Free West Papua Campaign to open new office in Perth, Australia

April 25, 2014

This Sunday 27th April, the Nobel Peace Prize nominee West Papua independence leader Benny Wenda will officially open a new Free West Papua Campaign office in Perth, Australia. The new office will work closely with our headquarters in Oxford, UK and regional offices in The Hague, Netherlands and Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.

The staff there will work to lobby politicians, churches and members of the Australian public to coordinate with the world wide efforts to take the case of West Papua to the highest levels of the UN and to bring justice and peace to the West Papuan people.

VENUE: Greaves Room, 5 Neil Street (Victory Life Centre Complex) Osborne Park, WA 6017

DATE: 27^th April 2014

TIME: 1pm for 1.30pm start. Refreshments at 2.30.

BACKGROUND

In 1962 the Indonesian military invaded West Papua. Seven years later, Indonesia cheated the West Papuan people out of their UN given right to self-determination, through the Act of Free Choice. Since the invasion over 500,000 West Papuan civilians have been killed and thousands more have been raped, tortured or imprisoned.

In opening the new office we will be working with the International Parliamentarians for West Papua (IPWP), the International Lawyers for West Papua (ILWP) and the global public to raise the voice of the West Papuan people and tell the truth about what has happened to them. Now many politicians are raising the case of West Papua around the world and at the UN.

The Prime minister of Vanuatu Moana Carcassas recently raised the political status of West Papua at the UN. He stated,

“When it comes to the issue of the rights of the people of West Papua, our voices are muted even in this podium…How can we ignore hundreds of thousands of West Papuans who have been brutally beaten and murdered? The people of West Papua are looking to the UN as a beacon for hope… Let us, my colleague leaders, with the same moral conviction yield our support to the plight of West Papuans. It is time for the United Nation to move beyond its periphery and address and rectify some historical error.”

He went on to say

“We must not be afraid if the UN had made some mistakes in the past. We must admit our mistakes and correct them.”