A new documentary reveals the devastating impact of Indonesia’s National Strategic Project (PSN) in Merauke, Papua Selatan Province, exposing how large-scale agricultural expansion under the guise of national food security results in the systematic violation of indigenous rights and environmental degradation. The project aims to convert at least 1.6 million hectares of indigenous Malind territory into rice fields and sugarcane plantations, backed by heavy equipment and military presence. Indigenous communities report land seizures without giving their free, prior informed consent (FPIC), while military forces secure the project areas, underscoring the militarisation of development in West Papua.
The film highlights growing resistance from indigenous Malind communities, who reject all forms of corporate investment on their customary lands. In March 2025, over 250 participants at the ‘Merauke Solidarity’ forum condemned the PSN as a corporate-driven initiative that disregards indigenous rights and causes irreversible environmental harm. The project has already triggered deforestation, water contamination, and loss of livelihoods. A government decree has allowed the conversion of more than 13,000 hectares of forest, including protected areas and peatlands, raising serious concerns about Indonesia’s climate commitments.
Despite widespread protests and criticism, government officials, including President Prabowo Subianto, continue to promote the Merauke food estate as a modern agricultural hub. The project aligns with broader patterns of repression across West Papua, where opposition is met with violence and intimidation. Since August 2024, demonstrations against PSN and transmigration have faced heavy-handed crackdowns, reflecting a national strategy that prioritises economic interests over indigenous survival.
The documentary serves as a timely and urgent record of these developments, revealing the complex interplay between state power, corporate interests, and indigenous resistance. It underscores the need for international scrutiny and intervention, warning that the unchecked expansion of PSN projects will exacerbate land conflicts, environmental destruction, and cultural extinction in West Papua.
On the night of 12 July 2025, joint security forces consisting of Navy’s Marine Corps, Police Mobile Brigade (Brimob), and the local police raided the secretariat of the West Papua National Committee (KNPB) in Dekai, Yahukimo Regency, Papua Pegunungan Province, and arbitrarily arrested the four KNPB members, Mr Sinduk Enggalim, Mr Deko Kobak, Mr Hulu Amosoho, and Mr Ronal Kobak. The four activists were subjected to severe physical abuse during and after their arrest, amounting to torture. They were released two days later, on 14 July 2025, in a physically injured state and without charges filed against them.
On 12 July 2025, at 10:35 pm, police forces arrived at the KNPB office in a patrol vehicle and remained parked on the main road for approximately 20 minutes. At 10:55 pm, joint security forces entered the KNPB office compound. Three police officers approached two activists sitting on the veranda, followed by dozens of Brimob and military personnel. Security forces entered the building and started searching the office while devastating the interior. Witnesses reported hearing cries of pain from inside the secretariat.
The four activists were then apprehended, their hands bound behind their backs, their eyes blindfolded with duct tape, and loaded onto a military vehicle. The activists testified they were severely beaten while en route to the Koramil military post, causing two of them to urinate involuntarily. Upon arrival, they were thrown onto the ground and subjected to a six-hour torture session that included burning of skin, electrocutions, beatings with hard objects to the head and body, and being submerged in drums filled with water, in an attempt to force confessions regarding alleged affiliations with the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB). Mr Hulu Amosoho was separated from the group and tortured in isolation.
On 13 July 2025, around 06:00 am, they were transferred to the Yahukimo Police Station, where the torture continued. Police officers reportedly burned their hair and beards. Despite a subsequent visit to the hospital, only minimal treatment was provided following instructions from military personnel. All four were released on 14 July 2025, at 3:00 pm, due to the lack of incriminating evidence.
Legal and human rights analysis
The arrest and detention of the four activists constitute grave violations of international human rights law, including the prohibition of torture under the Convention Against Torture (CAT), to which Indonesia is a party. The arrest was carried out without a warrant, at night, and in the absence of any visible or declared legal basis, violating Article 18 of Indonesia’s own Criminal Procedure Code (KUHAP), which mandates due process safeguards.
