The UK government should not be welcoming this war criminal, complicit in genocide in East Timor and West Papua. He belongs in the International Criminal Court, not in 10 Downing Street.
Prabowo is complicit in genocide in East Timor and West Papua. As a General of Kopassus, he led the Kraras massacre, in which over 300 innocent Timorese people were slaughtered. Some accounts have alleged that he personally tortured victims during Indonesia’s occupation of East Timor.
The UK cannot make climate agreements with Indonesia while Indonesia destroys West Papua’s forest for the largest deforestation project in the history of the world. Indonesia has recently seen the effects of climate catastrophe: the mass floods in Aceh and Sumatra, which killed over 1000 people and wrecked many more homes and livelihoods.
To support their climate destruction, more than eighty thousand Indonesian security forces, including 56,000 soldiers and 26,000 police, are currently posted across West Papua’s towns and villages.
The result is the mass displacement of West Papuan civilians – mostly women, children, and elders. Over 105,000 West Papuans are currently displaced due to Indonesian military operations. They are living as refugees in the bush, without food, medical care, or education for the children. Thousands have died due to starvation or disease.
