News and statements

July 23, 2026 in Statement Following the killing of US pilot Nicholas Gosselin by the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB), more evidence has emerged that Indonesia is systematically and consistently using civilian aircraft and humanitarian organisations for military purposes in West Papua. 21 July 2026: the Indonesian army and police again using civilian aircraft to transport military personnel in Yahukimo A number of photos and videos release over the past weeks clearly show Indonesian civilian planes, like the PT AMA plane Mr Gosselin was flying, being loaded with ammunition, weapons, and other military equipment. The evidence also shows Indonesian…

July 2, 2026 in Statement I regret to hear that a TPNPB group in Yahukimo have destroyed a plane and killed its pilot, understood to be American Nicholas Gosselin. On behalf of the ULMWP and West Papuan people, I send my deepest condolences to Mr Gosselin’s family. The TPNPB have stated that they killed Mr Gosselin for bringing Indonesian troops into the highlands, which has been turned into a warzone by deadly Indonesian operations over the past three months. Indonesia has also consistently ignored the military flight ban and no fly zone declared by the TPNPB. They put Mr Gosselin…

April 30, 2026 in Announcements, Statement May 1st will always be a day of mourning in West Papua. Today we mark 63 years since Indonesia invaded our land, beginning the tragedy we are still living through today. According to the provisions of the New York Agreement, signed the previous year between Indonesia, the USA, and the Netherlands, West Papuans should have been allowed to exercise our right to self-determination through an independence referendum. As all West Papuans know, this didn’t happen. Instead, Indonesia’s invasion launched six years of brutality, ending with the fraudulent Act of No Choice 1969, as Indonesia…

April 22, 2026 in News A Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on West Papua was held in the Dutch Parliament yesterday (21st April 2026). Held in the Parliament of West Papua’s former coloniser, the hearing focused on the current situation in West Papua, the Indonesia–EU Free Trade Agreement, and the ongoing demand for a UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit West Papua. Following the hearing, a screening of the film “The Promise” was held in the Parliamentary cinema room. This marks the first time that a film about West Papua has been shown in the Dutch Parliament. The hearing,…

March 20, 2026 in Statement On behalf of the ULMWP and the people of West Papua, I condemn Indonesia’s cruel and humiliating arbitrary arrest of twelve West Papuans in Tambrauw Regency this week. The arrests took place on the March 18th, after Indonesia conducted military operations in the Fef and Bamus Bama districts. People were dragged out of their homes, tortured, and detained without any warrants or explanation. This is how Indonesia treats West Papuans, as less than human. The twelve men arrested in Tambrauw have been labelled TPNPB and stigmatised as terrorists and criminals by the Indonesian colonisers. But…

February 19, 2026 in Statement The Indonesian government is tricking the world about its practices in West Papua. The Cessna plane the TPNPB fired upon in Boven Digoel was not a civilian plane, as the police spokesman misleadingly stated, but part of a security operation. Indonesia is again disguising their military activity as civil activity. They are also willfully breaching the no-fly zones established by the TPNPB. The occupied conflict areas in which the TNI are not permitted to fly have been very clearly marked out by the TPNPB. This is the same pattern Indonesia used in 1977, when Indonesia…

February 10, 2026 in Statement In yet another flagrant breach of international law, Indonesia has bombed a makeshift refugee camp in Puncak Regency. This is part of their ongoing campaign of terror in the West Papuan highlands, with their Airforce having relentlessly attacked the region since January 31st. According to Human Rights Defenders on the ground, the Indonesian military used drones to drop bombs on the refugee camp in Kembru District, forcing civilians from nine villages to flee into the forest. These are mostly women (some of them pregnant), children, and elders: defenceless people who have already been displaced from…

January 21, 2026 in Statement The following statement by ULMWP President Benny Wenda was read out at the picket outside 10 Downing Street against UK PM Keir Starmer’s meeting with Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto: On behalf of the ULMWP and the West Papuan people, I want to state very clearly: the UK government should not be welcoming the war criminal Prabowo Subianto. Prabowo is complicit in genocide in East Timor and West Papua. As a General of Kopassus, he led the Kraras massacre, in which over 300 innocent Timorese people were slaughtered. Some accounts have alleged that he personally tortured…

January 12, 2026 in Statement Indonesia is totally unfit to hold the Presidency of the UN Human Rights Council. How can Indonesia lead on human rights, when they are hiding from the world their sixty-year occupation of West Papua, with five hundred thousand men, women, and children dead? How can Indonesia lead on human rights, when their President is a war criminal who is complicit in genocide in East Timor and West Papua? Prabowo personally tortured East Timorese men, and presided over indiscriminate massacres of Indigenous people from Kraras to Mapenduma. He has never apologised or been held accountable for…

December 16, 2025 in News The final West Papua All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) of 2025 was held in the House of Commons yesterday (15/12/2025).  Chaired by Alex Sobel MP (Labour), the APPG was attended by MPs Anneliese Dodds (Labour), Jeremy Corbyn (Your Party), Lord Richard Harries, and addressed by ULMWP President Benny Wenda and Spokesperson Raki Ap. President Wenda gave an outline of the current situation in West Papua, while Mr Ap updated MPs on the environmental devastation being wreaked across West Papua by ecocidal Indonesian developments like the Merauke PSN.  Groups including the ULMWP and West Papua People’s Liberation Front…