In the first week of January 2015, hundreds of people in the Timika area of West Papua were arrested, tortured and had their homes burned down by Indonesian police and military. This took place after banners calling for an independence referendum were found, and was followed by further state violence. A Papuan man was stabbed in the head, the villages of Utikini and Bini were burned and in Timika town, 19-year-old Meki Nawipa was shot by police without warning. Many fled as refugees.
Indonesia unlawfully annexed West Papua in 1969, partly motivated by securing the world’s largest goldmine, Grasberg. This mine, situated in the Timika area, fuels the occupation and genocide. It is Indonesia’s biggest taxpayer and pays the military millions of dollars a year.
