London Free West Papua Campaign

A very important comment was made by Nicholas Messet on Friday last week (9/5/2008). He said that a bunch of people named Free West Papua stand outside Indonesian Embassy in London (May 1st) was only for tourist attraction.

Nick Messet was an ex member of Organisasi Papua Merdeka (OPM) / Free Papua Organisation. He was formally return to Indonesia and claimed Indonesian citizenship.

Benny Wenda

The role actor of the demonstration in London is Benny Wenda who wear a Papuan traditional clothes. Such act can be describe as art performance, so it should not have an political impact and should not be taken seriously. Even if the demonstrator yelled the freedom of Papua, it was not deserve any respond, Messet said.

According to Messet, who was ex citizen of Sweden, Benny Wenda doesn’t need to look for any sensation for political gain abroad, instead he should go back to Papua, his birthplace to build Papua together towards a New Papua, which is fairer, more peaceful and wealthier.

Messet reminds Benny Wenda to realise that he is used by some NGOs for the benefit of the NGOs, which aimed at collecting money for the success of the agenda of the NGOs.

“It should be noted that what Benny Wenda’s did in front of Indonesian Embassy on May 1st last week will never influence the official policy of UK Government to the integration of Papua into Indonesia (NKRI). The Government of United Kingdom officially and consistently recognised Papua as part of Indonesia,” he said.

Messet said, what Benny and his helpers did was only wating time and energy. It will be better if Benny come back to Papua to build the land of Papua . “I have experiences for many years abroad to fight for the independence of Papua but all those efforts were useless, not only bring miserable to myself, but also create a catastrophe to the people of Papua,” he said.

(sources: translated from kompas May 10, 2008)