Moreover, the involvement of military personnel in civilian law enforcement, particularly in the arbitrary arrest and inhumane treatment of political activists, further constitutes a breach of the principle of civilian supremacy and violates Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which guarantees the right to liberty and security of person.
The prolonged incommunicado detention, denial of access to legal counsel and family members, and the lack of judicial oversight strongly suggest the presence of enforced disappearance-like practices during the initial hours of detention.
The Indonesian government is obliged under international human rights law to launch an independent investigation into acts of torture and arbitrary arrest committed by state agents, ensuring that those responsible will face criminal prosecution. The Indonesian Government should refrain from the use of military personnel in civilian law enforcement roles, particularly against political actors. All victims of arbitrary arrest and torture must receive comprehensive medical treatment, psychosocial support, and reparations, including compensation and rehabilitation in accordance with international standards.
Table of KNPB activists arrested and tortured during police detention in Dekai on 12 July 2025
No
Name
Age
Affiliation
Additional information
1
Sinduk Enggalim
28
Chairman, KNPB Yahukimo
Beaten, could not sit or stand for extended periods
2
Deko Kobak
25
Activist, KNPB Yahukimo
Chin laceration requiring stitches, unable to eat; he was beaten with a blunt object to the face, sustained a cut above the left eye
3
Hulu Amosoho
23
Activist, KNPB Yahukimo
Head and facial injuries required stitches
4
Ronal Hiben Ris Kobak
23
Activist, KNPB Yahukimo
Beaten, suffered from inability to sit or stand for long
Photos showing the physical condition of four KNPB activists after being tortured in Yahukimo
Video testimony by four KNPB activists after being released on 14 July’25
This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a flooding: With apologies to T. S. Eliot
By Duncan Graham 11/7/25
Every year the UN runs a Climate Change Conference – the next is scheduled for November in Brazil. High on the agenda will be the plight of Pacific Islanders seeing their homes drown. There’s an equally pressing need close by, but the solutions seem doomed.
Indonesian authorities provide useful information for travellers checking if they’ve got to the right place: alongside the destination name is its height above sea level.
Surabaya, the capital of East Java, advertises it’s just two metres higher than the nearby waves. The Republic’s second-biggest city is a vital transport hub, a humid home to ten million and a trading and naval centre for more than a thousand years.
How many more is the figure to fear.
For the waters are rising and the beaches are drowning, most strikingly in the capital Jakarta 780km west along the coast of the Java Sea. It’s disappearing faster than any other city in the world, according to a BBC report:
“North Jakarta has sunk 2.5 metres in 10 years and is continuing to sink by as much as 25 centimetres a year in some parts, which is more than double the global average for coastal megacities.”
Global warming is a factor but the other culprits are illegal drilling for groundwater and excavating foundations for high-rise towers and a web of toll roads. Despite the predictions the rattle of pneumatic drills, the slurp of concrete pours and the nodding of dinosaur construction cranes continues day and night.
The BBC’s depressing information was broadcast seven years ago; horizontal lines drawn by shack owners on their timber walls to measure the rise are now invisible under the brown soup of plastics, nappies, cans and other trash that passes for water.
Lab-coated scientists taking samples to prove the pollutants are extreme would need extra protection because corrosives rot clothing.
So, what to do?
The last president Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo decided the solution was to move. He reckoned the right place to raise a memorial to his foresight was 1200 km north-east of the descending capital. The first building rising above the greenery has been the palace.
This is East Kalimantan province on the island of Borneo, the biggest in the sprawling 17,000-island archipelago where orangutans once outnumbered their human relatives. That was before the timber cutters and palm-oil planters arrived to turn the pristine into profit.
Java is five times smaller than Borneo but immeasurably more important – the political, administrative and cultural centre of the Republic and home to more than 158 million. It’s the world’s most densely populated island and super-fertile, though much of the landscape is mountainous.
The proverb rindu kampung halaman means more than just a longing for home. It embraces family, community, culture, local language and history. For the Javanese, these magnets of birthplace exercise a powerful pull.
