An estimated 5,000 Papuans, including members of the pro-independence National Committee for West Papua, activists and university students as well as seminarians, staged a rally calling for independence in Jayapura, Papua province, on April 13.
Peaceful demonstrations supporting Papuan independence were held in several parts on the predominantly Christian Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua.
Thousands of West Papuans marched in the peaceful demonstrations in cities including Jayapura, Yakuhimo, Manokwari, Merauke and Sorong.
Demonstrators were demanding the United Liberation Movement for West Papua be accepted as a member of the Melanesian Spearhead Group.
“We have the right to be a member of the Melanesian Spearhead Group. We are Melanesians, we are not Indonesians,” Bazooka Logo, spokesman for the pro-independence National Committee for West Papua, told demonstrators
“We say ‘no’ to Indonesia. Indonesia is not Melanesia. Indonesia is Malay, which doesn’t have the right to be a member of the Melanesian Spearhead Group, but Papua does,” Logo said.
44 West Papuans were arrested by Indonesian police during demonstrations.
13 demonstrators were arrested in Merauke, 11 in Jayapura, 5 in Yahukimo and 15 in Kaimana regency.
Father Neles Tebay of the Jayapura Diocese has said that the Catholic Church, in collaboration with all religious leaders, has jointly called for a peaceful dialogue to settle the Papua conflict.
“We will continue to promote dialogue until the formal dialogue between the Indonesian government and the Papuans represented by the United Liberation Movement for West Papua takes place for the sake of a lasting peace,” Father Tebay told a meeting of several bishops from Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, April 9.
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