It’s been over 40 years since the Indonesian occupation of West Papua began. Since then over 400,000 Papuans have been killed, women and children raped, independence activists tortured, and the land pillaged for its natural resources.

Journalists and human rights observers are banned from entering West Papua by the Indonesian authorities. They don’t want the outside world knowing the atrocities they are committing there. Just like in East Timor where the Indonesian military slaughtered hundreds of thousands of innocent people.

Tonight the BBC broadcast exclusive footage smuggled out of West Papua, including interviews with rebel leader Goliath Tabuni, political prisoner Yusak Pakage, and human rights victims. You can watch the full report through the BBC news website by clicking here

The well documented torture of West Papuan political prisoners by Indonesia is nothing short of barbaric. For over three days at the nortious Abepura Prison in Jayapura, the men in the photo below were refused water and food, and subjected to torture levels that would not be out of place at Guantanamo Bay. The only ‘crime’ these men have committed is to peacefully call for West Papuan independence. It’s a plea echoed throughout the country where every man, woman and child wants freedom. And who are we to deny them this? It’s a right that every colonial person is entitled to under the United Nations charter, and one we must stand by and implement in West Papua.
A lack of early international intervention in the East Timor independence struggle ten years ago resulted in a genocide in which Indonesia slaughtered over half a million people. It’s time for our governments to act now to prevent Indonesia doing the same again in West Papua. We must stand shoulder to shoulder with these people now, otherwise the consequences are unthinkable.

It’s deeply disturbing to hear the latest reports coming through from West Papua where the indigenous Papuan population have endured a brutal and genocidal Indonesian occupation for over 40 years.

West Papua is a country where peaceful Papuan protestors are routinely tortured and imprisoned by Indonesia for up to 15 years for doing little more than raising an independence flag!! In the latest episode, the Indonesian regime have refused drinking water and food to two political prisoners (Seblon Sambom and Buchtar Tabuni) for over 3 days now, for no reason other than because these two men support a peaceful democratic process called the International Parliamentarians for West Papua.

Meanwhile, in the highlands hundreds of Papuans remain in hiding in the jungle after Indonesian army and police raids during which villages were burnt down and livestock killed.

These latest actions appear to show that Indonesia is running scared of growing international condemnation for the occupation of West Papua and the growing number of people who are outraged at the genocide they have carried out in West Papua.

Let us hope that these latest actions will put Indonesia on a collision course with the United Nations to whom it is reported that these latest actions are currently being investigated by.