So the four million bureaucrats and their families who call Jakarta their place are not dashing to shift to East Kalimantan with its different climate and culture – now grandly titled Ibu Kota Nusantara, the Mother City of the Outer Islands.
Despite their city’s mess, many workers will need more than subsidies and promises of promotion to get them to move, particularly if they have partners and kids embedded in schools, sports and friendships.
All this along with a disinterest in tipping more money into the Jokowi ego monument is why his successor, President Prabowo Subianto, is pondering other ways to keep Jakarta residents above water.
The current favourite is the Great Wall of Java, already on the list of strategic projects in the 2025-2029 National Medium-Term Development Plan, though there are still no blueprints.
As a former military man before being cashiered in 1998, Prabowo sees rising seas as an invasion, so the best defence is fortification.
There are lessons from military history he needs to heed. The collapse of the French Maginot Line in 1940 showed that barricades are only as strong as their weak spots and there’ll be many as seas surge and waves undermine the president’s bulwark.
Like Canute, he can shout orders. But king tides only obey the pull of the moon.
So far, estimates of Great Wall measurements and costs are still being splashed around conference tables, but the best published stab is 500km and A$122 billion over two decades. That’s twice the current estimated cost of Jokowi’s IKN.
The figures are certain to rise faster than sea levels. The money will have to be drained from state budgets as the project is unlikely to attract even Chinese investors reportedly propping up IKN. How do you earn money from a venture trying to tame nature?
One idea is to build “a livable seawall that has residential and commercial zones, essentially turning the whole structure into a kind of floating city”. Swimming would be a required skill for buyers.
The omens aren’t good. Earlier attempts to build Jakarta dykes failed. One collapsed in 2007, five years after construction – no defence against a storm that took 80 lives.
_The Jakarta Post_ is not a cheerleader for the Prabowo plan: “Simply put, we don’t have enough money or possess the knowledge or experience to build the Java seawall… We could end up with another unfinished massive construction by the end of the current presidential term, only this time at sea.”
Maybe delegates to the UN Climate Change Conference will offer fresh solutions. Otherwise like Shelley’s Ozymandias, Prabowo’s mighty works will remind future generations how we lost the battle against global warming.
The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations.
Duncan Graham
Duncan Graham has been a journalist for more than 40 years in print, radio and TV. He is the author of People Next Door (UWA Press). He is now writing for the English language media in Indonesia from within Indonesia. Duncan Graham has an MPhil degree, a Walkley Award, two Human Rights Commission awards and other prizes for his radio, TV and print journalism in Australia. He lives in East Java.
This article is sourced from The Lowy Institue’s The Interpreter first published 4/7/25
While Chinese firms capitalise on the country’s resources, the social and environmental damage lies squarely with Jakarta.
Smoke rises from Weda Bay Industrial Park, a major nickel processing and smelting hub in Central Halmahera, on 13 April 2025 (Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty Images)
The destruction of Indonesia’s rainforests and reefs in the name of green energy is a tragedy, but not one that can be pinned solely on China.
Yes, China has played a central and highly visible role in Indonesia’s nickel boom. It is the largest consumer of Indonesian nickel, the primary financier behind smelters and industrial parks, and a dominant foreign actor influencing how extraction unfolds. But Chinese companies do not force their way into Indonesia’s forests – they are merely capitalising on the rules, and loopholes, established by the Indonesian state.
To understand how the world’s largest nickel reserves are being transformed into sacrifice zones, we must begin with a critical truth: the rush to exploit these resources is not driven solely by foreign demand, but by domestic politics and governance choices made in Jakarta.
While Chinese firms certainly profit from this permissive and often corrupt environment, it is Indonesian authorities who enable and perpetuate it.
It is Indonesia that grants mining permits – often through processes vulnerable to corruption. It is Indonesia that oversees (or fails to oversee) environmental and labour assessments. It is Indonesia that silences youth activists and sidelines Indigenous communities when they speak out against these projects. While Chinese firms certainly profit from this permissive and often corrupt environment, it is Indonesian authorities who enable and perpetuate it.
