UK Government should not welcome Prabowo

On behalf of the colonised people of West Papua, I am asking the UK government to cancel their reception of Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto.

Prabowo is a blood-stained war criminal who is complicit in genocide in East Timor and West Papua. Right now, Indonesia is sending thousands of industrial excavators to destroy 5 million hectares of Papuan forest, and thousands of troops to violently put down any resistance. Prabowo has also restarted the transmigration settlement programme that has made us a minority in our own land. He wants to destroy West Papua.

For West Papuans, the ghost of Suharto has returned; the New Order regime still exists, it has just changed its clothes. It is gravely disappointing that the UK government has signed a ‘critical minerals’ deal with Indonesia, which will likely cover West Papua’s nickel reserves in Tabi and Raja Ampat. The UK must understand: there can be no real ‘green deal’ with Indonesia while they are destroying the third largest rainforest on earth. I was very glad to see five members of the House of Lords – Lords Harries, Purvis, Gold, Lexden, and Baroness Bennett – hold the government to account on the issues of self-determination, ecocide, and the long-delayed UN visit. We need this kind of scrutiny from our Parliamentary supporters more than ever now.

Prabowo will also be visiting Oxford Library as part of his diplomatic visit. Why Oxford? The answer is clearly because the peaceful Free West Papua Campaign is based here; because the Town Hall flies our national flag every December 1st; because I have been given Freedom of the City, along with other independence leaders like Nelson Mandela.

This visit is not an isolated incident: there was the recent cultural promotion in Oxford Town Centre, addressed by the Indonesian ambassador in an Oxford United scarf. There was the takeover of Oxford United by Anindya Bakrie, one of Indonesia’s richest men, and Erick Thohir, an Indonesian government minister. This is not about business – it is a targeted campaign to undermine West Papua’s international connections. The Indonesian Embassy has sponsored the Cowley Road Carnival and attempted to ban displays of the Morning Star, our national flag. They have called a bomb threat in on our office and lobbied to have my Freedom of the City award revoked. Indonesia is using every dirty trick they have in order to destroy my connection with this city.

Indonesia is a poor country, and due to six decades of colonialism West Papua is its poorest province. There are giant slums in Jakarta, with homeless people sleeping under bridges. So why are they pouring money into Oxford, one of the wealthiest cities in Europe?

The UK has been my home ever since I escaped an Indonesian prison in the early 2000s. My family and I have been welcomed here, and it will continue to be our home until my country is free and we can return to West Papua.

I hope the government will stand up for human rights and a habitable planet by cancelling its reception of Prabowo.