The United Liberation Movement for West Papua has submitted its formal application for membership of the Melanesian Spearhead Group, in a ceremony held today on the steps of the MSG Secretariat in Port Vila, Vanuatu.
ULMWP Secretary General Octovanius Mote handed the application — along with a newly drafted Constitution to guide the unified Papuan resistance movement — to MSG Director General Peter Forau, on behalf of the three main West Papuan resistance groups. The submission marks the culmination of a long diplomatic effort. At the MSG summit in Noumea, Pacific leaders had endorsed the Papuan people’s inalienable right to self-determination but asked the resistance groups to unify before any membership application could be considered. That unification was achieved in December, during a historic reconciliation meeting in Port Vila, facilitated by the Vanuatu government and the Pacific Council of Churches.
Secretary General Mote said the hearts of the Papuan people were with those gathered at the Secretariat today, and expressed confidence that the ULMWP had met the criteria required for membership. ULMWP spokesman Benny Wenda described the application as an urgent matter, pointing to the ongoing military operations by Indonesian forces, the accelerating transmigration programme — which, on current trends, would see indigenous Papuans reduced to just 28% of the population by 2020 — and the increase in military presence and intimidation since Indonesia’s new government took office. “We are not just defending our homeland,” Wenda said. “We are defending Melanesia.”
The Prime Minister of the Federal Republic of West Papua, Ev. Edison Kladius Waromi, endorsed the application and called on Pacific nations not to abandon the Papuan people in their struggle.
A decision on West Papua’s membership is expected at the MSG leaders summit in the Solomon Islands in July.
The situation in West Papua is documented in Dancing Turtle’s undercover documentary Forgotten Bird of Paradise, available to watch now via the Dancing Turtle shop. Dancing Turtle is also proud to have designed and built the ULMWP website at ulmwp.org — a small but meaningful contribution to the movement’s international presence and its ongoing campaign for recognition and self-determination.
