WEST PAPUA: Guerrillas announce unity

On July 24 representatives of the six commands of the Tentara Pembebasan Nasional (the National Liberation Army) announced the creation of a unified command structure. The representatives, who held a meeting in Madang in neighbouring Papua New Guinea, said that the struggle for a free West Papua would now be conducted through non-violent means. Representatives attended from Biak, Sorong, Manokwari, Wamena, Paniai, Fak Fak and the northern and southern border regions, according to the Joyo Indonesia News Service. A Radio New Zealand report quoted Jonah Wenda, who convened the meeting, as saying: "Because, in West Papua we have a wide area and no good communications even though we have one cause — for independence, for liberation. But because of communications and the wider territory, what we are trying to do now is to build these different commands to come under one understanding."

From GLW issue 677