Offices and facilities of global weapons giant Thales were disrupted across the continent today as activists observed the 25th anniversary of the Biak massacre in West Papua.
Thales manufactures weapons in Australia for use by Australian forces as well as for export to the Indonesian military. Indonesia has been heavily criticized by international human rights bodies such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the UNHCR for its treatment of West Papuans.
Wage Peace kicked off an international string of actions occupying Thales offices in Sydney and Melbourne simultaneously. Later in the day, manufacturing facilities in Bendigo and another office in Darwin were disrupted, with Wage Peace claiming responsibility for all four actions. Memorial ceremonies and political demonstrations were also held in Jakarta, Sorong, Jayapura, Delft, and in the province of Biak itself – with a final action planned for London tomorrow. Within Indonesia, people can and have been charged with treason for simply raising the West Papuan flag.
“We take these actions in solidarity with the people of West Papua, who are risking their liberty and their lives today to bring their story to the world. Thales board members cannot plead ignorance, the human rights abuses being perpetrated in West Papua are well known and well documented. They know that their weapons will be used to commit genocide, but they would rather make a quick buck than face up to the reality of that.” Said Lilli Barto, one of the activists who occupied the Thales office in Sydney this morning. “If they are upset that we are occupying their office” she went on, “then they might want to think about how the West Papuan peoples feel about Indonesia occupying their homelands.”
“In 2018 the Turnbull Government announced the ‘Defence Export Strategy’- which was basically a plan to turn Australia into one of the world’s top ten weapons exporters” explains Margaret Pestorius, a long-term peace activist best known for her viola solo inside Pine Gap, a US military base in central Australia. “If we did that, if we made weapons a major export for Australia, then we would be putting ourselves in a position where peace was bad for our economy. We would be tying our economy to the suffering of others, overseas and out of sight, and our government would then have a vested interest in keeping the world volatile and unstable. Global disarmament, peace, and safety are incompatible with a business model that relies on the ever-increasing sale of more and more weapons.”
In the period 2021-2022, the Australian Defence Exports Controls Office granted over 200 export permits to Saudia Arabia, the UAE, and Indonesia, all of whom have been internationally condemned for flagrant human rights abuses.
PHOTOS: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1VVxqEp4lJFCyPOqEc2tsPTO15dlU9HVC
Link to music featured in actions: https://www.biak-tribunal.org/we-have-come-to-testify/
Media Contacts:
Ronnie (West Papuan refugee now living in Australia): 0401 222 177
Miriam: 0404 593 312
Billie: 0439 899 255