IN exile but unbroken, three West Papuan journalists are in Fiji calling on the Pacific to stand with them against Indonesia’s ongoing media blackout and human rights abuses.
Their visit is part of a broader effort to forge solidarity with Pacific neighbours, through media partnerships, university collaborations, and joint advocacy for human rights and self-determination.
Speaking after the screening of their latest documentary film “Pepera 1969: A Democratic Integration” at the University of the South Pacific, the team including Victor Mambor, co-founder of Jubi Media Papua, Yuliana Lantipo, senior journalist and editor, and Dandhy Laksono, Jakarta-based investigative filmmaker shared their personal experiences of reporting from inside one of the most heavily militarised and censored regions in the Pacific.
“We are here to build bridges with our brothers and sisters in the Pacific,” said Mambor.
“There is no hope from the Asian side,” added Laksono. “That’s why we are here, to reach out to the Pacific. We need new audiences, new support, and new understanding.”
The team urged Pacific people to push for greater awareness of the West Papuan situation and to challenge the dominant narratives propagated by the Indonesian government.
“Don’t just listen to what Jakarta says,” said Mambor. “Speak to Papuans. Listen to our stories. Raise our voices.”
“We want to bring West Papua back to the Pacific — not just geographically, but politically, culturally, and emotionally.”
Mambor described the continued targeting of Jubi Media staff, including attacks on their office and vehicles, as part of an escalating crackdown under Indonesia’s new President.
“Two of our operational cars were destroyed. Our journalists are constantly intimidated. Yet we continue to report the truth.”
The situation for press freedom in West Papua is dire. Foreign journalists are barred entry, internet access is often restricted during periods of unrest, and local reporters — especially Indigenous one’s risk arrest or violence for covering politically sensitive stories.
“If you report on deforestation or culture, maybe it’s allowed. But if you report on human rights or the military, there is no tolerance,” said Laksono.
Laksono, who is not Papuan himself but has long worked to expose injustices in the region, added:
“Much of Indonesia has been indoctrinated through school textbooks and media into believing a false history. Our film tries to change that by offering the truth, especially about the so-called Act of Free Choicein 1969, which was neither free nor a genuine act of self-determination.”
Journalist Yuliana Lantipo spoke of the daily trauma faced by communities caught between the Indonesian military and the West Papua National Liberation Army.
“Every day we receive reports: killings, displacement, families fleeing villages, children out of school, no access to health care. Women and children are the most affected,” she said.
As one of the few Indigenous female journalists reporting from conflict zones, Lantipo also highlighted how her identity both enables and complicates her work.
“Sometimes, as a woman, I can access conflict areas more easily, especially when traveling with elders or family members. But Indigenous male journalists, especially those with dreadlocks or visible Papuan identity, are often turned away or arrested.”
Despite the personal risks, Lantipo and her colleagues remain committed to their role.
“People need us to speak the truth. That is our responsibility. That is our profession.”
Jubi Media Papua
Founded in 2001 by West Papuan civil society, Jubi Media has become one of the most trusted and independent sources of information from the territory. With more than 30 reporters and 50 staff, the media house has built a reputation for fearless journalism.
“Jubi means ‘to speak the truth’,” said Mambor. “We created a special section just to tell Pacific stories — to remind our people that we are not alone, and to reconnect West Papua with our Pacific identity.”
Content warning: this article contains descriptions of cultural violence, physical violence, and sexual abuse.
Introduction
On 17th August, Indonesia celebrated 80 years of independence, an end to a 350 year rule riddled with mass atrocities committed by the Dutch, as well as an eventual end to the Japanese empire during World War II. What soon followed after this declaration of independence was a four year war between Dutch colonial forces and Indonesians, who took up arms to rightfully resist their occupiers. This resistance would lead to Indonesia’s liberation, breaking the shackles of Dutch colonialism. Such struggle, however, would be exploited to appropriate West Papua’s own independence movement and instead take over the neighbouring country completely — the colonised becomes the coloniser.
After four years of struggle, Indonesia gained independence from the Netherlands in 1949. Indonesia subsequently stressed its right to West Papua given the countries’ shared struggle of colonisation through the Dutch East Indies. Over time, President Sukarno spouted rhetoric about the ‘uncivilised’ nature of West Papuans who were incapable of self-governance, as well as the claim that the Dutch were holding onto West Papua as a desperate means to hold diminishing power in the region.
