AUCKLAND (Pacific Media Watch): Dutch film maker Rohan Radheya has released a new independent documentary film on human rights and life in West Papua.
A trailer for Melanesian Dreams has been posted on YouTube and this is what he says about the 59 minute film made under cover:
I have just come home from five consecutive months undercover inside the country, collecting footage for my film.
I have entered Papua four times in the last two years on an tourist visa.
I had applied for an journalist visa to Papua in 2014 at the Indonesian consulate in The Hague, The Netherlands, but I was ignored and even mocked.
My film will be opened in the European Parliament in Brussels under guidance of the UNPO (Unrepresented Nations and People Organisation) at a member meeting in December.
West Papua is one of the 51 UNPO members along with Taiwan, Kurdistan and Tibet.
Melanesian Dreams does not actually end where it ends at present but is to be continued.
I am currently editing part two, which will be released in summer 2016 and part three by the end of that year.
Part two is about 10,000 West Papuan refugees living in neighbouring Papua New Guinea, and part three features live fighting between an OPM faction and the Indonesian army on the frontlines in Puncak Jaya, West Papua.The whole film focuses on human rights in West Papua which are among the worst in the world.
Political prisoners, activist movements, political refugees are all part of the film.
Furthermore the documentary gives an unique glimpse of the outlawed military independence movement, TPN-OPM.
The film also reveals some very rare secrets that have never came out before, not even for a local audience.
The movement has been fighting a low scale guerrilla war against the Indonesian army for nearly 50 years.
They are fighting for independence from Indonesia.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 New Zealand Licence.
Pacific Media Watch
