OFFICIAL LAUNCH

Full Coverage of the Official Launch

Opening Statement from Free West Papua Perth Australia

 27th April 2014

We would like to officially welcome to Australia Nobel peace prize nominee Mr. Benny Wenda.

Benny is in our country with the message from the people of our close neighbour West Papua that they need their right of self-determination.  It is our campaign team’s work to support the West Papuan people to secure this right.

In 1962 the Indonesian military invaded West Papua.  Seven years later, the Indonesian government cheated the West Papuan people out of their UN given right to self-determination, through the so called ‘Act of Free Choice’ referendum.  Since the invasion over 500,000 West Papuan civilians have been killed and thousands more have been raped, tortured or imprisoned. 

Today, Sunday 27th April 2014, we are opening the first Free West Papua Campaign office in Australia.  We will be working with lawyers, politicians, churches, and members of the Australian public; coordinating with worldwide efforts to take West Papua’s case to the highest levels of the UN and to bring justice and peace to the West Papuan people.

Nobel peace prize nominee Mr Benny Wenda has come to Australia to officially open the office. Benny was persecuted for efforts to raise his people's desire for self-determination and was forced into exile in the UK, where he founded the Free West Papua Campaign. Benny says:

 "Our people in West Papua have been tortured and killed just because we want the self-determination that was promised to us. Indonesia continues to torture and kill my people. We need Australia's help to end our suffering. People around the world are beginning to listen and to hear our voice: the Act of Free Choice in 1969 was a fraud. We need the Australian people to help us and to support our right to choose our own future."

Australia has a calling upon it, and this calling is evident in the ANZAC spirit.  This calling is to lead the way in “Loosing the bonds of wickedness” and “To let the oppressed go free” (Isaiah 58:6).  We ask the people and government of Australia to arise and continue to walk in their calling and acknowledge the fraud of the ‘Act of Free Choice’ referendum and to join the growing movement around the world to give effect to West Papua's right to self-determination.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Madden

Director of the FWP Campaign
Perth Australia.

Sunday, 27 April 2014