Reprinted in full:

FEDERATED REPUBLIC OF WEST PAPUA

ABEPURA PRISON, JAYAPURA, WEST PAPUA

Prime Minister Peter O'Neill PO Box 472 Port Moresby, NCD 121 Papua New Guinea 5 October 2012

Dear Prime Minister,

Excellency, I am writing from Abepura Prison in Jayapura on the other side of the border, to wish you well during your term as New Guinea" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Minister_of_Papua_New_Guinea" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true"">Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea.

I am writing also to thank you for your demonstration of Melanesian leadership last
week in speaking out about human rights violations in West Papua.
We West Papuans have been intimidated, tortured, raped, killed and incarcerated for
decades, since 1962 to be precise, and our suffering has been ignored by the world,
last week, committing to some responsibility for your brothers and sisters in West
Papua, filled our hearts and we hope will relieve us somewhat of our burden.

Excellency, security for all my people has been so much worse since our congress in October 2011, and safety levels are now so low that I feel obliged to ask you, if not beg you, to initiate a United Nations’ fact-finding mission as soon as possible.

As you would know, West Papua was a colony of the Netherlands for sixty-four
years, but was transferred to Indonesia in 1962 by way of a duplicitous treaty
engineered by Australia and the United States. (The New York Agreement was in
fact a Cold War transaction that rode over the intentions of the South Pacific
Commission to develop our independence program). As a consequence of Indonesian
governance, which has been deplorable across all measurable sectors, we Melanesian
West Papuans now constitute 48.73% of the population, down from 96.09% fifty year
ago, with more than half-a-million (546,126) missing.

Excellency, during the 3rd Papuan Congress in October 2011, five thousand registered participants mandated the Federated Republic of West Papua to deliver independence, and as part of our liberation win back the western border of Melanesia.

I believe Papua New Guinea under your leadership is in a strong position to help
deliver the political change we need if we are to survive. Your voice, as kin and as
neighbour, will be listened to in the Melanesian Spearhead Group, in the Pacific
Islands Forum, the Africa Caribbean Pacific Committee, and also the United Nations.
I sincerely hope Prime Minister that you are willing to take some responsibility for
ending this occupation so that we in West Papua can take our rightful position
alongside the other Melanesia nation-states.

Yours sincerely,

Forkorus Yaboisembut, SPd President, Federated Republic of West Papua

Abepura Prison

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