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southeastasianists · 1 month

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In Dili, Indonesia’s future means trying to forget about Timor-Leste’s past

Indonesian President-elect Prabowo Subianto, a former military officer, has been linked to alleged atrocities in Timor-Leste.

At Timor-Leste’s museum of memory, Hugo Fernandes supervises exhibits chronicling resistance and oppression during the Indonesian occupation – an era when Prabowo Subianto, now Indonesia’s president-elect, is alleged to have overseen atrocities.

Fernandes runs the Centro Nacional Chega! museum, a former prison in the capital Dili that dates to when Timor-Leste was a Portuguese colony. Faded photographs of Timorese resistance fighters and messages scrawled on the walls by prisoners who languished here during Indonesia’s brutal 24-year rule line its galleries.

Despite the shadows cast by history, the impending ascent to power of Prabowo, a former army special forces commander who was declared the winner of the Feb. 14 Indonesian general election, has been greeted with diplomatic decorum in this tiny young nation of 1.3 million people also known as East Timor.

“Prabowo’s specific actions remain unclear due to limited information,” Fernandes, the museum’s director, told BenarNews. “Accusations of human rights violations have persisted, but concrete evidence and verification are difficult to obtain.”

“Chega!,” which means “enough! in Portuguese, stands as a testament to Timor-Leste’s efforts to navigate the delicate path between preserving the memories of its dark past and promoting reconciliation with its giant neighbor next-door.

“There are differing voices within the nation,” Fernandes says. “Some activists advocate for answers regarding past atrocities, while others emphasize the importance of moving forward with Indonesia.”

In 1999, East Timor voted overwhelmingly to break away from Indonesian rule, through a United Nations-sponsored referendum. Before and after the vote, pro-Jakarta militias engaged in widespread violence and destruction. East Timor gained formal independence in 2002 after a period of U.N. administration.

The occupation, which followed after Indonesia invaded East Timor in December 1975, was marked by famine and conflict. The number of deaths attributed to that era ranges from from 90,000 to 200,000, the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor reported.

This figure includes nearly 20,000 cases of violent deaths or disappearances. The commission’s findings indicate that Indonesian forces were responsible for about 70% of these violent incidents, set against the backdrop of East Timor’s population of around 900,000 in 1999.

And according to the Genocide Studies Program at Yale University, “up to a fifth of the East Timorese population perished during the Indonesia’s 24-year occupation … a similar proportion to the Cambodians who died under the Khmer Rouge regime of Pol Pot (1975-1979).”

Since 1999, the relationship between Timor-Leste and Indonesia has evolved, with Jakarta acknowledging its former province as a “close brother” and supporting Dili’s bid to join the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Timor-Leste President José Ramos-Horta welcomed Prabowo’s election win and expressed readiness to collaborate with Indonesia’s upcoming new leader.

“Very pleased, very pleased,” Ramos-Horta told BenarNews when asked about Prabowo’s victory.

As a young man, Ramos-Horta, now 74, was a founder and leader of Fretilin, the armed resistance movement that fought to liberate East Timor from the Portuguese first and then the Indonesians.

He said he had personally called Prabowo, now Indonesia’s defense minister, to congratulate him, and that the ex-general planned to visit Timor-Leste before his inauguration on Oct. 20.

Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão, a former guerilla leader who spent years in an Indonesian prison, was also happy with the news, Ramos-Horta said.

“President-elect Prabowo will contribute a lot, first to Indonesia, continuing stability and prosperity in Indonesia, and then in the region, as well as strengthen relations with Timor-Leste,” he said, adding Prabowo had “many friends” in his country, including his own brother, Arsenio.

When asked about Prabowo’s human rights record in Timor-Leste, Ramos-Horta said, “That is past. It’s already almost three decades, and we do not think of the past.”

Prabowo was a key figure in the military operations that crushed the East Timorese resistance.

The Timor-Leste National Alliance for an International Tribunal (ANTI), a coalition of civil society organizations, survivors, and families of victims, said reports had implicated Prabowo in a 1983 massacre in Kraras.

Some estimates said that 200 people were killed there, earning the area the nickname the “town of widows.”

In a statement released in November, the alliance said that as the head of the Indonesian army’s special forces command, Prabowo had directed actions resulting in severe human rights abuses and crimes, including the establishment of pro-Indonesian militias blamed for post-referendum violence in 1999.

In addition, Prabowo is linked to a 1991 massacre at the Santa Cruz cemetery in Dili, where some 250 peaceful demonstrators were killed, the alliance said.

