INTRODUCTORY COMMENTS
Perhaps that is the statement these people are making to all of us. They are saying in their language, "We from the Lani/Dani Tribe would like to express our position that we demand the mining activities of the Freeport to be closed now and forever, until this country is freed from the control of Indonesian government." Is it that easy to wipe Indonesia out, just by the statements in the poster? Is Indonesia alone? Can 1.5 million people defeat more than 100 thousand people in Java island itself? Can these naked people fight against modern M-16, tanks and jet fighters bought from the USA, Britain and French? There are two sides of their message. One side, they are right, they have all the rights to say to Freeport, "Get out from here!" On the other side, as far the world's system of capitalism is concerned, it is not that easy. If they are fighting against Freeport, it means they are fighting against British-Australian Rio Tinto Zink, they are fighting against Indonesian military, they are fighting agaisnt two major world's powers, British and the USA. In short, they are fighting the whole sytem of capitalism. IS IT POSSIBLE, Lani men? Come on, be logic!

This statement is simple, but very clear message, expressed by the people with simple faces and clothes remind me of a British person who told me this, "Why are you fighting against the whole world? You are facing multinationals, you are facing Indonesia, backed by two major powers, Britain and the United States, and you never recognise that you will loose?" I suppose he was right by asking these questions, but he was wrong that this questions were addressed to me. Or I can send these questions to these five men standing in front of their banner.

WEST PAPUA ISSUE FOR WEST PAPUA PEOPLE
The case for West Papua is not as complicated as we might think. It is simple. It is clear. It is straight forward. It is logic. This is what these people are telling us. It is not a paper, presenting the background issues with arguments and justification.

The first reason is because these tribal peoples are simple. They are not people with knowledge and understanding of how this world operates. They do not know about what is politically correct to say to the world about their rights and their lives. They do not know and they do not need to know what language they should use. They do not need to conduct feasibility studies as proofs to accuse Freeport. They do not need to present facts and figures to explain to us. For one thing, they definitely have a reason. A reason that may make us cry, or speechless when we hear or read it. They have got a reason that regards also your life and our future.

Secondly because they are not demanding anything difficult to fulfill but simply that all destruction and exploitation should be stopped, forever. It is a simple and clear message, "Stop exploiting us!" It is not because they do not know what they should say, but because they know that exploiting the earth's resources, especially mining, logging, and dam construction are destructive to the environment and to this planet. Only those who are illiterate and blind will not know and understand what they are saying to us.

The third reason for saying this statement is simple is because

WHAT THEY ARE DOING NOW TO TELL THEIR STORIES

Protests, demonstrations

Protests and demonstrations are not new for the Papuans. The Papuans started a big protest against the unlawful act of Act of Free Choice in 1969.  Papuans have been protesting in written form and also by coming to the government's offices and expressing their opinions.

 

The protests also related to various human rights violations, massive exploitation of natural resources without considering the native people and the environment. Also transmigration programme (the biggest social engineering programme in the world) had caused the rights of the Papuans ignored and violated. Many indigenous people have been expelled from their land, murdered and tortured for protesting for their rights.

National and International Dialogues
The Papuans have been urging the Indonesia government to open a Dialogue between the Papuans and Indonesians to resolve the status of West Papua within Indonesia since 196/3.

After the national dialogue, Papuans have a plan to open an International Dialogue for the same issue because they believe that West Papua was handed over to Indonesia under an international conspiracy between the Netherlands, the USA and Indonesia. Other countries like Australia and Great Britain stayed abstain when the UN Security Council was voting for the annexation of West Papua into Indonesia. These parties should be involved in this international dialogue.

The Papuans are merely not demanding to get out from Indonesia, but they are striving to prove whether or not it is legally, morally and politically justifiable for West Papua to be within Indonesia.

Guerrilla War

The guerrilla war officially started since 1963, when the Free Papua Movement (OPM) was established by Mr. Ferry Awom in Manokwari. Since then, various there have been various wars between Indonesians and Papuans. The Papuans use their traditional bows, arrows and spears. Of course, they have been always defeated by the heavy and modern weaponry of the Indonesian army supplied by the US and Britain.

 

Guerrilla wars have cost some many lives, estimated more than 300,000 people. You can read accounts from the victims but they are not yet well documented so far. Many were to death, many were raped, many disappeared, and others were bombed.

 

Messages through IT: E-mail and the Internet.
Almost nobody was reporting the stories, news and information regarding the ongoing battles between the Indonesians and Papuans. Only since the end of 1999 that the Online Papua Mouthpiece started its services to disseminate what have been actually happening in West Papua without any censorship. Email network, mailing lists, newsgroups and the like were started in the late 1999s and there is enough information available on the net for you to read. However, until today, most of the papers in West Papua belong to the Indonesians, which means what you read from them are, of course, written to help the Indonesians occupy West Papua.

The people of West Papua are now planning to set up an information network throughout the island. Some domain names have been bought and West Papuans are now starting to tell the world about who they are and why they are fighting against foreign involvement in various aspects of life of the Papuans.