INDONESIA’S government has been accused of hypocrisy after it rejected a United Nations resolution calling for the prevention of genocide and ethnic cleansing.

Leader of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) Benny Wenda has hit out at Jakarta for speaking out about Myanmar and Palestine while at the same time “desperately trying to cover up its own crimes against humanity in West Papua and trying to ensure their perpetual impunity at the UN.”

Indonesia formally annexed West Papua via a sham referendum, the so-called Act of Free Choice, in 1969: just over 1,000 people — less than 0.01 per cent of the population — were hand-picked to ratify the occupation, many of them at gunpoint.