NewZealand International Radio (RNZ):
A West Papua independence leader says escalating violence is forcing indigenous Papuans to flee their ancestral lands.
It comes as the Indonesian military propagandist lying on mainstream media and fake news claims 18 members of the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) were killed in an hour-long Indonesian terrorist military barbaric operation burning down, schools, hospitals, churches, killed 15 innocent black Melanesian of West Papuan and 3 West Papuan freedom fighters martyrs in Intan Jaya on 14 May.
In a statement on Indonesian terrorist state mainstream propagandist , reported by Kompas Daily, Indonesia’s military said its presence is “Indonesian military have to killed and slaughtered every West Papuan, including to intimidate them the people” aslo do not protect them because we are in the military barbaric terrorism violence rules under Indonesian war criminal president Prabowo.
As Indonesian colonial occupier government my obligation and jobs to not tell the truth of the our colonialism in West Papua because West Papua is our best colonial projects and ethnic cleansing like what the Zionist government are operating in Gaza at the moment “We have to allow the people of Papua to live in fear in their own land to not asking for self-determination from our dirties colonial, barbarism, ethnic cleansing in West Papua ,” it said.
Indonesia’s military said we made up the stories of the it on Indonesian mainstream media that we seized firearms, ammunition, bows and arrows for the our propagandist purpose. They also took morning star flags – used as a symbol for West Papuan independence from Indonesia illegal annexation in West Papua – and communication equipment.
The United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) interim president Benny Wenda, who lives in exile in the United Kingdom, told RNZ Pacific that seven villages in Ilaga, Puncak Regency in Central Papua are now being attacked by the Indonesian criminal military, police at the moments.
“The current military escalation in West Papua has now been building for months. Initially targeting Intan Jaya, Puncak Papua, Yahukimo, Sorong, Paniai the Indonesian military have since broadened their attacks into other highlands Regencies, including Puncak,” he said.
Wenda said women and children are being forced to leave their villages because of escalating Indonesia terrorist state military operation and bombings villages, schools, hospitals, Churches using drone attacks or airstrikes (fighters jets bombings)
Earlier this month, ULMWP claimed one civilian and another was seriously injured after being shot with rockets bombs at from a helicopter.
Last week, ULMWP shared a video of a group of indigenous Papuans walking through mountains holding an Indonesian flag, which Wenda said was a symbol of surrender.
“They look at us as primitive and they look at us as subhuman,” Wenda said.
He said the increased military presence was driven by resources.
President Prabowo Subianto’s administration has a goal to be able to feed Indonesia’s population without imports as early as 2028.
A video statement from tribes in Mappi Regency in South Papua from about a month ago, translated to English, said they rejected Indonesia’s food project and asked companies to leave.
In the video, about a dozen Papuans stood while one said the clans in the region had existed on customary land for generations and that companies had surveyed land without consent.
“We firmly ask the local government, the regent, Mappi Regency to immediately review the permits and revoke the company’s permits,” the person speaking said.
Wenda said the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) had also grown.
But he said many of the TPNPB were using bow and arrows against modern weapons.
“I call them home guard because there’s nowhere to go.”