A recent case from Raja Ampat, a remote archipelago in West Papua, underscores the stakes of Indonesia’s nickel rush. Last month, Indigenous youth disrupted a mining summit in Jakarta, holding signs reading “Nickel Mines Destroy Lives”. Their viral protest, under the hashtag #SaveRajaAmpat, drew attention to the threat that nickel extraction poses to their home. Several protesters were detained.
Raja Ampat, renowned for its marine biodiversity and Indigenous communities, is already reeling from the impacts of nickel mining. Of the four companies licensed to operate in the region, PT Anugerah Surya Pratama – linked to China’s Vansun Group – cleared protected forests and polluted the sea around Manuran Island. Indonesia’s Ministry of Environment confirmed these violations. Only after public outcry did the government revoke the permit, but by then, much of the damage had already been done.
Workers at the Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park sit in traffic after a shift change at the nickel processing hub (Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images)
The mining boom is not confined to far-flung Papua. In Central Sulawesi, Morowali has become the beating heart of Indonesia’s nickel processing industry. The Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park (IMIP), largely financed and constructed by Chinese companies such as Tsingshan Holding Group, stands as a flagship Belt and Road project. But its meteoric rise has come at an enormous cost: air and water pollution, deforestation, and rising greenhouse gas emissions in what was once promoted as a “green” zone.
The social toll is just as severe. Labour conditions at IMIP have raised alarms, with reports of long hours, meagre pay, poor safety standards, and frequent accidents. Tensions between Chinese and Indonesian workers have flared into violence on multiple occasions. Yet despite these concerns, the park continues to expand. The economic incentives for all parties are simply too great, and regulatory enforcement is often undermined by corruption. Indonesia’s 2020 ban on nickel ore exports – intended to promote domestic value-added processing – successfully attracted foreign capital. But the regulatory framework governing labour rights, environmental protections, and community engagement has failed to keep pace.
A similar pattern has taken root in Weda Bay, Halmahera. There, vast industrial complexes built by Chinese and French firms have reshaped the landscape. Forests have been razed, rivers contaminated, and traditional livelihoods upended. Promises of economic opportunity have been hollowed out as locals report being excluded from decision-making and witnessing a growing divide between investors and communities.
No labour abuses, environmental violations, or community displacements occur without institutional neglect – often compounded by corruption.
Indonesia’s failures are not isolated – they are systemic. Environmental impact assessments are routinely manipulated, labour standards poorly enforced, and Indigenous voices sidelined. Corruption facilitates these breaches, creating an environment where compliance is optional. The most powerful investors – Chinese state-linked enterprises among them – adapt accordingly.
Still, this does not absolve China. As the global leader in battery production and the architect of the Belt and Road Initiative, China has committed to making its development model “green and sustainable”. Yet it continues to finance and profit from operations that destroy ecosystems, exploit labour, and marginalise communities. What Beijing would never tolerate on its own soil – clear-cutting protected forests or operating in unsafe conditions – it enables abroad.
If China truly intends to lead the global energy transition, it must hold its companies accountable. This means refusing to finance environmentally destructive projects, setting higher standards for overseas operations, and enforcing consequences for corporate misconduct – not just when global outcry forces its hand.
But ultimately, the responsibility lies with Indonesia. No Chinese company can operate in Indonesia without state approval. No labour abuses, environmental violations, or community displacements occur without institutional neglect – often compounded by corruption. If Indonesia hopes to be seen as a responsible steward of its natural wealth, it must overhaul how mining projects are licensed, monitored, and enforced. It must empower Indigenous peoples and protect workers with the same urgency it grants mining permits.
Indonesia’s nickel boom is a test of the country’s ability to balance economic growth with sustainable governance. From Raja Ampat to Morowali, the impact of unchecked mining is evident – forests are cleared, labour is exploited, and communities are displaced.
We cannot place the blame squarely on China. But we must acknowledge that Indonesia’s governance – and the corruption within it – ultimately sets the terms.
