In West Papua, at least 32 people — many of them student demonstrators — were killed earlier this week in a brutal crackdown on anti-racism protests. Indonesian security forces reportedly opened fire on a group of protesting students at a university in Jayapura, killing four; 28 more were killed in a separate uprising sparked by a teacher’s racial slurs. The teacher reportedly called a high school student a “monkey.” The violence follows last month’s escalating demonstrations calling for Papuan independence, which were also met by bloody repression from the Indonesian Army. This is Edison Waromi, one of the leaders of West Papua, speaking at the Democracy Now! studio here in New York on Thursday.

Edison Waromi: “Today is a time, life in a slow-motion genocide. We will die, continue every day, every moment.”