Australia West Papua Association (Sydney)
AWPA condemns the arrest of 12 West Papuan activists in Sentani on the 18 March 2025.
Statement 19 March 2025
The activists were arrested because they were handing out leaflets about the upcoming launch of a boycott Indonesian products campaign.
As the activists walked towards the Sentani old market they were stopped by the police and taken to the Jayapura district police station in Doyo Sentani.
Joe Collins of AWPA said, “the activists were simply informing the public about the boycott campaign which is their right under article 19 of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights”
Article 19
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
The activists should be released immediately.
Joe Collins said, “A boycott is a nonviolent act to raise awareness about an injustice, in this case the ongoing human rights abuses suffered by the West Papuan people under Indonesian rule. It’s a peaceful and voluntary act which the powerless can use against the powerful”. It has also been used by governments when it suits them.
The ULMWP has reported that the boycott campaign “has won support from more than ninety tribes, political organisations, religious and customary groups – people from every part of West Papua are demanding a boycott of products complicit in the genocidal Indonesian occupation”.
The launch of the boycott Indonesia campaign in solidarity with occupied West Papua will be on the 20th March in the UK (7-9 GMT)
Photos posted on AWPA FB page
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