| BP WEST PAPUA (Tangguh)
FREE WEST PAPUA (UK) message to the
BP TIAP Meeting, London, 22 April 2008
Richard Samuelson, Co-Director, Free West Papua (UK) gave this message to the members of the Tangguh Independent Advisory Board (TIAP*) and to senior representatives of BP Indonesia at the annual BP-TIAP meeting at the South Bank Centre in London today.“THANK YOU for this vital opportunity to bring a message from inside West Papua to this important meeting in London today. Thank you also to BP for helping to make it possible for us to hold a peaceful protest on private land outside this meeting. Thank God we are FREE here in England to speak out and protest. We could not be doing this in Indonesian-occupied West Papua. Thank God I can say this and wear my Morning Star badge and walk away as a free man. If I did this in West Papua, Indonesian intelligence agents and police would be waiting at the door to arrest me.
I am here with a mixture of deep sadness and anger. Deep sadness because we are here today surrounded by bones – the bones of the thousands of our Papuan Brothers and Sisters who have been killed during 45 years of the Indonesian occupation, the grim anniversary of which falls soon on 1 May. I always think that any meeting like this should begin with silence to remember all those who have died and the countless others who have been tortured and raped by Indonesian soldiers and police.
And I feel anger, because, just as in the Rio Tinto meeting we were at last week, there’s an “elephant in the room” which no-one is talking about – the Indonesian military occupation of West Papua. Why to Papuans raise the Morning Star flag, why do they go on the streets demanding a referendum? Because the overwhelming majority of West Papuans DO NOT WANT TO BE PART OF INDONESIA! And the only way the Indonesian sate can stop the democratic will of the people of West Papua becoming a reality, is to use violence, threats and intimidation.
You wouldn’t know any of this from reading the latest TIAP report and BP’s response. TIAP and BP claim that human rights abuses in West Papua occurred “in the past”, or “in other parts of Papua” (such as the Central Highlands). Well I have brought with me today a photograph (holds up poster-size photo) of one of our Brothers who was smashed in the face with rifle butts by Indonesian intelligence and police last month. For those of you who are here today from the Indonesian Embassy – it was YOUR soldiers who did this to our Brother! He is not involved in violence. He just wants to campaign peacefully for his people’s freedom. And for that, this is what Indonesia did to him! I wish so much that he could be with us today to tell you this himself, but he’s now in hiding. But we’ll tell him that he was in a way able to get his message to us here now in London.
BP – this is where you’re operating. In a country where this happens every day!
Oppression like this is happening every day NOW in Indonesian-occupied West Papua (not just “in the past”) and it’s not just in the Central Highlands. You must know about the arrests last month for raising the Morning Star flag in Manokwari. They may get 10, 15 or 20 years in prison, just for saying they want to be Free! BP, you simply cannot say that’s nothing to do with the part of West Papua you’re operating in. And we had reports that when Prince Andrew visited the BP project itself in March, Indonesian soldiers threatened to “shoot on the spot” any Papuan who put up a protest banner such as “Welcome Prince Andrew to the Land of Papua – the Land of Genocide”.
I will finish by raising the Morning Star flag, the Bintang Kejora, (holds up Morning Star flag) in solidarity with all our West Papuan brothers and sisters who are now in prison for doing exactly this in Abepura, Timika and Manokwari. Here in London we can raise this flag without fear. We can tell the world that West Papua wants to be Free!
* The members of the Tangguh Independent Advisory Board (TIAP) are: Senator George Mitchell (USA), Ambassador Sabam Siagian (Indonesia), Revd Herman Saud (West Papua) & Lord Hannay (UK)
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