A Historic Choice: ULMWP President Benny Wenda Pacific on the 2024 Pacific Islands Forum
August 26, 2024
The 2024 Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) Leaders’ Meeting is a critical moment for Pacific leaders to show courage and leadership on one of the biggest issues facing our region: West Papua.
It is time for PIF to reaffirm their 2019 call for a UN High Commissioner for Human Rights visit to West Papua. It has now been five years since PIF’s initial demand for a UN visit was made, and over 110 countries have echoed this Pacific call. After a half-decade of delays and refusals, it is clear that Indonesia is deliberately blocking the UN from accessing West Papua.
The humanitarian crisis in West Papua has worsened considerably since PIF’s initial 2019 demand. According to the United Nations, between 60,000 and 100,000 West Papuans were internally displaced between December 2018 and March 2022, as a result of escalating Indonesian militarisation. As of April 2024, over 76,000 West Papuan civilians remained displaced. Collectively, well over 100,000 Papuans have been forced to become refugees on their own ancestral land.
Even worse, over 1100 of my people have been killed since 2019 – shot, tortured to death, or starved in the bush after being forcibly displaced. Independent experts agree: we are facing ecocide, the destruction of our land, and genocide, the destruction of our people.
Despite this violence, Indonesia shows no sign of bowing to global pressure for international humanitarian investigation in West Papua. For this reason, it is of the utmost importance that PIF reaffirms the call for a UN visit and calls out Indonesia for refusing access. The Pacific can play a key part in ensuring Indonesia is finally subjected to international scrutiny.
In 2019, Pacific leaders showed great courage and moral responsibility by demanding investigation of the ‘festering human rights sore’ in West Papua. Five years on, the sore has become a fatal wound. This is a historic moment for the Pacific.
Benny Wenda
President
ULMWP