Many futile negotiations took place over the next decade between Indonesia and the Netherlands. During this time, Indonesia used diplomacy to advance its goals for West Papuan land. Indonesia used the 1955 Bandung Conference, a gathering of Third World countries to discuss anti-imperialism and western-decentralisation, as a means to enhance the legitimacy of its claim to West Papua. Simultaneously, the height of the Cold War gave the US a chance to expand its influence, with Indonesia slowly turning to the Soviet Union for support in the occupation of West Papua. To quell the communist influence in South-Eastern Asia, the US eventually threatened to withdraw Marshall Aid away from the Netherlands if they did not give up the land to Indonesia.
In 1961, West Papua held a congress in which they declared their independence, and expressed support for the Luns Plan, a proposal by Dutch Foreign Minister Joseph Luns that the Netherlands cedes sovereignty over West Papua and the UN administers a plebiscite over West Papua’s self-determination.
In 1962, the New York Agreement was signed by Indonesia and the Netherlands, in which West Papua would be transferred from the Netherlands to the United Nations Temporary Executive Authority for administration, and eventually to Indonesia. One of the stipulations within the agreement was that Indonesia conduct a referendum in West Papua over their self-determination. As Douglas Gerrard describes it, the New York Agreement is to Papua the Balfour Declaration to Palestine, with both Indigenous peoples “shut out of the negotiations that signed away their land.”
In 1969, the Act of Free Choice (known as the act of No Choice) was conducted by Indonesia. 1000 West Papuan tribal leaders were hand-picked and taken at gunpoint to vote against self-determination. The UN accepted the results of the referendum despite the autocratic electoral procedures.
Following the results of the plebiscite, Indonesia launched a military invasion on West Papua, throwing Morning Star flags into bonfires and destroying Indigenous artefacts. Indonesian occupation would expand.
West Papua today
The violent occupation of West Papua is upheld in all areas of life. Its tactics — state violence, displacement, resource extraction, and political repression — are evident among all other occupiers, such as: Israel, Australia, Amerikkka, Canada.
ICF Brutality
Tens of thousands of Indonesian police and military personnel, henceforth referred to as the Indonesian Colonial Forces (ICF), brutalise, humiliate, drown, starve, rape, and shoot West Papuans. These are some of the most notable examples.
Operation Kikis (‘Chipping Away’) was conducted on the Central Highlands of West Papua between 1977 and 1978 in an effort to punish the Free Papua organisation (OPM) for their direct action against the Grasberg mine. In this massacre, over 4,000 West Papuans were killed, many by bombings. During the attacks, the ICF mass-arrested West Papuans and drowned them in containers that were often thrown into rivers, and buried people alive in wells that were then covered with soil. Survivors recount violence being especially targeted towards tribal leaders. Lieutenant Colonel Soekemi forced tribal leaders to drink the blood of Nalogian Kibak, who the ICF murdered. In a similar act of cruelty, the ICF also forced elderly West Papuans to eat soldiers’ faeces and drink military officers’ urine. Sexual assault was another major feature of Operation Kikis. The ICF forced a couple to have sex in public and filmed it, distributing it widely to frame West Papuans’ ‘animalistic’ nature. Soldiers raped West Papuan women in Jayawijaya to death with heated iron rods. Female victims’ breasts and genitalia would be mutilated. The ICF would cut the penises from killed Papuan men and force them into Papuan women’s mouths. Reverend Matius recounted his traumatic experience of witnessing the ICF insert batteries into a Papuan woman’s vagina.
Twenty years later was the 1998 Biak massacre. The West Papuan Morning Star flag was raised at a water tower in the town of Biak during an independence demonstration involving a declaration of demands regarding West Papuan sovereignty, chants, singing, and traditional dance. The ICF attempted to move the crowd on; met with resistance, they opened fire on the demonstrators, killing over 150 West Papuans and terrorising hundreds more over the following days. A citizens’ tribunal was held for the massacre at the University of Sydney in 2013, revealing horrific testimonies of sexual abuse and slaughter. One ICF soldier threatened a West Papuan woman with “we are going to use this [a razor blade] to cut off your vagina, from above and below and from the left to the right.” She testified that “A lit candle was penetrated inside me, they cut off my clitoris and they raped me.” To this day, the Morning Star flag is still banned and West Papuans continue to be charged with treason for raising it.
The 2011 Papuan Congress — a gathering of thousands of Papuans to discuss their struggle — was met with brutal violence by the ICF. The ICF beat, hit, and opened fire on delegates;300 were arrested and two died.