In 1998, Prabowo was discharged from the military after a council of honor officers found him guilty of several violations, including involvement in the abduction and disappearance of pro-democracy activists during the 1998 student protests that led to the downfall of Indonesian dictator Suharto.

Prabowo, 72, has denied any wrongdoing and said he was only following orders from his superiors. He has never been tried in a civilian court for the alleged crimes.

Prabowo’s presidential campaign team said that witnesses, including religious figures in Timor-Leste, had denied his connection to the Krakas killings.

For many Timorese, the memories of Indonesian occupation are hard to erase.

Naldo Rei, 50, a former child guerrilla-fighter who was repeatedly imprisoned during that period, said he could not overlook Prabowo’s human rights record.

“While I don’t want to meddle in Indonesia’s internal matters, when it comes to human rights issues, Prabowo has a very distressing track record,” Rei told BenarNews, his soft-spoken and gentle demeanor belying his resistance years.

Rei spent his youth evading capture in the Los Palos jungle after the loss of six family members, including his father, to Indonesian military action.

In the early 1990s, he sought refuge first in Jakarta, then in Australia, before settling in an independent East Timor.

Rei, who is the author of “Resistance,” a memoir detailing his experiences, voices apprehension about the trajectory of Indonesian democracy.

“Prabowo’s victory, from my perspective, squanders the democracy that the people have fought for,” he said. “How many lives have been lost? He and other generals have blood on their hands.”

Januario Soares, a second-year medical student at the National University of Timor Lorosae, represents a growing sentiment focused on the future.

“Indonesia has chosen its leader. We need to focus on the future,” Soares said as he sat in the shade of a mahogany tree outside his campus in Dili.

He believes strengthening relations between the two countries is vital.

“The civil war left us divided, and in that division, we inadvertently opened our doors to Indonesia,” Soares said. “What followed was a period of violence against our people, a scar in our history.”

Yet, when it comes to Prabowo’s role in that history, Soares admitted he did not know much.

“The Indonesian people have made their choice. Perhaps Prabowo is the best among the contestants; that’s why they chose him,” he said.

Soares said he opted for a pragmatic approach toward the past, focusing on improving the quality of life and seeking benefits for the present and future.

“People change over time, and I believe Prabowo has changed too.”

Damien Kingsbury, a political expert specializing in Timor-Leste, said Timorese leaders were obligated to maintain a delicate diplomatic stance due to the small nation’s reliance on Indonesia for imports and its aspirations to join ASEAN, the Southeast Asian bloc. Indonesia is one of ASEAN’s founding members.

“Of course, Ramos-Horta must be diplomatic,” said Kingsbury, a professor at Deakin University in Australia, who has written extensively on Timor-Leste and Indonesia.

“He is president of a small country that has an unhappy history with Indonesia and does not want to create any possible problems,” he told BenarNews.

Kingsbury pointed out that while Ramos-Horta, a Nobel laureate and prominent diplomat, is well-versed in the language of diplomacy, there is a generational gap in awareness of the nation’s tumultuous past.

“Younger people may not be aware of events of 20, 30 and 40 years ago, but that does not mean they did not happen,” he said.

“It must leave a bitter taste in the mouths of many that Timor-Leste’s leaders need to be polite to Prabowo.”

#Southeast Asia #East Timor #Timor Leste #Indonesia #Prabowo Subianto #Indonesian occupation #History

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sky-daddy-hates-me · 1 month

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This person says they're anti-israel and pro-palestine. They say they believe the human rights media when it comes to Israel's genocide yet they claim they're unreliable when the same media outlets point out the human rights abuses in West Papua by Indonesia.

If you only believe that countries that aren't your own are capable of breaching international humanitarian law, committing genocide, and colonisation, then your blind loyalty to your government will be your undoing.

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kropotkindersurprise · 8 months

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September 18, 2023 - Fighters of TPNPB, the West Papua National Liberation Army, rip apart an Indonesian flag after carrying out an attack on an Indonesian military position. Papua Merdeka! [video]

#west papua #papua merdeka #Bendera Bintang Kejora #flag #indonesian flag #gif #2023 #TPNPB #West Papua National Liberation Army #separatism #anti-colonialism #occupation #fire #flames #guerrilla #war #indonesia #indigenous resistance #indigenous

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workersolidarity · 6 months

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🇵🇸🇮🇱 🚑🏥

💥JOURNALISTS DOCUMENT THE EVENTS OF ISRAEL'S BOMBARDMENT OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD IN THE VACINITY OF THE INDONESIAN HOSPITAL IN BEIT LAHIA, GAZA💥

#source

@WorkerSolidarityNews

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veradragonjedi · 4 months

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I completely support Israel being held accountable for its crimes against humanity, but we also can’t ignore that Indonesia has been violently occupying West Papua - a region more than twice the size of occupied Palestine - for the past 55 years, and has murdered 500,000 indigenous West Papuans in the process. Indonesian soldiers routinely burn indigenous villages to the ground, pose with the bodies of murdered Papuan civilians, and actively prevent journalists from reporting on the genocide. West Papuans often refer to their homeland as “Indonesia’s Palestine.”

