Let the Morning Star Shines Free!

Statement of Solidarity

Merdeka West Papua Support Network on the 64th Independence Anniversary & Morning Star Flag Raising Day

On the 64th anniversary of the West Papuan Declaration of Independence and Morning Star Flag Raising Day, the Merdeka West Papua Support Network celebrates and extends our greetings to all West Papuans who continue the struggle. 

We are inspired by everyone who mobilize on the ground across the towns, villages, forests, and mountains of West Papua; those who risk repression simply for raising the Morning Star flag; and those in exile and refugee communities who carry the West Papuan dream of freedom across borders, refusing to let distance or displacement dull their determination.

Your voices, your steps, your unwavering stand are the heartbeat of West Papua’s resistance.

We join everyone in solemn salute to all martyrs and departed heroes of the West Papuan struggle for self-determination.

Your courage, sacrifice, and unbroken commitment to the path toward freedom. Let us always honor their lives with the continued echo of the ideals you carried to their final breath.

As a network of advocates around the world, we draw deep inspiration from West Papuans. We commit to educate, advocate, and take every action possible that raises the Morning Star flag. Your struggle strengthens ours; your hope fuels our resolve.

December 1 protests and commemoration across different towns, cities and Regency in West Papua.

This year’s anniversary comes at a time of intensified attacks to erase West Papua identity, ways of life, lands, and rights. 

We stand with you against one of the largest land-grabbing operations on the island such as the Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate and many destructive investments. These imposed projects continue to dispossess Indigenous Peoples' communities, destroy the ecosystems, and erase ancestral territories in the name of profit and state expansion. 

We denounce the escalating environmental destruction, the criminalization of Indigenous Peoples resistance, the rising number of political prisoners, and the internal displacement caused by Indonesian state militarization. 

We condemn the grave violations of international humanitarian law (IHL) committed with impunity, shielded by Indonesia’s refusal to recognize the legitimacy of the West Papuan struggle for collective self-determination.

Just some of the West Papua Flag raising in solidarity across the world, in Berlin, Auckland, Manila, Vanuatu, Aotearoa, Canterbury, and Guam that we are able to document.

Our solidarity is also a task to expose the role of imperialist powers, including the United States and other global powers whose economic, military, and diplomatic interests enable ongoing human rights abuses and resource plunder in West Papua. 

We will continue to challenge the hypocrisy of governments that speak of democracy and human rights while closing their eyes to the suffering of the genocide and ethnocide of the West Papuan people, and the ecocide of their lands. 

It's time to act more decisively, with pressure, accountability mechanisms, and tight solidarity.

With the 10 December International Human Rights Day or the commemoration of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) by the United Nations General Assembly, we commit to remembering and highlighting not only the grave human rights violations in West Papua but the peoples' resolve to advance further and defend their rights amid challenges.

On this 64th anniversary, we reaffirm that the West Papuan struggle lives within the shared resistance of all oppressed and exploited peoples fighting for land, dignity, and freedom. 

The right to determine their own future started more than 64 years ago and continues today. 

Our movements are interconnected, our adversaries entwined, and our victories bound together.

Your struggle is just, your rights are undeniable, and your song of freedom joins the chorus of global resistance. We stand with you until the Morning Star shines freely over a free, peaceful and rich West Papua.#

Reference:

Merdeka West Papua Support Network Secretariat merdeka.sec@gmail.com