Benny Wenda has horrible memories of his childhood days in West Papua and relates chilling stories of his village being bombed by the Indonesian military and watching his female relatives being raped in front of his eyes.
Many of his early childhood days were spent hiding in the bushes with his relatives from the Indonesian military, who have been occupying the country by force since 1963. As more and more of his relatives died it was his grandfather on his deathbed who pleaded with his parents to surrender to the authorities and give Wenda a chance to attend school.
“My village was bombed by helicopter and a number of my family [members] were killed; even my aunty was raped in front of my eyes – two aunties I couldn’t believe it. I never forget until today and I cry all the time. My two aunties died because of trauma, so I think that made me angry,” Wenda told the Sunday Stabroek in a recent interview.
However, because his parents surrendered to the authorities Wenda said he started attending school and those days were no better, as his race was in the minority in the school system and he was spat on just for being black. These and other things built his resolve to help fight for his country’s independence.
One day the teacher told him to sit next to an Indonesian girl and as he approached to take his seat he smiled at the girl in a friendly manner, and she responded by spitting in his face even as the teacher sat and looked on.
“I felt maybe one, I am primitive and two, maybe I have not washed enough; I am stinky, that is why she spit in my face… So I went to the shop and I bought soap and three times I washed in the river…so I feel confident…and I went in the same class with the same teacher and I went to sit next to the girl and I smiled again, and she just suddenly stood up and spit second time in my face.”
His classmates deemed her actions funny and they burst out laughing, even as Wenda said he burst into tears, “but I couldn’t do anything, I cry and cry and everybody laughing and I was so angry…” But as he cried many thoughts went through his mind, and he concluded that he was human just like the rest of his classmates even though he was black.
“I think that really opened my brain to a lot of things, and I wondered what really is happening to my people, why are so many of them in the jungle? I think I discovered myself and said this must not happen to the next generation.”
Wenda said not many children from his country go to school as they live in the jungle with their relatives, while others cannot afford to pay for schooling, so they end up working with their parents in the fields and markets.
After graduating from university and being elected a tribal leader Wenda could no longer just be a passive observer in the country where his countrymen were being oppressed, but his first attempt to fight the system saw him landing in jail for twenty-five years.
Today it is nearly nine years since he managed to escape from the prison to which he had been sentenced by the West Papua authorities for leading a peaceful protest calling for a referendum to free the country from the clutches of Indonesia.
Following his escape to the United Kingdom, Wenda, his parents’ only child, has been leading the Papuan Independence Movement in his efforts to free his nation from Indonesian military rule. His wife and daughter were also later smuggled out of West Papua and they too are in the UK.
Seeking support for this movement Wenda has travelled to many countries, and his recent visit to Guyana was his second here. He told the Sunday Stabroek that he feels connected to Guyana because it was one of the few nations which opposed Indonesia’s occupation of West Papua in 1963 at the United Nations. During his visit he has met members of parliament and President Donald Ramotar in an effort to whip up support for the freedom of his country.
Helping Wenda in his fight is human rights lawyer Melinda Janki, who works with the Justice Institute and is also a consultant with the de Caires, Fitzpatrick and Karran law firm. She told the Sunday Stabroek that she met the tribal leader in the UK when they were both giving presentations on human rights at a human rights bar conference.
It was only after Wenda’s presentation Janki said, that she learnt about West Papua and as a human rights lawyer she was appalled at what was happening there and began to do some research.
“The other lawyers at the bar meeting, they didn’t know about West Papua either, so it was a great shock for all of us. But it is also a measure of how well Indonesia has managed to close down half of that island and stop the truth from coming out,” she observed.
And many lawyers in past years were not willing to take up the issue because as Janki put it, it is a “very dangerous sensitive issue,” but she has been researching and has been working with Wenda and other persons from his country. Their work, along with that of others, led to the launch of the parliamentarians group in Westminster and there was also a launch in Brussels. She said their work involves attempting to get states to understand that West Papua has a legal right to self-determination in addition to a moral claim.
West Papua is the western half of the island of New Guinea and according to Janki it was originally a free country, but was colonized by the Dutch who ruled it for over 75 years. In 1961 the Dutch agreed that they would get independence and they recognized the country’s parliament; there was also a flag, a national anthem and an army. Indonesia tried to invade in 1962 but they were driven back and there was a US brokered agreement between the Netherlands and Indonesia known as the New York agreement in which the Netherlands transferred colonial power to the UN, which subsequently transferred their responsibility to Indonesia on the understanding that they would bring the country to a level where they could make a decision about their future. That was supposed to happen by 1969, but in that year the Indonesian authorities rounded up about 1000 tribal leaders put them in different rooms, threatened them and forced them to sign agreements indicating that they wanted the country to be part of Indonesia. They called this an act of ‘free choice.’
West Papua then returned to the UN again. Although Guyana and some other nations voted in favour of the country’s independence, most states did not object to Indonesia continuing in control.
Since the country first came under military occupation in 1963, no journalist has been allowed in and neither has any human rights organisation or non-government organisation (NGO). As a consequence, no news has come out of the country.
According to Janki the claim by Indonesia that there was an act of free choice on the part of the tribal leaders is “clearly illegal, has no validity in international law and has been condemned by international lawyers across the globe.”
“The important thing is that states should respect the international rule of law…” she said, and she hopes that they will respect their international legal obligations and take action. She said they did go to the UN‘s working group on indigenous populations where Wenda raised the issue.
Wenda was here three years ago and said he feels a close connection to Guyana and other Caribbean countries as they were also once colonized. Janki said that the response from the parliamentarians and President Ramotar gives him hope, and his wish is that the government would be persuaded to do more on the issue internationally.
“My struggle is against colonialism, strictly colonialism, and I hope it is the right spirit and the right place, so I am going back with hope for the future of my people that they would be free and independent.”
Wenda also met with former Foreign Affairs Minister Rashleigh Jackson who remembers the West Papua issue very well and according to him he felt “blessed” when he met Jackson who would have been at the UN at the time when Guyana had voted in favour of West Papua being given the right to self-determination. Support is also being sought for another tribal leader, Filep Karma, who is serving a 15 year sentence for “peacefully raising the West Papuan flag in December 2004.” He has also been denied access to urgently needed medical treatment during his time in prison, and Amnesty International has recognized him as a prisoner of conscience.
An estimated 400,000 people have died as a direct result of the Indonesian occupation and one much publicized death is that of a former independence leader, whose dead body being held up by laughing Indonesian soldiers was photographed.
Asked how he has been supporting himself and his family, Wenda replied it has been difficult but he has received the support of friends and well-wishers.
His biggest wish is to one day return to his country a free man to a free people.
