the Suharto dictatorship.

The FRIWest Papua activists show great courage. They have faced tear gas and water cannons. They have been beaten up by the Indonesian police or thrown in jail. Their members have been expelled from universities for organizing protests on campus, and they work very closely with West Papuans living in Indonesia, like the Alliance of Papuan University Students (Aliansi Mahasiswa Papua).

So the struggle is being waged over three domains: inside the occupied territory of West Papua, inside the territory of the occupier, and outside the country, led by Papuans in exile, and backed by a growing network of solidarity groups.

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Indonesia's Repression Hasn't Broken the West Papuan Freedom Struggle - Jacobin magazine