Rallies were held at US Embassies in West Papua, Jakarta, Melbourne and Perth, in advance of Sept 22nd’s US Congressional Hearing in Washington, DC titled “Crimes Against Humanity: When Will Indonesia’s Military Be Held Accountable for Deliberate and Systematic Abuses in West Papua?”.

In a WPNA (West Papua National Authority) media release Sept 21, 2010 West Papuan lawyer, Edison Waromi, President of the WPNA, stated:

“We West Papuans have a lot of history with the United States.”

General MacArthur’s children might not know their father dropped us two thousand guns to fight the Japanese during World War 2 .

“John Kennedy’s children probably don’t want to know their father called us ‘just 700,000 cannibals’ as he artfully bullied the Dutch into relinquishing its colony to the Indonesians.”

“I would of course remind Ellsworth Bunker’s children that their father was the architect of the New York Agreement that enslaved us to the Indonesians.”

“And then there’s Mr. [Henry] Kissinger and the whole Freeport mine business”.

“Ultimately someone has to take responsibility for the 546,000 ‘missing’ Papuans since the beginning of the Indonesian occupation in 1962”

The media release continued:

The West Papua National Authority/West Papua National Consensus is in Washington to advise American politicians to support:

(1) The re-insertion of West Papua on the UN Decolonization List.

(2) West Papuans’ inalienable right to self-determination in terms of the recent ICJ ruling on Kosovo.

(3) An international fact-finding and peace-keeping mission to West Papua immediately.

For those in the United States we urge you to contact your representative and tell them to make West Papua a priority!