Free West Papua Chair Benny Wenda’s Christmas Address

December 19, 2024

On behalf of the ULMWP and the people of West Papua, I would like to wish all our supporters around the world a merry Christmas and a happy new year. I hope that all our solidarity groups, parliamentary allies, friendly diplomatic missions, and civil society supporters will continue to stand up for West Papua in 2025. Please continue to be our voice.

Thank you to the West Papua Council of Churches (WPCC), the Pacific Council of Churches (PCC), and all individual congregations around the world who support us with your prayers and solidarity actions. While you celebrate Christmas, I ask that you also pray for the 85,000 West Papuans who are currently displaced by Indonesian military operations, as well the over 1200 who have died at the hands of our coloniser since 2019. 

West Papua is a peaceful nation – we always respect Indonesia’s religious festivals, including the holy days of Muslim settlers in West Papua. But every Christmas in West Papua is marked by a new round of violence and militarisation. More than 3000 Papuans have been forced to flee their homes within the last two weeks. They will be forced to spend Christmas in the bush, away from their villages and churches, and without adequate food, water, or medical supplies. The Indonesian military continue to act with impunity in the highlands. We will not forget 16-year-old Yulianus Abugau, tortured to death by TNI soldiers last week, or Tuju Wonda, who was executed simply for having dreadlocks. 

Though it has been another difficult year for West Papuans, we have continued to advance our self-determination struggle at the highest levels. I would like to thank the member states of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), who this year reaffirmed their 2019 demand for a visit to West Papua by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Indonesia continues to refuse the UN access to West Papua, despite more than 110 countries – more than half the world – having insisted upon a visit. Indonesia is not only violating West Papua’s right to self-determination; they are now in breach of their obligations as a UN member state.

Thank you to the International Parliamentarians for West Papua (IPWP), who have worked throughout the year to secure this long-delayed visit. We have held meetings supporting this agenda in the British, Netherlands, Scottish, and EU Parliaments. I also thank the International Lawyers for West Papua (ILWP) for their valuable legal counsel, I also thank the International Lawyers for West Papua (ILWP) for their valuable legal counsel, all Parliamentarians who signed the Brussels declaration, and all media outlets, particularly in the Pacific, who keep Indonesia accountable by publishing crucial stories about the reality of their occupation. While we struggle against Indonesia, we also pray for our brothers and sisters in Vanuatu as they rebuild from yet another natural disaster. Thank you to the Vanuatu people and government for your constant support for our struggle, from the diplomatic level to the grassroots. Yumi Sanap Strong Wantaim.

2024 has been a year of internal progress for the ULMWP. Following our first ever Congress in 2023, we have consolidated our strength inside West Papua. We now have a constitution, a cabinet, executives in every region of West Papua, and – most importantly – a democratically-elected leadership and people’s agenda. I would like to give particular thanks to the ULMWP Executive, Legislative, and Judicative Councils, as well as to Prime Minister Edison Waromi, and all those West Papuans who have worked tirelessly to build our capacity on the ground. I am proud to address you as the Interim President of a government-in-waiting. We are ready to govern our own affairs.

I therefore invite all West Papuans to unite behind the Congress and the ULMWP. We have a clear roadmap, a people’s mandate, and international recognition. It is important to reiterate that the ULMWP is not an NGO, but a Provisional Government: we are not promoting Indonesian democracy, but self-determination and liberation from colonial rule. We represent all West Papuans who desire Merdeka.

To everyone in West Papua, I wish you a peaceful Christmas and year ahead. May you continue to resist Indonesian colonalism with dignity and steadfastness. To the elders in the bush, you are our home guard, having defended our land during all those years of silence and isolation. You are no longer alone. Your cry for justice is being heard at the UN, the EU, PIF, and in Parliament buildings across the world.

2025 will be a year of action for the ULMWP. We will push harder than ever before. As Nelson Mandela said, there is a long walk to freedom. We are still walking, but we are close: Merdeka is coming. God bless West Papua.

Benny Wenda
Interim President
ULMWP