Sabtu, Juni 15, 2002 06:05:48

Letter from Benny Wenda, to Rev. J. Barr in Australia: I am not a criminal, neither a thief, or a killer: I am standing for my people and I am a political Prisoner! 

AMP Numbay Reporting,

Translation: AMP International Network

Dear Rev. J. Barr,

Greetings in Jesus Christ, Liberator and Revolutionary Figure of the World.

First of all, we would like to thank you for your article as report on West Papua dated 10 June 2002. (www.westpapua.net/news/02/06/150602-terrorism.htm)

Secondly, I am speaking to for the people of West Papua, particularly the Koteka Tribal Assembly (Demmak). Our Secretary-General, Benny Wenda, a committed-young leader for his people, a youth that believes in Jesus as his strength and power, a figure that believes Jesus as liberator and revolutionary leader and that works in his principles is now in police custody.

I am sending special greeting from him to you. God bless you and his churches in Australia and in the world, children of God Almighty. He has read your letter and tears came down from his eyes, proving his love for his people.

This war in West Papua is not just because we are curly-haired Melanesians against straight-haired Indonesians. Neither due to we are Christians and Indonesians are Muslims. This war is for TRUTH and JUSTICE in West Papua. We are fighting for the TRUTH and with the TRUTH, the TRUTH that the churches in Australia and the West have planted in the Land of Paradise, West Papua. (John 14:6).

The TRUTH is now contaminated, filled up with lieas and bloodsheds. As you have reported, militia groups with different names and faces are coming in here, threatening the truth to win the war. 

We are fighting because we know God will fight for us, and we will praise Him. (Exodus 14:14).

However, it does not mean that we want to sit down and thank God for "genocide", the murder of God's children in West Papua in this God's blessed soil. It does not mean that our fellow Christians, and neighbour in Australia just sit down and pray to God, doing nothing else and pray. It means, we need your prayers and your support, actions to stop terrorism, i.e., state-terrorism in West Papua. Your support to free this "blessed soil", to make it a land that pleases and praises the Lord, to make it the "real" Land of Paradise, to make Jesus the King of this Soil and to make God rule over the world from the East Gate (Ezekiel 43).

I am standing for my people, not because I am a leader, but because I want my people to live in peace with God and with each other and with ourselves. I want us to worship our Lord in safe place, without fear and intimidation, without terrorism and genocide. This is the only reason I have chosen this path, and that is why I am arrested.

I started to believe that Indonesian rule is in support to the devil and terrorists when in 1977 and 1996, I saw with my own eyes:
* My churches were burned down (zero-grounds of West Papua). Zero-Ground in the states only occured on 11 Sept. 2001, only one. But for West Papua, it is a routine experience, and you can come and my people can show them to you.
* My church leaders were hanged, tortured, burned, and some disappeared up till now, knowing nothing about their whereabouts
* Mothers and children who were hiding inside the church buildings were all killed, aerial bombardments cause these deaths, the aircraft made in the states called Bronco-Fighters.

I am standing for humanity, the children of God suffering today in West Papua. I am arrested with charges that were made up by the police, but these are all lies. There is no truth in this state-terrorist. This country was built with bloodsheds and lies, maintained with bloodsheds and lies.

And if you do not help us, you are closing your eyes to "genocide" in your front-door, ignoring the growth of seeds of our faith that you planted last century. We want you to become fathers that is responsible for the children that they bears (in our faith). We are children of God, and we knew God from you. Leaving us alone is not the way a responsible father could do.

Please tell all churches in Australia, all Christians worldwide, that this war is the war that all should join, all of us that love TRUTH, stand on the TRUTH and believe in the TRUTH (John 14:6).

Greetings to you all,
From Papua Police Custody,
West Papua


Benny Wenda
--------------------
Secreatary-General

Source: Interview by AMP Port Numbay Branch
Translation: AMP International