Nearly 11 months after the fatal shooting of Mr Tobias Silak in the Yahukimo Regency, Papua Pegunungan Province, criminal proceedings have commenced at the Wamena District Court against the four police officers, Muh. Kurniawan Kudu (Chief Police Brigadier, Bripka), Fernando Alexander Aufa, Ferdi Moses Koromath, and Jatmiko (see photo on top, source: WPCC). The case files were transferred to the Public Prosecutor in Wamena on 28 May 2025, with the first hearing held on 24 June 2025. The court session focused on the reading of indictments. However, the scheduled 30 June hearing for defendant objections was postponed due to the defence team’s lack of preparedness, raising early concerns about the pace of the proceedings.
In response to these procedural concerns, the Indonesian Judicial Commission in Papua announced in late June’25 that it would monitor the trial proceedings following a request from the victim’s family’s legal team. The Commission is currently awaiting authorization from the headquarters to begin formal oversight. Meanwhile, civil society groups, including the Tobias Silak Justice Front, continue to demand maximum penalties, including dismissal from the police force for the accused officers, while planning consolidation efforts across multiple cities to maintain public pressure throughout the trial process (see photos below, source: FJTS).
On 12 June 2025, police officers arbitrarily detained Mr Imanus Komba, a lawyer working for the Papuan Legal Aid Institute (LBH Papua), and a protester named Mr Kolki Gwijangge during a peaceful demonstration at the Abepura roundabout in Jayapura City, Papua Province (see photo on top, source: Jubi). The demonstration, organised by student and youth groups, opposed the controversial nickel mining project in Raja Ampat, Sorong, and broader illegal resource exploitation in West Papua. Mr Komba and Mr Gwijangge were reportedly subjected to physical ill-treatment during arrest. Both men were temporarily detained at the Abepura Sub-District Police Station before being released after 20 minutes.
The protest began peacefully at 10:00 am, with demonstrators expressing environmental and indigenous rights concerns over the mining project, including its impacts on local ecosystems and customary landowners. At approximately 10:20 am, police from the Abepura Sector, led by the station chief and intelligence officers, attempted to disband the protest, allegedly citing the lack of a valid permit. When LBH Papua lawyer, Mr Imanus Komba, challenged the order and asserted the demonstrators’ constitutional rights, police officers reportedly dragged, choked, and beat Mr Komba with a rubber baton before being escorted to the Abepura Sub-District Police Station. Mr Kolki Gwijangge was also forcibly removed from the site. Despite the violence, both were released again, and Mr Komba resumed his duties accompanying the protest.
The Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) and LBH Papua condemned the detention, highlighting that such acts amount to a pattern of criminalisation and intimidation of human rights defenders in West Papua. According to YLBHI, the Abepura Police’s conduct represents a breach of Police Regulation No. 2/2003. The organisation demanded a public apology and an end to repressive policing.
The actions of the Abepura police, including physical abuse and obstruction of legal assistance, amount to violations of national law and international standards on the protection of human rights defenders. The incident violates fundamental freedoms, namely the right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly as enshrined in Article 28E (2) of the Indonesian Constitution, and Articles 19 and 21 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Indonesia is a State Party. Furthermore, the physical assault and detention of the LBH lawyer violate Law No. 16/2011 on Legal Aid, which explicitly protects lawyers from criminal or civil liability for actions taken in the course of legal representation.
The case adds to a broader pattern of repression against Papuan civil society, where security forces frequently suppress dissent under the guise of public order, infringing upon basic civil liberties and undermining the rule of law.
In the past months, the situation surrounding the National Strategic Project (PSN) in Merauke, Papua Selatan Province, has further escalated. In the Soa Village, Tanah Miring District, indigenous women from 75 families have collectively opposed the land encroachment by PT. Global Papua Abadi, which received a government concession for an energy project without the community’s free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC). This project threatens to destroy their natural sources of livelihood and violates their rights to land and self-determination. Similarly, on 23 June 2025, indigenous land belonging to the Kwipalo clan in Kakyo Village, Semangga District, was reportedly seized by the military for the construction of a post without consent or legal process, constituting a grave act of militarisation and forced dispossession.
