Request to support the rejection of West Papuans on the spaceport and military base development in Biak
- Merdeka Secretariat
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
WHAT IS THE TRIPLE THREAT TO WEST PAPUANS IN BIAK?
Biak is currently experiencing a convergence of state-backed infrastructure (spaceport), militarization, and land grabbing, triggering heightened Indigenous resistance and risk of further human rights violations.
The Indonesian government is accelerating plans to build a national spaceport in Biak starting 2026, framing it as a National Strategic Project (PSN) to achieve technological sovereignty before 2040, but Indigenous communities warn it threatens ancestral lands and live.
In early January 2026, clashes occurred in East Biak over land designated for a new military battalion base, with Indigenous landowners facing intimidation and physical violence.
Theres a deployment of around 1,700 Indonesian troops in Biak and nearby islands since late 2025, linked to “territorial development,” resulting in forced occupation of customary lands and rising state violence. Indigenous lands is now a garrison of military and center of land dispossession and lack of free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC).
BIAK AT AN ECOLOGICAL AND CULTURAL CRISIS
The spaceport and military base in Biak points to deeper concerns about a whole ecological and cultural stake.
Biak sits within the Coral Triangle, often called the global center of marine biodiversity. Its waters host rich coral reef systems with hundreds of coral species that supports reef fish, tuna, and other pelagic species and houses endangered species like sea turtles and reef sharks.
Biak’s forests are home to unique species, including the Biak paradise kingfisher and other endemic birds, reptiles, and plants.
Biak is home to Indigenous Papuan communities with deep ancestral ties to land and sea. Its people practice customary adat systems. And many of its coastal and forest areas are tied to ancestral history, ritual practices, and burial and sacred grounds.
The National Strategic Plan for spaceport and military bases are a death sentence to Biak’s fragile ecology and biodiversity, life, and communities.
MILITARIZATION & GARRISONING OF BIAK
Across different regimes, Biak has been a base for Indonesian Air Force & Indonesian Navy facilities. In Asia and the Pacific, Biak and West Papua have been eyed by different geopolitical alliances and countries as a strategic military location.
With all these developments, the Indigenous West Papuans long been living in Biak remains excluded in projects gravely impacting their lands, lives and existence.
Timeline of the proposed Biak Spaceport & Military Base:
2006
Under Indonesia Pres. Yudhoyono, the Indo & Russia gov’t conceptualized an equatorial launch site for satellites thru the LAPAN (National Institute of Aeronautics and Space) & Russian Federal Space Agency.
2010
Yudhoyono formalizes the Indo-Russia Agreement and cooperation plan wc will include an air-launch system using Russian rockets.
2012 - 2019
From Yudhoyono to Jokowi, an alterntive site in Morotai Island, North Maluku was considered. The project slowed down and then revived.
2019
Biak was firmed up as main site as led by the Indo central government thru LAPAN. From an Indo-Russia bilateral cooperation, the project was opened up to broader international commercial partnerships.
2019 - 2021
Jokowi actively seek foreign investors and private companies for the spaceport project promoting a Public–Private Partnership (PPP). Elon Musk’s SpaceX was a reported investor along other global aerospace firms.
2021
Indo gov’t initiated the EIA under the Ministry of Environment and Forestry and LAPAN, as well as pushing for foreign capital investments for the project.
2021 - 2022
Jokowi dissolved LAPAN and merged it to the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) wc led the spaceport development.
2025
Prabowo publicly invites foreign cooperation and investors saying it is a civilian infrastructure project mainly involving BRIN and Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
2025 - present
Prabowo pushed that the project be a National Strategic Project (PSN), just like the Merauke Food Estate targeted for 2030-2040 operationalization.
Amplify our call:
Papua is not an empty land!
TNI out of West Papua now!
Free West Papua! Papua Merdeka!
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