West Papua inaugurates full Provisional Government, seeks international recognition as a sovereign state

As President of the ULMWP Provisional Government, I welcome the Legislative Council’s first Plenary Session, which was held this week in Jayapura.

After a year-long recruitment process, the ULMWP has now inaugurated 250 Senate Members, 350 Legislative Council Members, and 1740 Regional Council members: more than 2300 official representatives in total, ranging from the President and Prime Minister, to the seven regional Executives, all the way down to the level of village, tribe and clan. Over 3000 West Papuans attended the proceedings. Prime Minister Edison Waromi and I later took our oaths at the second Plenary Session, officially inaugurating us as President and Prime Minister.

We have now completed our internal structure, implementing democracy even before winning independence. The ULMWP is ready to engage with the world as a government-in-waiting.

On behalf of the ULMWP, I give thanks to the brave men and women risking everything to build our movement on the ground. You are keeping the spirit of freedom alive, as generations of West Papuans have throughout our history. Our ancestors are with us in this fight.

Yesterday’s inauguration marked the rebirth of the West Papuan state. On December 1st 1961, the West New Guinea Council, elected by Indigenous West Papuans, celebrated our coming independence by raising the Morning Star flag and singing our national anthem. Diplomats from five countries – Australia, the Netherlands, the UK, France, and Papua New Guinea – bore witness to this inauguration. The world was prepared to watch the birth of an independent West Papua, the first free Melanesian state.

However, our promised independence was strangled at birth – stolen from us in 1963 by the illegal Indonesian invasion. The mission of the ULMWP is to reclaim our sovereignty. Every previous declaration, manifesto, and Congress, in 1961, 1971, 1988, 2000, 2011, 2014, and 2023, is part of the process that has led our movement to this historic day. The Legislative Council has reaffirmed the resolutions of the 2023 ULMWP Congress, including giving the Vanuatu Government and International Lawyers for West Papua (ILWP) a full mandate to defend our legal right to self-determination at the international level.

With the 2020 Provisional Government, we built a legitimate governance structure and declared Indonesian presence in West Papua to be illegal. With this inauguration, we have deepened our sovereignty on the ground. The ULMWP is now present at every level of West Papuan life.

The world should respect the fact that we have fulfilled all international requirements to be recognised as a government-in-waiting. We have our own provisional government, cabinet, laws, constitution, and Green State Vision for a liberated West Papua. We also have a network of diplomatic representatives around the world, ready to engage with international diplomats.

Multiple precedents exist for liberation movements being recognised as their nation’s official representative prior to independence: the FLNKS, the Vanuatu People’s Provisional Government, the Palestine Liberation Organisation, or the Polisario Front in Western Sahara. The ULMWP is ready to play that role. We are ready to take our seat at the table, to help find a diplomatic political solution to the West Papuan issue through international political mechanisms.

To my people, everyone must unite behind their Provisional Government, with one spirit, one goal, and one destiny. We are still walking our long road to freedom, but the finish line is getting closer. Papua Merdeka.