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West Papua celebrated its independence on December 1st, 1961. On that joyous day, the New Guinea Council raised the Morning Star flag and played the national anthem, Hai Tanahku Papua, as West Papuans looked forward to their country becoming the first free Melanesian state.
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But that promised freedom was cruelly snatched away only the next year by Indonesian invasion. Sixty years on, with hundreds of thousands of Papuans having been killed and raising the Morning Star now banned in West Papua, it falls to their supporters around the world to raise it on their behalf.
Show your solidarity with West Papua by raising a Morning Star on this December 1st – and send us a picture of it at office@freewestpapua.org or on instagram:https://www.instagram.com/freewestpapua/?hl=en-gb
If you haven’t already, you can buy a Morning Star here. https://ethicalshop.org/west-papua-flag.html
CRISIS IN WEST PAPUA
Why now? The answer is simple: West Papua is in the midst of a significant military escalation. Tens of thousands of indigenous Papuans have been internally displaced in 2025, with the number of refugees having jumped from 79,867 in October 2025 to over 100,000 today.
At the same time, the Indonesian military continues to kill civilians across West Papua, while close to the border with Papua New Guinea, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto presses ahead with the most destructive deforestation project in human history: a sugarcane and rice plantation the size of Wales.
Massacre in Intan Jaya
Fifteen West Papuans were murdered by the Indonesian military in the Highlands region of Intan Jaya in October 2025. In the early hours of the morning, soldiers went house to house in Soanggama Village, torturing and shooting villagers while they slept. Indonesia then denied the massacre, claiming that those killed were guerilla fighters—in direct contradiction of all on the ground reports.
Intan Jaya has become a warzone since Indonesia began construction on the vast Wabu Block gold mine in the region in 2020.
In May, up to fifteen Intan Jaya residents were “disappeared” by Indonesian soldiers, including a child, a 75-year-old, and two women later found buried in a shallow grave. Two months prior to that, a series of aerial military bombardments destroyed a number of Intan Jaya villages, prompting hundreds of civilians to flee into the bush. And at the end of 2024, four Intan Jaya villagers were murdered by a rogue military battalion, including a man with learning difficulties and two school children.
Murdered for flying a flag
18-year-old Obert Mirip was murdered by Indonesian soldiers in July, simply for wearing a t-shirt adorned with the Morning Star.
Bombardment in the Star Mountains
The Star Mountains, one of the remotest and rainiest places on earth, is being bombarded by the Indonesian military, using unmanned drones, missiles, helicopters, sniper rifles and fighter jets.
Click here to watch the last testimony of Lamek Taplo, a West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) commander in the Star Mountains. Commander Taplo was killed soon after by an Indonesian rocket.
BOYCOTT FOR A FREE WEST PAPUA
In movement news, the West Papua boycott campaign continues to go from strength to strength. Since its launch in April, it has garnered coverage in international media and recently held its first protest, outside BP’s offices in London.
If you would like to get involved, please email boycott@freewestpapua.org or message us on instagram.
Donate here: https://www.freewestpapua.org/actions/donate/
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