Hundreds of Māori students marched to New Zealand’s parliament today calling for freedom for West Papua. The march was met at the steps of parliament by MPs from various political parties, who spoke of their concern about Indonesian state oppression in the Papua region. Continue reading
Posts Tagged ‘West Papua’
Catholic students in Indonesia say listen to people of Papua
Tuesday, August 9th, 2016
Indonesian Catholic students have called on the government to listen to the grievances of the people of Papua and resolve longstanding conflicts. The call was made at the end of a four-day Catholic Student Association of the Republic of Indonesia conference in Jayapura on July 31. Conference participants — association members from 70 chapters across Read more
Pacific churches back UN complaint over Papua
Tuesday, July 12th, 2016The Pacific Conference of Churches is backing a formal legal complaint to the UN Human Rights Council accusing Indonesia of human rights violations in West Papua. The Dutch human rights law firm, Prakken D’Oliveira, has submitted the complaint to the UN Human Rights Council. It details vast and continuing alleged human rights violations by the Read more
Almost 1700 arrested in West Papua demonstrations
Tuesday, May 10th, 2016
Reports from Indonesia indicate police arrested almost 1700 people in West Papua for taking part in a series of demonstrations across the region. Most have since been released. In the wake of the arrests, New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully, not for the first time, was pressed about the rights situation in West Papua. “The Read more
5000 stage rally calling for Papuan Independence
Tuesday, April 19th, 2016
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 Read more
Pacific churches call for condition-free relief funding
Friday, April 8th, 2016
The Pacific Conference of Churches has asked governments and donors not to attach conditions to relief efforts in the region. The call came as Indonesia’s Co-ordinating Minister for Political Affairs, Law and Security visited Fiji. Luhut Binsar Padjaitan was reportedly delivering Fiji an assistance package worth up to US$5 million, plus a contingent of engineers, Read more
Slow genocide amid Islamisation of West Papua
Friday, March 18th, 2016
A Catholic report has identified a slow motion genocide happening in West Papua amid a growing Islamisation of the area. The report was compiled by the Brisbane Catholic Justice and Peace Commission’s Shadow Human Rights Fact Finding Mission to West Papua. It came after a visit to West Papua last month by Josephite Sr Susan Read more
Christians and Muslims in Papua reject fundamentalists
Tuesday, February 2nd, 2016
“In the case of our Pacific region, the hotspot is West Papua, the threat of ISIS, if there’s any degree of threat at all, it would be West Papua, because of the issue of West Papuan independence,” says John Tekwie, a community leader in Vanimo, the PNG town closest to the border. All mainstream religions Read more
Papuans killed and tortured: half million have died since 1961
Tuesday, October 20th, 2015
Indonesia must seriously address human rights abuses and extra-judicial killings in Papua, say the Pacific churches. The Pacific Conference of Churches General Secretary, Reverend Francois Pihaatae, says Papuans are being killed and tortured merely because they want self-determination, a right guaranteed by the United Nations of which Indonesia is a member. He said 500,000 Papuans Read more
Eight seminarians arrested in West Papua
Friday, October 16th, 2015
Police in West Papua arrested eight seminarians, six Franciscans and two Augustinians, who were participating in a peaceful rally in front of Abepura‘s Good Shepherd Catholic Church on 8 October. They were released after being held and interrogated for 90 minutes. The demonstrators were calling on Indonesian President Joko Widodo to investigate the unresolved December Read more