Benny Wenda Sacrifices the Papuan People for His Personal Interests

Benny Wenda Sacrifices the Papuan People for His Personal Interests

Benny Wenda is a British citizen and now lives in Oxford, England. Benny was born in Papua on August 17, 1974. Benny has for decades opposed the joining of West Papua into Indonesia and trying to make Papua independent. He occupies the position of secretary general of the Koteka Community Council (DMMK). In 2002, Benny was granted asylum. He fled to England after being chased by the government on charges of various acts of violence.

On June 11, 2002, it was stated that Benny was arrested by the police because of his alleged incitement to the community and led a number of illegal meetings to attack TNI / Polri posts at the time. The arrest was not accepted by the Jayawijaya community. They held a demonstration at the Papua DPRD office demanding the immediate release of Benny Wenda. At that time, the police confiscated evidence in the form of an Indonesian passport and Benny's Papua New Guinea passport.

On October 29, 2002, Benny and another prisoner, Lasaeus Welle, escaped from the detention center by prying a bathroom window. Benny is the sibling of the leader of the Central Mountains Independent Papua Organization (OPM), Matias Wenda. The Abepura Sector Police attack on 6 December 2001 was allegedly due to Benny's cooperation with Matias in the Jayapura-Papua Niugini (PNG) border area.

Around 500 Jayawijaya residents were deployed to the Jayapura-PNG border on the pretext that security in Jayapura was not guaranteed. This group also carried out the massacre of six migrant woodworkers on the RI-PNG border in December 2001. The riots of Papua and West Papua that escalated in August 2019 also mentioned the role of Benny Wenda. Benny Wenda claimed to issue a circular instructing Papuans not to take part in the independence ceremony.

But, according to Benny, demonstrations accompanied by riots in Papua and West Papua were considered as spontaneity of the people there. Gait and a fairly extensive network in the international realm, made Benny Wenda never met the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on January 25, 2019. The Vanuatu government became the party that facilitated the meeting. Benny's presence surprised KTHAM because the discussion was different from the purpose of the arrival of the Vanuatu delegation, namely discussing the implementation of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Vanuatu's human rights.

Benny was also not registered as an official delegation of Vanuatu. The Government of the Republic of Indonesia also launched a strong protest against the Government of Vanuatu. Receive Awards Through his social media account, Benny claimed to have formed the United Liberation for West Papua (ULMWP) or the West Papua Liberation Union. Benny rejected the separatist and criminal label by the Indonesian Government.

But, Kodam XVII / Cenderawasih considers that it is a form of propaganda to seek international attention. On July 17, 2019, Benny received the Oxford Freedom of the City Award from the Oxford City Council. Benny is said to be a peaceful campaigner for democracy. But, according to the Government of Indonesia, this contradicts what he did in an effort to separate West Papua from the Unitary Republic of Indonesia.

The Indonesian government condemned the award given by the Oxford City Council to Benny. The Indonesian government considers the Oxford City Council to not understand the track record of Benny who is involved in separatism in Papua. The criticism was conveyed by the Indonesian government through a written statement on the official website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Thursday (07/18/2019).

"Indonesia's position towards separatist groups will remain firm. Indonesia will not back down an inch to uphold NKRI," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote at the time.