Ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters from West Papua,

We are not engaged in something new. PDP is continuing something that was started by others like Nicolaas Jouwe who is present here.
We have waited a long time for this moment, the publication of Drooglever’s report, when the world gets to know the truth. For forty-five years, up till today, Indonesia has violated our political rights, our right to live and our right to dignity.

What have the Papuans done that the Indonesian government is creating so many problems, is punishing us like this?
We Papuans want to organise ourselves, we want space to go our own way, to be independent, to be liberated from the continuing oppression by the Indonesian government.
In February 2000, in the palace in Jakarta, we have stated with team 100 that we want to be independent. After this message the anger of civil servants, politicians and military has increased.

Is it wrong to have an aspiration of independence?
Most religions in the world see freedom as a right. The freedom of humanity is something special because God Himself has created the people to be free. Freedom is the right of every human to take the responsibility for his presence on this earth.
The United Nations put human beings at the centre, for instance in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The Indonesian constitution of 1945 states that every form of oppression must be banned: ‘Colonisation on this planet must be abolished since it is not in line with humanity and justice’
In view of the legal frameworks mentioned above, the Papuans haven’t done anything wrong. But still Indonesia continues killing our people. Therefore we ask the international community for a judgement of the situation.

The historical facts in our troublesome history that are described in the Drooglever report, should be studied. It would be unacceptable if the situation has been described with golden ink and subsequently is stashed way in a library’s drawer. Let us together search for the truth, for the role of the colonial powers. The truth that we have been looking for for so long, is before us.
United we have to fight for the absolute truth so that the world will return to us our rights and our dignity, accepts us with our values and norms, and gives us a place equal to the other peoples of the world.
That is the truth of the Morning Star.

We express our sincere gratitude to the Dutch government that created the possibility for a historical research into the Act of free choice.
We also express our gratitude to bapak professor Drooglever and his team who seriously and with commitment worked on this research.

This research clarifies all the truths, misunderstandings and mistrust that played a role with individuals involved in the Act of free choice.
After the publication of Drooglever’s report, we see new perspectives. A truth-commission should be established composed of all parties that are responsible for distorting West Papua’s history in order for that history to be rectified and the people of West Papua to receive justice.
Where history has been distorted it should be rectified.