TPNPB OPM condemns the New Zealand Prime Minister for refusing to negotiate or intervene in Indonesia’s atrocities in West Papua
PRESS STATEMENT
TPNPB OPM condemns the New Zealand Prime Minister for refusing to negotiate or intervene in Indonesia’s atrocities in West Papua
Australia 27 April 2023
As reported in the New Zealand media yesterday regarding the latest ‘Proof of Life’ video released by TPNPB OPM / Free Papua Movement, kidnapped New Zealand pilot Mr Phillip Merhtens is alive and well after nearly 3 months with the freedom fighters in West Papua.
As stated by Mr Merhtens, the Indonesian military are bombing the area putting the lives of everybody concerned at risk despite New Zealand government has asked that military force not be used, but Indonesia has ignored that request. The World Council of Churches report extreme increase in military deployments to West Papua with indigenous Papuans, including women and children, arrested and tortured.
Our freedom fighters in West Papua have protected the life of Mr Mehrtens and treated him like family because the people of New Zealand are our WW2 allies and Pacific neighbours. Our only mission is to draw attention to the ongoing conflict and human rights abuses which the United Nations and international community have ignored for 61 years.
Human rights atrocities have been ongoing for six decades now since the illegal transfer of this Non-Self-Governing Territory to the United Nations and then Indonesia. Reports by academics and United Nations agencies describe the atrocity as Crimes Against Humanity and Genocide.
The UK Minister of State was recently questioned as to why the UK was not taking action to stop human rights atrocities in West Papua. The New Zealand government needs to answer the same.
We write to inform the international community that the New Zealand Prime Minister has walked away from negotiations despite commencing dialogue with the Diplomatic Council of the Free Papua Movement via Australian academic Prof Damien Kingsbury.
The Free Papua Movement condemns the New Zealand Prime Minister for demanding the release of Mr Mehrtens while failing to intervene or mention the ongoing atrocities being committed by the Indonesian military upon the West Papuan people. As a UN member, New Zealand has a legal obligation to uphold the UN Charter and associated resolutions concerning human rights, warfare, and decolonisation.
New Zealand was one of many countries including Australia, France, and the UK along with the United Nations that attended the creation of the West Papua state on 1 December 1961 when the Neiuw Guinea Raad first raised the Morning Star flag alongside the Netherlands flag across the Territory.
OPM proclaimed West Papua’s independence in 1971 after the UN-monitored sham so-called Act of Free Choice where the Indonesian military hand-picked just 0.1% of the population and forced them to vote unanimously for incorporation.
In the meantime, the OPM / Free Papua Movement will continue to use all means available in seeking freedom as available under General Assembly resolution 2621 (XXV) ‘Programme of Action for the Full Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples’ which:
Reaffirms the inherent right of colonial peoples to struggle by all necessary means at their disposal against colonial Powers which suppress their aspiration for freedom and independence … [and directs] … Member States [to] render all necessary moral and material assistance to the peoples of colonial Territories in their struggle to attain freedom and independence.
The OPM / Free Papua Movement therefore calls upon Member States and the international community to provide moral and material assistance to TPNPB OPM in order to end the ongoing genocide; and,
We remind Member States who arm Indonesia’s military, the aggressor, that it is a violation of international law. These countries are complicit in Genocide.
No further ‘Proof of Life’ videos of Mr Mehrtens will be released until the New Zealand Prime Minister agrees to negotiate his release with the Diplomatic Council of the TPNPB OPM / Free Papua Movement and mediated by one of the permanent members of United Nations Security Council.
We also advise all parties who want the release of Mr Mehrtens, to request New Zealand and Indonesia to negotiate with TPNPB OPM via the International Conflict Resolution Mechanism.
For further information contact:
Amatus Akouboo Douw
Head of Foreign Affairs & Chair of the Diplomatic Council
TPNPB-OPM / Free Papua Movement
Mobile: +61 401 198 355
PRESS STATEMENT TPNPB OPM condemns the New Zealand Prime Minister for refusing to negotiate or intervene in Indonesia’s atrocities in West Papua Australia 27 April 2023 As reported in the…