From infoPAPUA.org
WEST PAPUA: Nieuw Guinea Raad 47th Anniversary: BENNY WENDA letter to the NETHERLANDS AMBASSADOR, London
By FREE WEST PAPUA CAMPAIGN (UK)
Apr 8, 2008, 01:51
H.E. Mr Pieter Waldeck
Ambassador
Royal Netherlands Embassy
38 Hyde Park Gate
LONDON SW7 5DP
7th April 2008
"Look to the future with confidence in the justice of your case, knowing that you will always be in our minds and our best wishes will accompany you … and may God save you."
Dutch Prime Minister Dr J.E. de Quay in his farewell radio broadcast to the people of West Papua, 15 August 1962.
Dear Ambassador,
Father, today your West Papuan sons and daughters are with you again here in London - so far from our homeland and our loved ones - to remember again the solemn promises you made to our people.
47 years ago, on 5th April 1961, you gave our elders a precious gift, the Nieuw Guinea Raad, West Papua’s first democratic parliament. We remember that day as one of the most important in our history, the first rays of light in the eastern sky in our country’s sunrise to independence.
Now, Father, another year has passed. Your Papuan sons and daughters are with you again. We are still waiting.
Last year, you welcomed us inside your House, in London and in the Hague. You treated us with kindness and respect. You listened to our cry for freedom. For this we are grateful. Too often in the past, powerful and high people have shut the door in our face because we Papuans are an embarrassment to them. Father, you opened your door for us. You showed concern for the suffering of your Papuan people under the cruel rule of Indonesia. When we are free, we will not forget the respect and concern you showed us when we came to you in chains.
But now, Father, another year has passed. Your Papuan sons and daughters are with you again. We are still waiting.
But we need more than respect and concern. We need your HELP. Inside our homeland, Indonesia puts its big army fist in our face to silence our cry. Indonesia doesn’t want the World to know about its crimes against humanity – the killings, rapes, torture, intimidation and throwing us in prison for twenty years just for raising the flag you gave us. But Indonesia cannot kick you in the face with its jackboots for speaking out. We need our Father to be our voice.
But now, Father, another year has passed. Your Papuan sons and daughters are with you again. We are still waiting.
When we travel all over Britain we are meeting people with strong and good hearts who want to help us to be free. Father, I want to tell you that they always ask “But what is the Dutch Government doing?” The British people really like your country and they know the good values you follow. We tell them you treat us with kindness and respect when we come to your House – but we have to tell them also that we don’t know whether you are helping us – or not?
Father, another year has passed. Your Papuan sons and daughters are with you again. We are still waiting.
Yours faithfully,
Benny Wenda
Leader of the West Papuan Independence Movement—UK
& Chairman of DeMMaK, the Koteka Tribal Assembly
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