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Pacific Churches Back West Papua


by Allanah Leahy – EM TV Online

Speaking in Tonga last Thursday at a Pacific Conference of Churches meeting, moderator Reverend Doctor Tevita Havea said the time has come to address human rights issues in West Papua.

The Reverend called for Indonesian President Joko Widodo to honour his election promise and take action.

“Despite President Widodo’s assurances in December last year, the Indonesian security forces continue to kill and torture Papuans and that must end immediately,” said Havea.

West Papua has been wrought with killings, torturing, arrests and other human rights abuses since it was handed over, in a UN-supervised referendum in 1969, to Indonesia.

The referendum, called the Act of Free Choice (1969) is, to this day, considered fraudulent by West Papuans.

In 2010, Indonesia’s 2010 census reported West Papua’s population at 761,000. Oppressive rule within the region has seen an estimated 40,000 to 50,000 West Papuans living in refugee camps in Papua New Guinea. Although the figure is unfounded, a January 2014 estimate suggested a population of 877,437.

“There is no place in the Pacific for this wanton violence. Our leaders – especially the legislators – must act decisively to stop police and military officers from taking power into their own hand,” said Havea.

Speaking on behalf of the Pacific Conference of Churches, Reverend Havea called on President Widodo to address ‘the continued abuse of authority by the security forces of his nation’.

Havea also condemned the media blackout in West Papua and called for the ban on journalists to be lifted.

“If Indonesia has nothing to hide, it will not fear international journalists,” Havea said.

In the same meeting, the Methodist Church in Fiji affirmed support for the rights of West Papuans and their self-determination. Church General Secretary Reverend Dr Epineri Vakadewavosa met with the secretary general of the United Liberation Movement of West Papua (ULMWP), Octovianus Mote.

ULMWP is made up of three recently-united West Papua self-determination groups – the Federal Republic of West Papua, West Papua National Parliament and West Papua National Coalition for Liberation.

“We will continue to pray for you and walk with you in the struggle,” said Reverend Vakadewavosa. “We will tell your story and raise your voice in whatever opportunity we can.”
Mote briefed Reverend Vakadewavosa on the uniting of the three West Papua self-determination groups and ULMWP’s Melanesian Spearhead Group application.

The Pacific Conference of Churches was initiated in Samoa in 1961 and acts as a representative of Christian churches throughout the Pacific. It now has 27 Pacific member Churches and its head office is based in Suva, Fiji.

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