Benny Wenda has horrible memories of his childhood days in West Papua and relates chilling stories of his village being bombed by the Indonesian military and watching his female relatives being raped in front of his eyes.
Many of his early childhood days were spent hiding in the bushes with his relatives from the Indonesian military, who have been occupying the country by force since 1963. As more and more of his relatives died it was his grandfather on his deathbed who pleaded with his parents to surrender to the authorities and give Wenda a chance to attend school.
“My village was bombed by helicopter and a
