West Papua

MILDA supports the self-determination of the peoples of West Papua and calls for an end to the Indonesian genocide and occupation.

West Papua is rich in mineral and other natural resources. Indonesian and multinational companies reap enormous profits from timber, mining and fossil fuel and now palm oil . There are multiple corporate and government with interests in the territory, however Indigenous Papuans have the lowest standards of living, health and education.   While resources flow out to world markets, a constant stream of migrants is reducing the Melanesian population to a minority underclass in their own land.

Environmental impacts have been severe. Rampant illegal logging has devastated thousands of hectares of primary forest. Touting itself as an agribusiness and as a solution to global warming rather than a driver of it., palm oil industry are clearing West Papua’s carbon gathering forest and threatening its unique ecosystem to make way for palm oil plantations, declaring it will be the future of biofuels.

Customary land owners who lease or sell their land to these companies find themselves displaced. Those who resist these seizure of the land and the violence of the Indonesian occupation face death, torture, rape, imprisonment or harassment from the Indonesian government.