Information has received from contacts on the ground in West Papua, indicate that a major shift in the political landscape is occurring in West Papua currently. The MRP (Majelis Rakyat Papua, or People’s Consultative Assembly) is set to announce a permanent rejection of Special Autonomy and be alongside the West Papuan people as they call for Referendum. This situation has occurred amidst a climate of intimidation of West Papuan people that has increased exponentially in recent months. Recent meetings indicate that the Indonesian military is mobilising it militias (see background) to prevent West Papuan people express their legitimate aspirations.

CONCURRENT RALLIES IN MANOKWARI, SERUI, AND JAYAPURA;
In Manokwari West Papua on Monday 3 March, West Papua’s influential youth and student movement, under the auspice of the West Papua National Authority, is organising one of the biggest public demonstrations against the Indonesian occupation since 1963.

The rally-call referendum! referendum! responds to eight years of Jakarta’s ’special autonomy’, which was recently described to the Indonesian press by the Governor of Indonesia’s Defence Institute as little more than a strategy to retard West Papua’s independence movement. During the rally, the Indonesian government will be challenged to set up an ‘internal’ dialogue with the West Papua National Authority before the issue is formally re-internationalised at the United Nations later this year.

The challenge presents President Yudhoyono opportunity to begin addressing the political (rather than social) issues with West Papuas’ political leadership before he leaves office next year. It also provides the four-star general a unique moment to commit the Indonesian Republic to the democratic principles on which he rode into office, and to divorce himself and his nation from the humiliating autocracy established and maintained by former leaders (Yudhoyono’s wife’s father, for example, was Brigadier-General Sarwo Edhie, the legendary ‘bloodhound of Java’, who was close to Suharto and Commander of the Indonesian Military in West Papua during the Act of Free Choice in 1969).

ENQUIRIES:

PLEASE CONTACT Nick on +61(0)409 268 978 or manukoreri(at) riseup.net for up to date contact details for spokespeople on the ground

MEDIA CONSIDERATIONS: Indonesia Metro TV and Channel 7 will be in attendance. Extra footage will be available if newsworthy event happens. Any Photographs from witnesses will be forwarded immediately upon receipt. More updates and Media Releases will follow as information comes to hand.

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