Raise the Fight, Wave the Beacon of the Struggle for Self-Determination!
On the 2018 Global Flag Raising Day for West Papua
December 1, 2018
Statement
The International Indigenous Peoples Movement for Self-Determination and Liberation (IPMSDL) joins the people of West Papua, together with the international community, in celebrating the Global Flag Raising Day this December 1 as a symbolic action in solidarity of the people’s struggle for the right to self-determination and liberation.
On the 57th year since the first flag raising of the Morning Star, we honor the West Papuan people, the martyrs and heroes who have sacrificed their lives and led the fight for independence against colonial and imperialist powers. We also raise our highest salute to all who continue to carry on with the struggle while incarcerated and in exile , and continue to wave the Morning Star across the world, as they march towards a genuinely free West Papua.
The long history of colonization with the Dutch empire, to the forced annexation through a sham plebiscite of the Indonesian government crushed the West Papuans’ rightful path to the realization of their right to self-determination. The US-backed Indonesian government carries out fascist military invasions causing millions of West Papuans to become victims of killings, tortures, rapes, illegal arrests, enforced disappearances, land grabbing, and massive resource exploitation. Today, as mass movements clamor for a long overdue independence through a referendum, the military and police forces under the existing counter-terrorism programs of Indonesia increase the attacks and targeting of progressive West Papuan activists.
Given its rich resources, West Papua remains one of the most impoverished regions of Indonesia. The disregard for the West Papuans’ political and economic rights continues as the abundance of West Papua’s gas, gold, copper, fish and timber reserves are exhausted by foreign powers in collaboration with the state. Major companies in the mining and energy projects includes Rio Tinto and US-owned Freeport-McMoRan.
Other major investments include the 2.5 million hectare Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate (MIFEE) that produce export crops grabbed the lands, and destroyed protected forests that are source of West Papuan’s food. Shell Group’s affiliate Nederlandsche Nieuw Guinea Petroleum Mij, which has 25 years oil exploration concession in West Papua, have contaminated water sources and destroyed their ancestral territories. Liquified Natural Gas mining, gold and nickel mining of British Petroleum have been reported to ransack and damage the environment.
Plunderous projects have undermined the rights of West Papuan peoples and indigenous communities to exercise their right to live with dignity. Thus, the challenge for the people to emancipate themselves and unite in the campaigns against all forms of repression and the global imperialist plunder of lands.
The International IPMSDL calls on everyone, to defeat the continuing blatant oppression and genocide against West Papuans of imperialist countries perpetuated by local state, landlords and oligarchs. Join and raise a flag, link our fights among oppressed sectors, and champion the West Papuan struggle for liberation!
source: Int'l International Indigenous People Movement for Self-Determination and Liberation
