Letter to President Barack Obama
Barack H Obama President, United States of America
The Whitehouse 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Northwest Washington, DC 20500 United States
21 November 2012
Your Excellency,
I am writing from Abepura Prison, firstly to congratulate on your re-election for a second term, which many of us in
West Papua observed and cheered you on.
I am also writing Sir to request your assistance in negotiating peace and justice with Indonesia. I am sure your
diplomats are cognizant with Indonesian governance in my homeland, and realize that it is little better now in 2012 than
it was during Suharto’s New Order (1966—1998).
West Papua is one of the most militarized territories in the world. There is an Indonesian-security identity for every
100 citizens, which is not even comparable with Iraq in 2009, where you would know the ratio was one for every 140
citizens.
The people of West Papua, including our Christian Church leaders have, in the past decade, shifted from passive to
active opposition, and developed a singular commitment to winning our freedom. Last October, five-thousand registered
participants of a congress, surrounded by Indonesian military, mandated the Federated Republic of West Papua to deliver
our independence and self-determination.
Sir, we are an indigenous people, and move slowly and cautiously in the international arena, but I am reaching out for
your help because of our predicament now as just 48.73% of the population (down from 96.09% in 1962), with more than
half-a-million (546,126) missing.
Your historians at the National Security Archives will recall it was the anti-communist plan devised during the Cold War
by the United States and Australia that over-rode our Netherlands-funded selfdetermination in the 1960s and transferred
our sovereignty to Indonesia.
The current president of Indonesia, Bambang Yudhoyono, is cognizant of Indonesia’s history in West Papua. (His
father-in-law, General Sarwo Edhie Wibowo, was Military Commander before, during and after the Act of Free Choice in
1969). He has shown himself not unwilling to meet and talk, but is obviously disabled by the republic’s unitary
constitution and his military’s obsession with territorial integrity. Against this however, he has learned from
Indonesia’s relations with independent East Timor that there is much more money and status in peace and justice than in
war and occupation.
President Yudhoyono met secretly with our Foreign Minister in Jakarta last year, who has lived in Australia since 1999
but has studied, worked, and been a political prisoner in Java. Minister Rumbiak was able to demonstrate to the
president the determination of the Federated Republic of West Papua to achieve its ambition, and also how much it is
costing Indonesia, in terms of money and reputation, to maintain a large military machine against a non-violent
dialogue-seeking citizenry in West Papua. President Yudhoyono is aware that the constitution of the Federated Republic
of West Papua guarantees Indonesian civilians the right to live in West Papua, that we plan a good relationship with
Indonesia, and intend to help lower levels of poverty in Indonesia that have been generated in part by fifty years of
this useless war against us.
Sir, I would like you to believe that we are a proud and intelligent Melanesian people, blessed by God with a country
rich in natural resources, and with a unique geo-political capacity as the western border of Melanesia-Pacific. We
understand out rights to justice, peace, and democracy, and will not fail to restore our freedom, but in the meantime my
government has developed short, middle, and long-term (post-independent) policies that can be accessed through our
(non-incarcerated) executive in Australia.
God bless America,
Yours faithfully,
Forkorus Yaboisembut, SPd
Copies to:
1. Rev. Edison Waromi, S.H Prime Minister, Federated Republic of West Papua (Abepura Prison, Jayapura)
2. Jacob Rumbiak Foreign Minister, Federated Republic of West Papua, Melbourne, Australia
ENDS