According to the CSOs, the government’s reply reflected a broader institutional reluctance to engage meaningfully with international human rights norms. They pointed out that the Indonesian state has failed to comply with recommendations made by Komnas HAM, as well as with constitutional and international legal standards safeguarding indigenous peoples’ rights. Furthermore, they underscored that permits and business licences had been granted to companies in areas with customary land claims, without community consent or proper consultation. The coalition urged the UN Special Rapporteurs to conduct direct monitoring in Merauke and called for the immediate suspension of PSN implementation to prevent the continued expansion of human rights and environmental violations.
The PSN’s implementation in Merauke reflects a deeper failure of democratic governance and environmental responsibility. It undermines constitutional protections and international legal obligations, particularly under the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Indonesian government’s response to concerns raised by UN Special Rapporteurs has been criticised as evasive and dishonest. Indigenous leaders and civil society continue to demand the immediate suspension of all PSN activities, restoration of customary lands, adequate reparations, and a UN-led investigation. Without urgent corrective action, the PSN will inevitably destroy the ecological, cultural, and spiritual fabric of West Papua’s indigenous communities.
The military seized land belonging to the Kwipalo Clan in the Kakyo Village, Semangga District, without consent or legal process
Sediment is clearly visible close to nickel mining operations on Kawe Island, Raja Ampat, discolouring the water in one of Indonesia’s most biodiverse marine areas.
The concession covers an area of 5,922 hectares and is located within the mega-biodiversity region of Raja Ampat, West Papua.
This article is reproduced courtesy of University of Melbourne’s unit Indonesia at Melbourne
The controversy over nickel mining in Raja Ampat, Papua, is a telling example of how capitalist-driven planetary urbanisation is reshaping the world we live in.
Today, urbanisation occurs on a global scale. It is taking place not only within cities and urban areas but even in many non-city zones that serve as ‘operational landscapes’ for supplying cities’ demands. This concept of ‘planetary urbanisation’ explains how non-urban realms in the Global South have played a strategic role as operational landscapes supporting cities in the Global North.
Environmentally destructive nickel mining activities within the Raja Ampat UNESCO Global Geopark, a global tourism site widely known for its idyllic scenery and marine biodiversity, is a case in point. It shows how the current global demand for urban environmental sustainability has incentivised policymakers in the Global South to provide the materials needed for the cities in the North to be more sustainable.
It also tells the disturbing story of how Indonesia, in a nutshell, is willing to destroy its invaluable green islands for the sake of ‘greening’ cities in China and Europe.
Resource exploitation by colonial powers played a critical role in the growth of cities in Indonesia and Europe, since the extraction from Indonesia funded the growth of the Netherlands and its cities. This is one of the first examples of planetary urbanisation — where the South was squeezed to provide for the North.
This process of planetary urbanisation continues today, as nickel becomes the latest commodity sought after by major cities in the northern hemisphere.
Nickel mining activities in the eastern part of Indonesia are embodiments of ‘operational landscapes’ in ‘planetary urbanisation’. This is indicated by the spatial and social concentration of capital in the forms of infrastructural facilities and the influx of migrant workers, some of whom are from China, in the region.
It remains to be seen, however, if these new ‘operational landscapes’ will eventually lead to the creation of new local cities as it was the case during colonial times, or if they will only destroy the environment in Indonesia to support cities in other countries.
The reality is that nickel mining sites are believed to have caused anthropogenic disasters (floods and landslides), and environmental degradation (air, land, and water pollutions), adversely affecting the local communities.
Floods in Morowali, for example, are attributed by many observers to IMIP industrial zones replacing local forest that previously served as a catchment area. In Teluk Weda, for example, Forest Watch Indonesia has found that the expansion of nickel industry encroaching into nearby forested areas has increased the flood risk in the surrounding areas.
The Watchdoc documentary also emphasises the impact of the mining industry on Teluk Weda’s public health. Levels of the heavy metal arsenic have been detected in blood samples taken from residents, mining workers, and fishermen in the area. This demonstrates how the nickel mining industry can have fatal consequences.
Sustainable for whom?
