MANIFESTO: WAR PROFITS, COLONIAL LIES — WHY WEST PAPUA IS BLEEDING WHILE THE WORLD LOOKS AWAY

The war in Ukraine should have served as a wake-up call for humanity. Faced with the brutal consequences of imperial aggression, the international community had a historic opportunity — a moral imperative — to rethink the global architecture of war and peace. 

But this chance was wasted. Instead of ushering in an era of demilitarization, the war in Ukraine has only intensified the global arms race, legitimized military expansion, and emboldened governments to arm themselves to the teeth, not for defense — but for domination. History, it seems, is not just repeating itself — it is decaying into grotesque parody.

Just like during the First World War, when arms manufacturers like Krupp shamelessly profited from both sides of the bloodbath — producing weapons for both the French and German armies — today's military-industrial complex thrives on war, not peace. War has become a lucrative investment, and death a commodity. In this neocolonial marketplace, West Papua is currency.

For over sixty years, Indonesia has waged a dirty, brutal, and illegal war against the people of West Papua — a war that began with annexation in 1963 and has continued with the blessing of silence from most of the world’s so-called democracies. During this time, Western arms manufacturers have reaped enormous profits from Indonesia's military campaigns, selling helicopters, firearms, tanks, and surveillance technology — all while claiming to stand for human rights.

Today, in the wake of the Ukraine conflict, Western governments — particularly France — have found new justification for ramping up arms exports. With rising geopolitical tensions in the Indo-Pacific region, Indonesia is once again being armed to the teeth — not for its defense, but to reinforce its colonial grip on West Papua.

The numbers are staggering: more than 10 billion euros in arms deals between France and Indonesia. And this, at a time when Indonesia teeters on the edge of economic collapse. The country’s foreign debt now exceeds USD 403 billion, yet it continues to prioritize military expenditure over the welfare of its own people. To close these deals, Indonesia offers not money, but raw materials — forest wealth, mineral resources, and Papuan gold — literally trading stolen land for weapons.

Meanwhile, the people suffer. As of January, 26.5 million Indonesians live in extreme poverty, many of them newly unemployed due to widespread mass layoffs. Instead of addressing this deepening crisis, the Jakarta regime prefers spectacle over substance. It distracts its citizens with military parades, fighter jets, and weapons showcases, spreading nationalist propaganda through television and social media, in a fashion that echoes the North Korean model: repression disguised as pride, poverty masked by missiles.

Let us be absolutely clear:

This is not defense — this is deception.

This is not sovereignty — this is showmanship.

This is not leadership — this is colonialism.

And West Papua remains the victim — a people under occupation, a land under siege, and a history erased in real time.

The tragedy is twofold. First, the international community remains largely complicit, either through silence or through profit. Second, critics of Indonesia’s war in Papua are often smeared as extremists or, worse, “communists.” This is not only a lie — it is a calculated tactic, rooted in Cold War-era paranoia, designed to suppress dissent and discredit a legitimate liberation movement.

Let us state this with absolute clarity:

Papuan resistance is not communist.

It is anticolonial. It is anti-racist. It is legitimate.

To accuse Papuan activists of communism is to replay a tired script that served Suharto’s New Order regime — a script that justified genocide in 1965 and continues to justify violence today.

Papuan symbols — red flags, raised fists, and revolutionary aesthetics — do not reflect ideology imported from Moscow or Beijing.

They reflect a deeper truth: the universal language of the oppressed.

They are the signs of resistance, not Marxism.

They are cries for justice, not manifestos for dictatorship.

West Papua is not a battlefield for proxy wars. It is not a quarry for foreign corporations. It is not a pawn in the geopolitical chessboard of Western imperialism.

West Papua is a nation under siege — and it deserves our full, unwavering solidarity.

We reject the arms trade.

We reject colonial war.

We reject the lies.

We demand:

• An end to all arms sales to Indonesia.
•  International recognition of the occupation of West Papua as a colonial crime.
• The right of the Papuan people to self-determination, in dignity and peace.

Let those who profit from war be named and shamed.

Let those who sell weapons to colonizers be held accountable.

And let the world finally hear the voice of West Papua:

Not communist. Not terrorist. But free — or fighting to be!