Danny Kogoya, the Jayapura regional commander of OPM, was poisoned to death in 2013 with toxic chemicals during his time at a police hospital where his leg was amputated without his consent. The autopsy was subsequently blocked by Indonesian officials.
In 2014, a 12 year old in Enarotali was assaulted with rifle butts by the ICF, after he and his friends shouted at soldiers whilst setting up Christmas decorations. The following day, around 800 West Papuans gathered in peaceful protest outside Indonesian military and police buildings. Protestors engaged in various traditional Papuan practices including performing the waita dance, singing, mimicking the bird of paradise, and holding ceremonial items. The ICF began to strike protestors with batons to disperse the demonstration before opening gunfire, murdering five West Papuan teenagers.
In 2015, the Timika Region was invaded by the ICF in response to Indonesian police officers and a Freeport mine security guard being killed. The ICF burnt down the village of Banti, displacing thousands of West Papuans. Additionally, over 100 villagers were indiscriminately arrested and tortured. Later that same year, one West Papuan highschooler was killed and another critically wounded from shootin. The ICF falsely claimed that the victims’ fathers were in OPM.
In 2019, 43 Papuan students in Java were arrested for the alleged vandalism of an Indonesian flag on Independence Day. During the confrontation, the ICF teargassed the students and called them monkeys. This triggered protests across West Papua, wherein the Indonesian government shut down the internet, and the ICF killed at least 10 Papuan protestors.
In September 2021, following allegations by the Indonesian government that OPM had caused conflict in the region, the ICF launched a military attack against Papuans in Kiwirok. Over 150 bombs were dropped over Kiwirok through rockets and drones, and ICF soldiers used snipers and M16s against civilians, ultimately killing over 300 West Papuans. Thousands of Papuans fled Kiwirok to isolated mountains. They continue to be displaced to this day, out of fear of Indonesian retaliation.As of 2023, the ICF still guards Kiwirok, placing stun grenades on tripwires in the journey back to Kiwirok, and shooting at Papuans who try to return. Due to the isolation of the mountains, at least 2,000 displaced Papuans from Kiwirok have died from starvation, and many others of sickness as well.
In 2023, the ICF raided the Fakfak Regency. During these raids, the ICF killed five Papuans by shooting them when they ‘resisted arrest’. The ICF arrested 12 others, including women and children. 500 West Papuan villagers in the Fakfak Regency became displaced when fleeing the raids, in fear of ICF response. A week later in the Yahukimo Regency, the ICF killed five West Papuan teenagers on the suspicion that they were members of the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB).
On the 10th of August 2025, the ICF immediately and lethally escalated their response to reports of alcohol consumption among young Papuans in Dogiyai. The ICF indiscriminately shot the group of Papuans, resulting in two teenage Papuans being seriously injured from gunshot wounds to their shoulders. Hostility against Papuans continued throughout the day, and the ICF shot dead 14 year old Martinus Tebai.
Ecocide
The exploitation of West Papua’s rich natural resources has been a central weapon of its continued colonisation. Imperial powers have preyed upon the country’s gold, copper, palm oil, and nickel reservoirs.
The Grasberg mine is one of the largest gold and copper mines in the world. Freeport, the U.S. company that holds primary ownership of the mine, was given a 30 year contract by Indonesia two years before the Act of No Choice. This agreement lacked any stipulations about environmental or social responsibilities, giving Freeport free reign for exploitation. The entire operation is expected to create 6 billion tonnes of waste. The mine is also partly owned by Rio Tinto — the same corporation that destroyed the 46,000 year old Juukan Gorge cave in Australia to expand an iron-ore project.
The Tanah Merah palm oil project spans over almost 3,000 square kilometres,close to twice the size of New York City. The project has, since its inception, been plagued with corruption. An investigation conducted by The Gecko Project and Mongabay found that permits for the project have consistently been falsified. Such forgery enables ecocide to go unchecked, with the deforestation required for the project projected to create 100 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. The Tanah Merah project uproots the Awyu people’s inherent ties to the land. Hendrikus Woo describes this innate connection: “without our ancestral forest, our people cannot survive.” Projects such as Tanah Merah commit not only physical acts — of ecocide and forced displacement — but also acts of cultural erasure, spiritual violence, and social disempowerment.