Capitalism can be cruel. Yet, there is no denying that capitalist-driven Dutch colonialism, which heavily relied on plantations, played a role in the making of major cities in Indonesia with less severe environmental degradation. The ongoing process of mining activities in eastern part of Indonesia seems much more ominous.
We need to ask who really benefits from the global campaign for’ sustainable development’. Of course Indonesia should tap this economic opportunity, but we cannot let it happen at the expense of our own natural habitat and our society’s wellbeing.
A West Papuan independence movement leader has warned the Melanesian Spearhead Group after its 23rd leaders summit in Suva, Fiji, to not give in to a “neocolonial trade in betrayal and abandonment” over West Papua.
While endorsing and acknowledging the “unconditional support” of Melanesian people to the West Papuan cause for decolonisation, OPM chair and commander Jeffrey P Bomanak spoke against “surrendering” to Indonesia which was carrying out a policy of “bank cheque diplomacy” in a bid to destroy solidarity.
Fiji Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka took over the chairmanship of the MSG this week from his Vanuatu counterpart Jotham Napat and vowed to build on the hard work and success that had been laid before it.
He said he would not take the responsibility of chairmanship lightly, especially as they were confronted with an increasingly fragmented global landscape that demanded more from them.
PNG Prime Minister James Marape called on MSG member states to put West Papua and Kanaky New Caledonia back on the agenda for full MSG membership.
Marape said that while high-level dialogue with Indonesia over West Papua and France about New Caledonia must continue, it was culturally “un-Melanesian” not to give them a seat at the table.
West Papua currently holds observer status in the MSG, which includes Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and Fiji — and Indonesia as an associate member.
PNG ‘subtle shift’ PNG recognises the West Papuan region as five provinces of Indonesia, making Marape’s remarks in Suva a “subtle shift that may unsettle Jakarta”, reports Gorethy Kenneth in the PNG Post-Courier.
West Papuans have waged a long-standing Melanesian struggle for independence from Indonesia since 1969.
The MSG resolved to send separate letters of concern to the French and Indonesian presidents.
In a statement, Bomanak thanked the Melanesians of Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS) of Kanaky New Caledonia for “unconditionally support[ing] your West Papuan brothers and sisters, subjected to dispossession, enslavement, genocide, ethnocide, infanticide, and ethnic cleansing, [as] the noblest of acts.”
“We will never forget these Melanesian brothers and sisters who remain faithfully loyal to our cultural identity no matter how many decades is our war of liberation and no matter how many bags of gold and silver Indonesia offers for the betrayal of ancestral kinship.
“When the late [Vanuatu Prime Minister] Father Walter Lini declared, ‘Melanesia is not free unless West Papua is free,”’ he was setting the benchmark for leadership and loyalty across the entire group of Melanesian nations.
“Father Lini was not talking about a timeframe of five months, or five years, or five decades.
“Father Lini was talking about an illegal invasion and military occupation of West Papua by a barbaric nation wanting West Papua’s gold and forests and willing to exterminate all of us for this wealth.
‘Noble declaration’ “That this noble declaration of kinship and loyalty now has a commercial value that can be bought and sold like a commodity by those without Father Lini’s courage and leadership, and betrayed for cheap materialism, is an act of historic infamy that will be recorded by Melanesian historians and taught in all our nations’ universities long after West Papua is liberated.”
Bomanak was condemning the decision of the MSG to regard the “West Papua problem” as an internal issue for Indonesia.
“The illegal occupation of West Papua and the genocide of West Papuans is not an internal issue to be solved by the barbaric occupier.
“Indonesia’s position as an associate member of MSG is a form of colonial corruption of the Melanesian people.
“We will continue to fight without MSG because the struggle for independence and sovereignty is our fundamental right of the Papuan people’s granted by God.
“Every member of MSG can recommend to the United Nations that West Papua deserves the same right of liberation and nation-state sovereignty that was achieved without compromise by Timor-Leste — the other nation illegally invaded by Indonesia and also subjected to genocide.”
Bomanak said the MSG’s remarks stood in stark contrast to Father Lini’s solidarity with West Papua and were “tantamount to sharing in the destruction of West Papua”.
