West Papua: Indonesian terror attacks force 1,000 people to flee
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- Created: Friday, 05 March 2021 12:12
- Written by FRFI
More than 1,000 West Papuan civilian refugees have fled from the Intan Jaya region to the forest since 15 February 2021, escaping from the Indonesian military and terrorist police brutality. The Indonesian state has stepped up its terror campaign against West Papuans in Intan Jaya as it seeks to hand over control of the resource rich territory to mining multinationals. West Papua, on the island of New Guinea, has resisted incorporation into Indonesia since the signing of the New York Agreement between the Netherlands and Indonesia in 1962. The resistance has grown to become a popular anti-colonial movement, combining mass mobilisations with guerrilla struggle for independence and liberation.
Readers of FRFI will be familiar with the image of the West Papua ‘Morning Star’ flag – which Serogo Tabuni has carried throughout this summer on progressive demonstrations, gatherings and meetings in London and elsewhere. Serogo represents the most radical elements of the struggle in West Papua and speaks for the political prisoners who are fighting against the Indonesian military and their British, US and Australian allies. Successive brutal and racist Indonesian regimes have attempted to repress the West Papuan struggle against occupation, environmental degradation and domination by multinationals for the past 60 years but it continues (see www.freewestpapua.org). At the end of September, hundreds of people again took to the streets to protest against allegations of racism, the latest manifestation of a rage that has been simmering over the last few months; buildings were burned and there are reports of more than 30 deaths in clashes between police and demonstrators.
