Message to the Melanesian Spearhead Group

Today, I am standing here in my room in the great country of America, where I have been working for years since arriving in America, to tell the world what is going on in our country and to urge the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) to make the right choice: to bring West Papua into the family of Melanesia and give them permanent membership. This will fulfill the mission of MSG by uniting and protecting all Melanesian families.

Behind me are two flags: the US flag and the West Papua Melanesia flag. We have seen the many blessings God gave this country, particularly the freedom and protection of individual rights—something we don’t have in West Papua. The US flag represents the 50 states that make up this great country. Next to it is our West Papua Melanesia Flag, which embodies the beauty of our lands, our ethnic race, the vastness of our natural resources, and the blood shed over the years in our fight for independence from the grips of foreign occupation. We want our Melanesian flag to fly high in the sky as a symbol of our independence. Our Melanesian flag shows our Melanesian identity as one nation and a country of our own—a country stolen from us.

I am a former political prisoner who was jailed for asking these questions and demanding our freedom from Indonesia, and for that I was arrested alongside many great West Papuans. We were abused and jailed for political ideology, but thank God I live in a country that protects my right to once again raise these issues.

Today, I direct my statement to our good people of West Papua, who are still peacefully fighting for their right to self-determination, to keep going and keep speaking, for it is our duty to our people. And to those who are watching this, especially the US government and the Indonesian regime, and more importantly, to the MSG, we deserve our own country, and we don’t want to live under this foreign colonial power. It is time for the MSG to seriously consider our membership in the MSG. We also urge the Indonesian and US governments to come together and allow our people to vote for their own self-determination.

Again, we want our country to be recognized through a peaceful settlement based on our “Washington Solution.” We call on the US government to mediate a peaceful settlement negotiation between West Papua and Indonesia based on the following past agreements that Indonesia willfully violated:

The Canberra Agreement, dated February 6th, 1947. This agreement called for all colonized people to be granted independence.

The Rome Agreement, September 30th, 1962. This is an agreement Indonesia agreed on, which was to allow Indonesia to administer West Papua for two decades, at which time the indigenous people would vote for their own self-determination or independence.

We renew our call for the USG and the Indonesian government to implement the “Washington Solution” and put an end to this brutal colonization.

To our Pacific countries, particularly our Melanesian brothers, it is time to rally behind West Papua and allow our people to run our own affairs. Our desire to establish our own country won’t stop no matter how many West Papuan leaders Indonesia assassinates. We are not going anywhere. Hundreds of thousands of West Papuans have been killed for demanding their God-given rights, and nothing they do will change us.

I thank all our supporters, the USG, and our American friends.

I pray for the US government.

I pray for the people of Indonesia.

I pray for our people back home in West Papua.

May God continue to bless us all and bless our righteous quest for self-determination.

Free West Papua!

Herman Wainggai
WPHRC, Washington, D.C.