Despite claims by Indonesia that extraction projects such as these offer economic opportunities to otherwise impoverished West Papuans, it is precisely the imposition of exploitative, capitalist systems into West Papua that deprives the people of autonomy. The true beneficiaries of extraction are Indonesia and foreign investors from imperial states that benefit from colonisation: USA, UAE, Australia.
Furthermore, Papuan resistance to Indonesian ecocide is met with collective punishment.As outlined in the previous section, direct action by militant and peaceful Papuans alike leads to intensified ICF hostility. West Papuans are oppressed through violently extractive industries, and any dissent to these circumstances only exacerbates the colonial power that enables such industries in the first place.
Transmigration
Indonesia’s transmigration program is an egregious part of its erasure of West Papuans. The program is a legacy of the Dutch East Indies continued by the Indonesian government, dispossessing West Papuans from their land by moving Indonesians away from densely-populated Java. West Papuans currently make up less than 50 per cent of Papua. In 1971, they made up 96 per cent of the population. This is ethnic cleansing. West Papuans continue to be forced out of their homes through bombings, evictions, land-clearing, and armed force. Not only does transmigration inflict cultural violence, but the dispossession of land economically disempowers West Papuans. Such impoverishment forces them to engage in colonial economic and physical relations to the land, particularly extraction industries.
Political repression
The ban on raising the Morning Star flag, unlawful arrests of activists, internet blackouts, as well as the well documented cases of state-sanctioned violence from both the ICF and Indonesian police are salient examples of political repression in West Papua.
Some key activists in the movement have been forced to flee overseas to escape persecution from Indonesia over the fight for independence. Benny Wenda, founder of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua, a coalition of pro-independence groups, escaped prison after being wrongly accused of leading an attack on a police station in 2000 which killed three Indonesian police officers. Wenda was not even in the country at the time of the attacks nor at the alleged planning of the attacks — a clear case of Indonesia’s intent to jail activists for their work. With the help of other activists, Wenda fled the country and now lives in the United Kingdom.
The Indonesian government has barred human rights organisations and NGOs operating in West Papua while under its occupation. In 2015, CNN Indonesia reported that the Indonesian government had ordered all international NGOs to shutter their offices and leave the region. Prior to this order the Red Cross and Peace Brigade International closed their offices in West Papua in the 2010s.
For foreign journalists, covering West Papua comes with close monitoring from Indonesian authorities. A complete ban on foreign journalists was lifted by former President Joko Widodo in 2015; however, journalists have still been detained and prevented from doing their jobs. In 2018, BBC Indonesia bureau chief Rebecca Henschke was detained after posting photos of supplies sitting on a dock during a measles outbreak. The photos “hurt the feelings of soldiers” according to a ICF spokesperson as Henschke captioned the supplies as aid. The spokesperson said that it did not show aid but supplies from a local merchant. In 2020, editor for environmental news Mongabay Philip Jacobson was arrested and deported for “visa violations” after meeting with the provincial government in Kalimantan and the Indigenous People’s Alliance of the Archipelago (IPAA), an indigenous rights advocacy group, to understand more about local environmental issues. Indonesia claims the meeting breached the visa rules journalists use in West Papua. However, speaking to Vice News, the head of the IPAA said the arrest of Philips is most likely a response to his plan to cover Indonesian law prosecuting farmers for using fire to clear land plots.
While foreign journalists face arrests and deportations, local West Papuan journalists are more likely to face violence. Last year the offices of local tabloid Jubi Papua, who cover human rights abuses in West Papua, were firebombed by two unknown men. Despite clear security footage of the men and the motorcycle they rode on, no arrests were made by Indonesian police, a recurrent issue the publication has faced whenever they’ve become victims of violence. In 2023, editor for Jubi Papua Eddy Mambor, who had faced violence throughout his tenure as editor, had a bomb explode outside his house. Indonesian police failed to not only arrest the perpetrators but also failed to produce key evidence such as clear security camera footage as well as eye witness testimonies during their official recollections. Mambor did not find out the case was thrown out until several months later after being contacted by Papuan representatives from the Indonesian National Commission on Human Rights. The International Federation of Journalists have said these instances set a dangerous precedent of impunity for crimes against journalists in the region, calling for transparent, effective investigations that considered all evidence.
Australia’s complicity
Like its complicity in the genocide and occupation of Palestine and Aboriginal land, the colonial powers of Australia continue to aid in the oppression and occupation of West Papua.
