United Liberation Movement for West Papua
211/838 Collins St, Docklands 3008, Victoria, Australia
Tel: +61 42025 0389; +61 49786 7070
Email: [email protected]
____________________________________________________________

4 April 2018

This week the Indonesian Government murdered a 39 year-old male and two children
in Opitawah (near the Freeport mine in West Papua) in retaliation for the death of an
Indonesian soldier during a shoot-out between the Indonesian military(TNI) and the
West Papuan Liberation Army (TPNPB). The shooting continues and a thousand
civilians have sought sanctuary in the forest.

Indonesian soldiern front of a burned down West Papuan house in the Tembagapura district. Photo: AFP/GETTY IMAGES

At the same time, in Waena on the north coast, forty-four university students were
arrested by a brutal assemblage of military, police, and intelligence while they were
praying in their dormitory for the success of a political conference in the Netherlands
on 6 April. Most of the students are from the West Papua National Committee
(KNPB) and are still being detained in an Indonesian state security centre.

West Papuan activists arrested on 4th April. Photo: KNPB.

The United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) is calling on Indonesia’s
Djokowidodo government to release the students, and to begin respecting and
listening to West Papuans rather than incarcerating and murdering them.

The events are yet more illustrations of Indonesia’s fragile grasp of the basic tenets of
a democracy, and craven violations of its own constitution.

Jacob Rumbiak
Spokesperson, United Liberaion Movement for West Papua