☝️

#i am not educated enough to know about the Indonesian occupation #not enough to add on anything anyway #i dont know why i was sent this (i mean; i dont know whether they want me to respond; spread the word; argure; or post this so its known)#id like to learn further if anyone else has add ons #and feel free to reblog to spread the word i suppose #!!#important #vee answers

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cathyrossphoto · 6 months

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On 1 December 2023, a group of activists dropped the Morningstar Flag off Victoria Bridge in Meanjin to commemorate 62 years of stolen independence in West Papua.

#free west papua #end indonesian military occupation #morningstar flag #west papua #free west papua movement #meanjin activism #brisbane #photography

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intersectionalpraxis · 3 months

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I just posted a thread on the history of colonialism and ongoing oppressive Indonesian occupation of West Papua. If you have time, please read the educational slides. This is absolutely horrendous, and has been going on for decades. The Indonesian government and military must be held accountable. Free West Papua.

#feminist #social justice #settler violence #settler colonialism #current events #current news #free west papua #west papua #history #indonesia #colonial violence #colonialism #global news #world news #torture tw #end the occupation

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iberiancadre · 23 days

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first the holocaust was turned into the project of a sole madman who had an entire country under a spell, which suddenly vanished at the stroke of a pen when peace was signed, rather than being a continuation of centuries of scapegoating and antisemitism, enabled by western capital, direct funding to the Nazi party in some cases like the British aristocracy's, with the purpose of creating a massive slave workforce and to boost the German economy via looting, expropiation and a reduction in the worker population, an economy that had been reeling since WWI and propped up by directing all jobless people to work in the arms industry.

then, the (incomplete) victory over european fascism (don't look at Spain and Portugal and Greece) was methodically distanced from the true victors, the soviet people. They suffered an invasion and destruction of the majority of their industrial base, save for the industry relocated to the east, more than 20 million dead soviet workers who pushed the fascists from Moscow to Berlin, ending in an artillery barrage the magnitudes of which had never been seen, the symbolic raising of the red banner over the Reichstag and an enveloping of the city that forced many nazi officials to commit suicide. It was also forgotten how the Yugoslavs liberated themselves, managing to keep fascist forces constantly tied up during the war, how the Italian partisans captured Mussolini and hung him in public, the many uprisings throughout Europe and the concentration camps before the frontline reached them, the exiled brigadiers and republicans who first fought fascism in Spain and was later forced to fight fascism again, unable to return to their homes and under threat of being imprisoned. The indigenous resistance against colonialism in east and north Africa and southwest Asia, and the tens of millions Chinese, Vietnamese, Lao, Cambodian, Malaysians, Indonesians, Papuans, Thais, Bengalese, Indians, Filipinos, etc, who suffered both Japanese and western occupation. All of these struggles forgotten and erased, reduced to the USamerican, British, and sometimes French armies. Armies who advanced to witness a fraction of the suffering enabled and financed by their own states barely a decade prior. Even minor members of the western allies, such as Brazil, are often forgotten.

After the Holocaust was reduced to an unexpected and unprecedented event with no connection to reality, and after the struggle against fascism was reduced to the involvement of two or three countries, barely any fascists were punished. Anyone who wasn't a top official could claim to be simply following orders, even someone as important like Speer used this defence, he was allowed to live free and publish an autobiography in which he paints himself as the good Nazi, the mere architect caught up in a madman's rise. As if he ignored the plans for a future Berlin would be built by slave labor from the concentration camps, as if the minister of armaments from 1942 to the end did not know about the reliance companies like Krupp or Volkswagen had on slave labor. As if he didn't listen to Goebbels' speeches about total war and extermination and did not understand his armaments would be used. Some fascists were even integrated into the scientific and military spheres of the western allies, others given citizenship and a cushy home in places like Canada. Japanese fascists who had experimented on and tortured countless Chinese and Korean civilians and POWs to research chemical warfare were offered amnesty in exchange for the knowledge they gained doing these experiments. After German reunification, more eastern queer people were imprisoned than fascists were incarcerated or executed at the Nürnberg trials.