In an effort to maintain its colonial grasp of Papua New Guinea in the ‘60s, Australia initially supported the Netherlands plans to give West Papua full autonomy and independence. However, Dutch concerns of a military incursion into the region by Indonesia would later quell this plan, after the United States said it would not aid the Dutch militarily if independence were to happen. Australia would also backtrack on their support for this plan.
As West Papua fell into Indonesian control, thousands of innocent West Papuans would become victims of atrocities by ICF, as the OPM began to ramp up resistance against the colonial force.
Like in Palestine, Australia would play a role in the violence through military support of the ICF, with a 2013 report by the Asian Human Rights Commission finding that the Australian government supported the colonial forces with two helicopters. These were used during Operation Kikis, which saw the killing of 4,146 known people while some survivors estimated that around 13,000 were killed in the region. The Australian government also sent out Royal Australian Air Force fighters to the region, for mapping purposes which were used to aid the ICF across the Highlands of West Papua.
The previously mentioned Biak Massacre in 1998 is yet another example of Australia painting its hand red with the blood of West Papuans by destroying photographic evidence of war crimes being committed by the ICF. An unredacted intelligence report, written by a former Australian military attaché and intelligence officer, given to Guardian Australia in 2021 revealed the extent of the massacres committed against West Papuan demonstrators. The local water tower, where demonstrations took place riddled with bullet holes as well as oral evidence by Australian volunteer aid workers on the island detailing the length of gunfire produced by the ICF. One local man also gave the officer a roll of film which contained photographic evidence of the senseless brutality inflicted against demonstrators. However, it was later found that the photographic evidence which was handed to the officer was destroyed by the Department of Defence in 2014. This was due to policy surrounding the handling of intelligence material after West Papua activist Anthony Craig requested an unredacted copy of the intelligence report without redactions from the National Archives of Australia.
In both examples, Australia has chosen to hide its complicity behind a charade of “raising concerns with the Indonesian government”, not being able find evidence in the Department of Defence and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade archives, or even destroying any key evidence under the guise of government policy.
Despite Australia’s historical denial in its complicity, the Australian wing of weapons manufacturers BAE Systems, Northrop Grunman, Thales, and Rheinmetall Defence — who provide the ICF with ammunition, tanks, and Bushmasters — are more than comfortable to have their profits covered in the blood of West Papuans, with a full green light from the Australian government. Australia also provides Indonesia with “counter-terrorism” through training programs and equipment to the Indonesian National Police through the Australian Federal Police (AFP). In 2011, the AFP donated three patrol boats which cost around $10 million including operational cost as well as $7.3 million worth of funding to the Indonesian National Police Cybercrime Unit. This support by the AFP is likely used to quell protests against the Indonesian occupation.
While the West Papuan boycott movement has not achieved similar levels to the BDS movement for Palestine, groups like the OPM have called for targeted boycotts against products whose companies source their palm oil from West Papua, such as Oreo, KitKat, and Smarties, while other groups have advocated for a total boycott of Indonesian sourced products. Despite the ongoing violence and repression, hundreds of thousands of Australians continue to flock to Bali as a holiday destination, financially aiding Indonesia through its tourism sector. If the Free West Papua movement were to reach the same international momentum that we are seeing for Palestine, the decision of Australian holidaymakers could make a difference.
From Papua to Palestine, occupation is a crime!
Australia’s continued support of Indonesia and its total denial of its complicity in war crimes however suppresses the support needed for a Free West Papua.
Conclusion
Indonesia continues to hold itself on the global stage as an ally to Palestine, refusing to recognise the Israeli occupation and sending aid to Palestine. While doing so, Indonesia violently occupies West Papua and enact its own genocide against West Papuans. The Act of “Free” Choice in the ‘60s was not a fair and equal representation of what many wanted.The autonomy of West Papuans was shackled by Indonesia’s flagrant disregard for the New York Agreement, which requested ALL 800,000 West Papuans to take a vote. Instead, a handpicked group of 1,025 West Papuan, voted whilst they were threatened with violence against themselves or their families if they voted for independence. What came after this sham vote — the ethnic cleansing, the ecocide, the enablement and complicity by Australia — is clear evidence that Indonesia’s grip is not welcome nor is it legal.
Freedom for some is freedom for none. The very spirit that liberated Indonesia from the Dutch has been lost. Indonesia has become a traitor to its own struggle of decolonialism and appropriated the very logics of extraction and exploitation by the Dutch.
Papua Merdeka and Merdeka to all those occupied, from Gadigal to Gaza and from the West Bank to West Papua.
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