‘Blood money’ It was also collaborating in the “extermination of West Papuans for economic benefit, for Batik Largesse. Blood money!”
The Papua ‘problem’ was not a human rights problem but a problem of the Papuan people’s political right for independence and sovereignty based on international law and the right to self-determination.
It was an international problem that had not been resolved.
“In fact, to say it is simply a ‘problem’ ignores the fate of the genocide of 500,000 victims.”
Bomanak said MSG leaders should make clear recommendations to the Indonesian government to resolve the “Papua problem” at the international level based on UN procedures and involving the demilitarisation of West Papua with all Indonesian defence and security forces “leaving the land they invaded and unlawfully occupied.”
Indonesia’s position as an associate member in the MSG was a systematic new colonialisation by Indonesia in the home of the Melanesian people.
Indonesia well understood the weaknesses of each Melanesian leader and “carries out bank cheque diplomacy accordingly to destroy the solidarity so profoundly declared by the late Father Walter Lini.”
The Indonesian government’s plan to implement a National Strategic Project (PSN) worth 24 trillion rupiah in the Papua Barat Daya Province has sparked resistance from indigenous communities. They understand the massive palm oil development as an existential threat to their ancestral lands and way of life. PT Fajar Surya Persada Group’s proposal, submitted to the Governor on 27 May 2025, seeks to establish an integrated palm oil-based food industry across 98,824.97 hectares covering key districts in Sorong and Tambrauw regencies. The project involves a consortium of five companies that would control vast swaths of traditional Moi territory, including PT Inti Kebun Sawit (18,425.78 hectares), PT Inti Kebun Sejahtera (307.91 hectares), PT Sorong Global Lestari (12,115.43 hectares), PT Omni Makmur Subur (40,000 hectares), and PT Graha Agrindo Nusantara (13,799.51 hectares).
The indigenous Moi Tribe has voiced resistance against what they describe as systematic land grabbing disguised as development. On 21 June 2025, Moi communities from 13 affected districts held traditional consultation meetings in the Klaso District, culminating in sacred oath-taking ceremonies (see photo on top, source: Suara Papua) and the planting of “Tui” bamboo poles, traditional symbols of prohibition and spiritual protection. Traditional leader, Dance Ulimpa declared that the Moi people “can live without palm oil, but cannot live without our customary forests,” emphasizing that these represent their last remaining forest territories. The communities have threatened to paralyze government offices in the provincial capital and the Sorong Regency if authorities accept the company’s application.
Evidence from existing palm oil operations in the region reveals devastating environmental and social impacts that fuel indigenous resistance. According to community testimonies, palm oil companies already operating in Sorong District have caused severe ecological damage, including pollution of the once-pristine Malalis and Klasof rivers where PT Hendrison Inti Persada and PT Inti Kebun Sejahtera operate. Traditional representative Desi Karongsan reported that the Klasof River now runs yellow and oily during rainy seasons, killing fish and causing skin rashes among children. Despite promises of economic benefits, only one Moi person reportedly works for the palm oil companies, while customary land is leased at exploitative rates of just 100,000 rupiah (approximately € 6.00) per hectare per month. The economic marginalization is so severe that some indigenous land is leased at only 6,000 rupiah per hectare, highlighting the gross inequality in benefit distribution.
Political resistance is building at multiple levels, with the West Papua Regional Parliament (DPRP) committing to draft regional regulations protecting indigenous rights and imposing a moratorium on palm oil expansion. A coalition of 18 organizations, including the Moi Great Tribe Council, Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN), Greenpeace Indonesia, and various human rights groups, has formally rejected the PSN, arguing that despite Papua’s Special Autonomy Law intended to protect indigenous rights, communities continue facing poverty, displacement, and human rights violations. The coalition demands an immediate halt to all PSN activities that deprive indigenous communities of their ancestral land. The coalition calls for development policies that prioritize indigenous participation and environmental protection over corporate interests in what they describe as West Papua’s transformation into “a testing ground for greedy and reckless development.”
Australia West Papua Association Adelaide 