After fascists were exonerated and shamelessly integrated into the western states, and after some time passed, the war was turned into a cultural product. Countless war movies were produced, almost always showing usamerican soldiers in the European or Pacific front fighting a mindless horde with hakenkrauzs on their armbands all lead by a single man, or group of men, ontologically evil. It was too complex to examine the actual reasons for the war. Hitler was simply a charismatic devil who had duped Germany into following him (crucially, he was only charismatic for germans. No true American patriot fell for his tricks). Gradually, the figure of Hitler was transformed into a devil in human form who had appeared in München in 1932 to cause evil and fight freedom.

As a result, German fascism and the Holocaust are nothing more but a historical fact you look at with morbid curiosity, to feel disgust, maybe anger, and sigh in relief that it would never happen again. There is no reflection on how it was allowed to happen, how antisemitism was used, like it had commonly been used throughout history, to blame for economic downturn and how the expropriation of jewish property, the enslavement of other minorities alongside them (Slavs, non-jewish poles, homosexuals, roma, communists...) and the rapid stimulation of a military industry was used to save an recessing economy. No examination of how the Nazi party appealed to the German petit-bourgeoisie and monopolies like the aforementioned Krupp, Volkswagen, or IG Farben, by attacking communists and trade unionists, who were beginning to organize at a bigger scale and actually threaten german capitalists. Instead, some even try to paint the nazis as communists or as similar to them, through terms like totalitarianism, which was popularized by Hannah Arendt, a fascist sympathiser who also saw fit to label decolonial struggles as totalitarian.

Even more insidious than this is how Hitler has been mutated into a shorthand for evil, an entity beyond a single man who personifies the collective hatred of minorities by Europeans, a condensation of centuries of hatred and exploitation into an angry man between 1932 and 1945. By doing this we can rest easy knowing there will never be another Hitler because we are so civil now. It was Hitler's speeches that guided every SS member's hand to execute tens of thousands. It was Goebbels' propaganda that clouded the judgment of the millions of Wehrmacht soldiers who looted and massacred their way through Europe. It was Himmler's threat that coerced countless germans to spy and tattle on their neighbors. It was Göring who convinced the Luftwaffe pilots to bomb and terrorize civilians. It was Dönitz who made the Kriegsmarine target civilian ships and ruthlessly pursue trade convoys. And it was ultimately Hitler who controlled these men, and no German had free will or political conviction between 1932 and 1945.

The peak of this attitude I see most in the internet: Do you want to learn about Hitler's Bunker? Hitler's enormous artillery pieces? Hitler's train? Hitler's plans? Hitler's wife? Hitler's army? Hitler's rise through the party? Hitler's veganism? Hitler's dog? Hitler's car? Hitler's Germania? Hitler's camps? Hitler's possible escape? Hitler's military career? Hitler's architecture? Hitler's political maneuvering in the interwar? Hitler, Hitler, Hitler. Nobody wants to deal with the fact that Hitler was not omnipotent or omnipresent. He and his party was supported by German and western capital to oppose worker organization and to give an outlet to social tension around the inflating currency and failing economy. Just like in Italy and just like in Spain. Hitler is a cultural product sold to liberals so they can be reassured that they would never become evil. No liberal democracy has ever put an entire minority into concentration camps, no liberal democracy has ever used Zyklon B on dispossessed people, no liberal democracy has ever looted a conquered nation, no liberal democracy has ever killed workers for unionizing, no liberal democracy has ever used nationalism and supremacism to rally popular support, and a long etcetera.

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ibtisams · 6 months

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The Indonesian Hospital is the last medical complex operating in North Gaza and is currently undergoing Israeli occupation and attacks. It is surrounded by tanks, and they are treating anyone who moves as a target- this is exactly how the atrocities committed at Al-Shifa hospital began

#at least 12 are dead from attacks this morning #palestine #🦢

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genderoutlaws · 4 months

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ID: Instagram post by wizard_bisan1 with the caption "Happening now!! Share!! Talk about it!". The post itself is the following text.

12:18 AM

17/1/2024

Something you don't know is happening right now! Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis surrounded by the Israeli army and its vehicles. There is no Internet to cover what is happening. Carpet bombing everywhere around the hospital... Tens of thousands of people moving randomly with nowhere to go! It's the end of the world! I have never seen anything worse in my life!

The occupation intends to invade Nasser Hospital, the last operating hospital in the Gaza Strip, which contains thousands of displaced people! This is a crime against humanity! What happened in Al-Shifa Hospital, Kamal Adwan and the Indonesian is being repeated on front of the eyes of the world!

