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| Chief Benny Wenda about to speak to an audience of some 200 guests after receiving the Presidents’ Award at the 12th annual St. Martin Book Fair, while festival principals Shujah Reiph and Jacqueline Sample look on (6.7.14). |
Over 500,000 West Papuans have been
killed by the Indonesian military.
GREAT BAY
(HNP) -- A last minute change in the program brought the issues of Reparations
and the continuing struggle of West Papua for its independence from Indonesia
to the forefront of the Presidents’ Forum at the 12th Annual St. Martin Book
Fair, Saturday, June 7.
It was a blessing in disguise, and one that
remained consistent with the festival’s 2014 theme of “Crime&Punishment.”
Following an introduction of the presenters by
president of the University of St. Martin, Annelies van dem Assem,
rapporteur/moderator Fabian Badejo welcomed the audience and said the
Presidents’ Forum is the “intellectual underpinning” of the Book Fair.
The issue of reparations for the crime against
humanity that was Slavery is one that won’t go away easily, he said, invoking
the adage that states, “he who does the crime, must do the time.”
However, author, playwright and member of Antigua
and Barbuda’s National Reparations Committee, and of the Caribbean Reparations
Commission, Dorbrene O’Marde addressed the issue from several angles, stressing
that reparations was necessary to bring closure to that evil chapter in human
history that still impacts the lives of Caribbean people up till today.
One by one, O’Marde debunked the main arguments
against reparations, and drew a clear distinction between slavery in Africa and
the chattel Slavery of the Transatlantic Slave Trade adding that he agreed with
Badejo’s suggestion that the latter be spelt with a capital “S.”
He also showed that there has been no break in the
struggle for reparations, especially in the Caribbean and explained that the
CARICOM Reparations Commission had a 10-point plan, which was recently approved
unanimously by the member states to “achieve reparatory justice for the victims
of genocide, slavery, slave trading, and racial apartheid.”
The Forum however, belonged to exiled West Papua
independence movement leader, Chief Benny Wenda, an ex-political prisoner and
Nobel Peace Prize nominee for his relentless work to drum up international
support for the liberation of his people.
In a chilling presentation that began with a
freedom song in his native language, Wenda recalled the racial humiliation he
suffered at school and the institutionalized oppression of the people of West
Papua by the Indonesian military.
A sham referendum in 1962, recognized by the UN,
made West Papua part of Indonesia. However, the cry for freedom of the people
has been systematically stifled with the international community either not
paying much attention or totally ignoring the plight of the West Papuans. Wenda
revealed that since 1962, over 500,000 West Papuans have been killed by the
Indonesian military.
He received an emotional standing ovation and many
participants pledged their support for his cause and wanted to know how they
could help advance this.
Wenda would later receive the Presidents’ Award at the closing ceremony of the Book Fair held at the Chamber of Commerce building in Concordia, Marigot, on the Saturday evening.
Wenda would later receive the Presidents’ Award at the closing ceremony of the Book Fair held at the Chamber of Commerce building in Concordia, Marigot, on the Saturday evening.
The Presidents’ Award is presented annually to a
book fair guest for creating or advancing original or critical works of
literature and orature. Chief Wenda, with his wife Maria, is also part of the
Lani Singers. The group’s albums, Ninalik Ndawi and Ninalik Arirak, include
West Papua songs that might land some in jail if interpreted as subversive folk
or protest songs by the Indonesian military in West Papua.
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