West Papuans battling for independence have new hope after recent events propelled their deadly but usually hidden struggle into the global spotlight.
Risky activist ventures undertaken by pro-independence organisations have made headlines in Australia and Indonesia in the past months, especially three young West Papuans who jumped the fence of Australia’s Bali consulate as world leaders including Prime Minister Tony Abbott arrived for an APEC meeting.
But it was in New York a week earlier that Papuans and commentators alike say the independence cause made history.
In a United Nations General Assembly speech for which many West Papuans had waited decades, a head of state – Vanuatu’s Prime Minister Moana Carcasses Kalosil – for the first time called on the UN to reconsider Indonesian sovereignty over West Papua.
freedom flotilla 