End ID

#happening now #palestine #free palestine #israeli terrorism

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northgazaupdates · 26 days

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26 April 2024

Environmental engineer and public health consultant Dr. Tamer Al-Najjar reports that despite the occupation’s attempt to destroy it, the Indonesian Hospital will be back to operation within the next few weeks. Work is also already underway to return Al-Shifa Hospital to operation, which we have seen from the social media accounts of staff members.

There is never a time to lose hope, but especially not now. Gaza lives, and Palestine WILL be free in our lifetimes.

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antifainternational · 2 months

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March 28, London - Free West Papua

Horrifying footage has emerged of a group of Indonesian soldiers torturing a West Papuan man. Join us this Thursday outside the Indonesian Embassy to protest this crime against humanity and the military occupation that produced it. Torture is so commonplace in West Papua that it has been described as a ‘mode of governance’. This incident only made the news because the soldiers filmed themselves kicking, punching, and slashing their victim; every year, untold numbers of West Papuans suffer the same fate without the world ever finding out. Indonesia’s sense of impunity is aided by unquestioning Western government support and a sixty-year media blackout brutally imposed by the occupying forces. Come along this Thursday to show your solidarity with West Papuans.

#free west papua #papua merdeka #antifa #antifascism #antifascist action #uk #britain #england #london #west papua #indonesia #occupation #genocide

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workersolidarity · 6 months

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🇵🇸🇮🇱🏥 🚨 💥ISRAELI OCCUPATION SHELLING IN THE VICINITY OF THE INDONESIAN HOSPITAL💥

Israeli Occupation Forces are currently shelling in the vicinity of the Indonesian Hospital in Bait Lahia, North Gaza.

#source

@WorkerSolidarityNews

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apricitystudies · 5 months

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what i read in 2023: best of

(full monthly lists) bold = favourite, * = interactive

investigative & longform journalism

shadow diplomats

the deputy and the disappeared* (usa)

adrift*

catching the men who sell subway groping videos (japan)

inside the secretive world of penile enlargement

have assisted dying laws gone too far? (canada)

the journalist and the pharma bro

raising the dead (south africa)

crime & justice

crime of the centuries

the indonesian children australia sent to adult jails for years*

the mercy workers (usa)

the occupation of water (palestine)

a hidden universe of suffering (palestine)

history

from mind control to murder

singapore's prison without walls made the world sit up in 1960s. how did it fall apart?* (interactive journey here)

the horrors of pompeii

blood on his hands* (cambodia)

culture & essays

quantum poetics

honey, i sold the kids

how to wash your hands in a war zone (colombia)

the strangely beautiful experience of google reviews

"blurred lines", harbinger of doom

the teacher crush

what kind of future does de-extinction promise?

#studyblr #studyspo #student #academia #university #literature #productivity #long reads #knife gang #myresources

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storiesfromgaza · 7 months

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Recent Report | International institutions report: 2,326 women and 3,760 children have been martyred in Gaza since October 7th, comprising 67 percent of the overall casualties.

Note: This image shows a child looking in terror at his mother, Nada Jarad, as they rush her into the emergency room at Al-Quds Hospital, which was the same hospital threatened by the occupation after they targeted Al-Ma'madani Hospital in the infamous incident known as the Al-Ma'madani Massacre in which thousands of patients, their families, children, and the ones who were seeking refuge in the hospital lost their lives.

Wait, I haven't finished yet!

Yesterday, the Israelis bombed Al-Quds Hospital, Al-Shifa Hospital, and the Indonesian Hospital. Not only that, all of this wasn't enough for them, so they decided to target the ambulances that were carrying the wounded to Egypt for treatment, after they had approved and allowed it themselves :)ِ

Do you understand what this means? They were aware of the convoy's route in advance and deliberately targeted it, causing the Ambulances to be stained with blood.

Did these wounded people also pose a threat to Israel when they could barely walk, let alone breathe?

#gaza #palestine #gaza strip #free gaza #free palestine #storiesfromgaza #غزة #فلسطين #genocide #humanitarian crisis

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intersectionalpraxis · 2 months

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Don't stop talking about what is happening to West Papuans. Here is a thread for folks who are unaware of what has been happening as a start:

The Indonesian occupation of West Papua must end.

Free West Papua.

#feminist #social justice #current events #settler violence #settler colonialism #indonesia #free west papua #west papua #current news #tw torture #western imperialism #colonial violence #colonialism #history #end the occupation

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