Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 636 | Wed 09 March 2022
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PAPUA: UN EXPERTS CALL FOR ‘URGENT ACTION’
Praying for an end to the slow-motion genocide of a betrayed and abandoned Christian people.
by Elizabeth Kendal
On 1 March three United Nations (UN) human rights experts issued a joint statement claiming, ‘Urgent action is needed to end ongoing human rights violations against indigenous Papuans.’ The statement, entitled ‘Indonesia: UN experts sound alarm on serious Papua abuses, call for urgent aid‘, was published on the website of the UN Office of the High Commission on Human Rights and signed by Francisco Cali Tzay, UN special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples; Morris Tidball-Binz, UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions; and Cecilia Jimenez-Damary, UN special rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons. While the statement makes no mention of racial or religious distinctions, it must be noted that the human rights violations are being perpetrated by Indonesia’s mostly Javanese Muslim military against indigenous, ethnic Melanesian, mostly Christian, Papuan communities. Racial-religious hatred plays an enormous role in the violence and has done ever since the Indonesian invasion of 1962 [see RLPB 426, Papua: A desperate and risky plea, 4 Oct 2017].
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| Article: ‘In Papua, pioneer missionaries pass baton to local Church.’ (Mission Network News, 9 Aug 2019) |
Indonesian military violence against indigenous Papuans escalated markedly in December 2018, after Papuan separatists killed 16 Indonesian labourers working on the controversial Trans-Papua highway. I (E.Kendal) commented at the time: ‘These are watershed days. The future of a Christian people is in the balance’ [see, Papua: The Christian Crisis in Eastern Indonesia, RLM, 14 April 2019]. Since then, according to the UN experts, the number of displaced Papuans has risen to ‘between 60,000 to 100,000 people’, most of whom have not been able to return to their homes. As the experts note, while many Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) live in temporary shelters or stay with relatives, ‘thousands have fled to the forests where they are exposed to the harsh climate in the highlands without access to food, healthcare, and education facilities’. The UN experts were ‘particularly disturbed by reports that humanitarian aid to displaced Papuans is being obstructed by the authorities … In several incidents, church workers have been prevented by security forces from visiting villages where IDPs are seeking shelter.’
The security situation in Papua’s central highlands has ‘dramatically deteriorated’ since the 26 April 2021 killing of a high-ranking military officer by the West Papua National Liberation Army. ‘Between April and November 2021, we have received allegations indicating several instances of extrajudicial killings, including of young children, enforced disappearance, torture and inhuman treatment and the forced displacement of at least 5,000 indigenous Papuans by security forces.’ RLPB warned of this in May 2021, after the Indonesian government categorised Papuan resistance groups as ‘terrorists’ and deployed counter-terrorism forces into the region, including the 400-strong elite Infantry 315 / Garuda Battalion, also known as ‘Satan’s Forces’ [see RLPB 597, ‘Satan’s Forces’ Enter a Darkened Papua, 12 May 2021]. The UN experts note: ‘These [numerous cases of alleged abuses] may represent the tip of the iceberg given that access to the region is severely restricted making it difficult to monitor events on the ground.’ The UN has now joined the European Union in calling for an end to impunity, adding that ‘independent monitors and journalists must be allowed access to the region’.
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| Article: Life and Death in ‘The Land of the Clouds’ by Jeremy Weber, CT 23 Nov 2020. Image: Timothy Dalrymple |
The UN experts had written to the Indonesian government expressing their concerns in December 2021 but had not been impressed with the response they received; hence their decision to go public. Indonesia’s response on 1 March was to denounce the ‘biased news’ issued by the ‘so-called “UN Human Rights experts”‘ as ‘unconstructive and baseless’. The Indonesian government will lodge a formal protest through the Human Rights Council against the experts’ ‘unprofessional, ill-intentioned, one-sided’ statement, claiming it is nothing but ‘click-bait’ aimed at creating ‘negative public opinion’.
On Wednesday 2 March, Papuan gunmen killed eight technicians working on a telecommunications mast in a remote area. The West Papua National Liberation Army has claimed responsibility. A further escalation in military violence is all but guaranteed.
PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY THAT GOD WILL:
* intervene to remove all obstacles and pave the way for humanitarian aid to reach every displaced and traumatised Papuan who needs it; may churches and Christian organisations involved in helping and sheltering the displaced and in distributing aid receive everything they need: from personnel, transport and supplies, to permission, support and safe passage.
* open the door into Indonesian’s Papuan provinces so that independent monitors and journalists, and international aid organisations, may have access to the long-closed region where lack of transparency and lack of accountability has only worked to fuel human rights abuses.
* help the Papuan Church remain strong in faith through these dark and testing times; may the Papuan Church commit to prayer and to seeking mercy and help from the Lord who planted her in the land and loves her with unfailing love (hesed). May the Body of Christ rise to pray with her and for her. ‘Remember … those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body’ (Hebrews 13:3b ESV).
To you, O Lord, I cry, and to the Lord I plead for mercy: ‘What profit is there in my death, if I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it tell of your faithfulness? Hear, O Lord, and be merciful to me! O Lord, be my helper!’ (Psalm 30:8-10 ESV).
SUMMARY FOR BULLETINS UNABLE TO RUN THE WHOLE ARTICLE
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UN EXPERTS CALL FOR ‘URGENT ACTION’ IN PAPUA
On 1 March three United Nations (UN) human rights experts issued a joint statement calling for urgent action to address the deteriorating human rights situation in Indonesia’s West Papua and Papua provinces. The number of displaced Papuans is now between 60,000 to 100,000 people, thousands of whom remain stranded in the bush. Military violence escalated in May 2021 after the Indonesian government deployed counter-terrorism forces to the region. The UN experts regard the numerous cases of abuses they received as ‘the tip of the iceberg’. They were ‘particularly disturbed by reports that humanitarian aid to displaced Papuans is being obstructed by the authorities … In several incidents, church workers have been prevented by security forces from visiting villages where IDPs are seeking shelter’. Please pray that ‘urgent action’ will be forthcoming.
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Elizabeth Kendal is an international religious liberty analyst and advocate. She serves as Director of Research at Canberra-based Christian Faith and Freedom Inc (CFF) and is an Adjunct Research Fellow at the Arthur Jeffery Centre for the Study of Islam at Melbourne School of Theology.
She has authored two books: Turn Back the Battle: Isaiah Speaks to Christians Today (Deror Books, Melbourne, Australia, Dec 2012) which offers a Biblical response to persecution and existential threat; and After Saturday Comes Sunday: Understanding the Christian Crisis in the Middle East (Wipf and Stock, Eugene, OR, USA, June 2016).