ULMWP MEDIA RELEASE 04/03/2024

 

UNITED LIBERATION MOVEMENT FOR WEST PAPUA - ULMWP 

International Secretariat Headquarters: 

Winston Churchill Street, 1571 Port Vila, Republic of Vanuatu. 

Secretariat of the Home Affairs Coordination Headquarters in West Papua: 

Address: Jln. Mapilema, No. 11 Wamena Kabupaten Jayawijaya- West Papua.

JAKARTA'S NEW MILITARY INTERVENTION IN WEST PAPUA CODENAMED OPERATION  HABEMA - ' WORST CASE' TRICK SAYS MENASE TABUNI. 

The Indonesian Military (TNI) and Indonesian Police (POLRI) announced a joint operation in its  restive West Papua province this week. 

This comes as the next script as Jakarta increased its security approach to flush out the decades old independence movement. 

General Agus Subiyanto announced the formation Operation HABEMA on February 28 2024. This  operation is a joint command (Koops) which represents a new format for joint TNI and Polri  operations to handle the insurgency in Indonesia's eastern - most region. 

The latest public policy experiment by Jakarta is a joint military and police operation in West Papua.  It focuses on the Nduga region but also other parts of West Papua. The name HABEMA is  borrowed from locals of Nduga region after a lake.  

Intelligence analysts decoded the word to be an abbreviation for Jakarta's continuation of the  security approach. It is a re - set of the same security strategy to achieve HABEMA or "Must be  Maximum Success".  

General Agus Subiyanto said Operation HABEMA is a model of offensive manoeuvre that  combines smart power, soft power, hard power and military diplomacy strategies. Hiwever, Jakarta's focus on West Papua as a security hotspot has been condemned by the United  Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP). 

Menase Tabuni said: 

' The hard re - set of the security approach will never win the hearts and minds of indigenous  Papuans. Jakarta is challenged to deal with a humanitarian crisis by adopting international best - practice'.

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According to Menase Tabuni the new joint TNI and POLRI operation in West Papua paves the way  for the mobilization of military and police officers to migrate to West Papua. 

The security personnel from TNI and POLRI are being sent to West Papua to displace indigenous  landowners from their land. West Papua has immense natural resource potential and Jakarta is  targeting landowners. 

Since 1960s, the massive build - up of presence of security apparatus has created widespread fear  amongst the indigenous Papuan population. 

ULMWP has produced a database on militarisation of West Papua since 1960s after Netherlands  failed to complete the decolonisation process. 

Indonesia has stationed 47,261 military personnel in West Papua, of which around 24 thousand  personnel have been mobilized to conflict points that are still volatile.  

During the Nduga conflict period between 2017–2023, the West Papua Council of Churches  (WPCC) reported that 63,490 residents had fled to seek safe locations in other districts or Papua  New Guinea. 

Mr Menase said the militarisation of West Papua is always characterised by a connection to  companies and business interests of Indonesian conglomerates and politicians. All these years since 1960s militarism by Jakarta was imposed without consulting Indigenous  Papuans'. 

Mr Menase said data is also available from the Indonesian National Statistics Agency, on the rise  of militarisation of West Papua. 

As of 2015, there were 7,478 industrial companies from various sectors existing in West Papua. In the natural resources sector, 23,830,632 hectares have been used as concession areas for 445  companies covering minerals, oil, gas, forests and plantations. 

The ULMWP singled out the blunder by Indonesia since 1960s to ignore the aspirations for self  determination. 

Jakarta is losing the many battles it fought to win the hearts and minds of Indigenous Papuans. 

The many public policy interventions by successive Jakarta regimes have tended to be ambiguous  in handling the West Papua insurgency. 

Several local initiatives were proposed to assist Jakarta resolve the Papuan grievances peacefully  and with dignity. They have been all been ignored by the all Jakarta regimes. 

Meanwhile at the international level, the Indonesian government is actively pushing for a peaceful  resolution of conflicts in Palestine, Myanmar, Uighurs and so on.  

During more than six decades of Indonesian occupation of West Papua, Indonesia has failed the  indigenous Papuan people.

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The overall effect of the failed policy applied by Jakarta to reign in the independence movement  translated into the inevitable. 

In 2024, at the juncture when The Commander of the Indonesian Military (TNI) General Agus  Subiyanto announced Operation HABEMA the obliteration of indigenous Papuan people reached  its highest threshold. 

Mr Menase said unless West Papua was given a chance to be heard by the UN, the militarization used by Jakarta to deal with the independence movement will remain a vehicle to kill off indigenous  Papuans through policies of genocide, ecocide and ethnocide.  

We hope MSG and PIF will embrace the indigenous Papuan people of West Papua in their quest  for self determination, and ensure the decolonisstion process begun by the Dutch in 1960s is  completed'. 

The Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) has given one - year moratorium on ULMWP bid for  West Papua to become full member of the sub - regional political grouping.  

Meanwhile, Mr Menase said PNG prime minister James Marape and Fiji Prime minister Sitiveni  Rabuka were assigned by MSG to be special envoys to have round table discussion with Jakarta  on the decolonisation question of West Papua.. They have yet to report to MSG. 

ULMWP considers that Papuans have no future together with Indonesia.  

ULMWP calls on various parties to work together to encourage efforts to resolve the Papua conflict  peacefully and with dignity, thereby avoiding casualties on both sides. 

Jayapura - West Papua, March 4 2024

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