United Liberation Movement for West Papua

This statement by the United Liberation Movement for West Papua chairman, Benny Wenda, follows the announcement by MSG chair and PNG Prime Minister Peter O’Neill that West Papua’s request for full membership has now been progressed to the Secretariat.

“West Papua is entitled to join the Melanesian family,” Wenda tells this newsroom in an exclusive interview.

“For 50 years we have been separated from our brothers and sisters across Melanesia.

“This is a sign of reunion with our family.”

Leader Benny Wenda expressed this after the status of West Papua’s request was announced yesterday.

Chair of the MSG and PNG Prime Minister Peter O’Neill, when announcing the adoption of agendas by the MSG Leaders as an outcome of their meeting, mentioned that West Papua’s request for full membership has now been progressed to the Secretariat for processing.

Leader of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua, Benny Wenda, expressed he was satisfied with the outcome.

ULMWP spokesperson, Benny Wenda, said this could be seen as a delay tactic but ULMWP acknowledges the technical issues highlighted by the leaders and senior officials of the MSG.

The MSG special leaders’ summit on July 14, in the Solomon Islands, had agreed to defer the consideration of the application for full membership by ULMWP until membership criteria and guidelines are further developed.

West Papuans have applied under the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMPW), which is a collaborative group comprised of united resistance organisations located both inside and outside of West Papua.

Officials and representatives of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) have arrived in Honiara to attend the MSG Leaders Summit on Thursday, July 14, to determine whether the current observer status of ULMWP will be elevated to full membership.

The demonstrations were held to express support for the United Liberation Movement for West Papua, which is vying for full membership in the Melanesian Spearhead Group.

Monday's protests came as West Papuans marked the anniversary of transferral of administration in the former Dutch New Guinea to Indonesia in 1963.

The independent West Papuan newspaper, Tabloid Jubi, reports that overall 1692 people were arrested.

Jubi reports that a researcher from Bern University in Switzerland was interrogated by police too.

The leasders brought up the issue at the recent 70^th United Nations General Assembly in New York.

ULMWP spokesperson, Benny Wenda, expressed his deepest gratitude to the Pacific leaders and their people, saying, “on behalf of the people of West Papua, we the United Liberation Movement for West Papua would like to convey all our deepest and most sincere gratitude to our Pacific leaders for being the sole moral voices on West Papua at the United Nations.”

The ULM's Secretary General Octo Mote says increasing awareness of West Papua has led to a growing groundswell of people's solidarity movements in the Pacific.

Mr Mote says he hopes the forum will act on their plea to address growing human rights abuses in West Papua.

He says he hopes a fact finding mission can be established and has supported the call by Vanuatu for the United Nations to appoint a special envoy to West Papua.

This was revealed at the closing of the MSG 20th summit at the Heritage Park Conference Centre during a press conference with the West Papuan delegation.

Secretary General to ULMWP Octovianus Mote said, at the MSG summit in Noumea (Kanaky) in 2013, MSG recognised West Papua for self-determination, and at the special MSG leaders meeting in Port Moresby in 2014, a criteria was set requiring West Papuans be united before they could be considered for MSG membership.