Omerta of Church leaders on the human tragedy in Papua
On World Human Rights Day, December 10, 2020, 147 Catholic priests from Papua called on the Indonesian Bishops' Conference to pay serious attention to the dire humanitarian situation in the region.
On the same day the following year, Papuan Catholic students held a protest in front of the Vatican Embassy and the office of the Indonesian Bishops' Conference (KWI) in Jakarta. They delivered a number of demands, one of which was the retraction of Cardinal Ignatius Suharyo's statement declaring his support for the Indonesian government in Papua, despite numerous human rights violations, including the extrajudicial killing of two Papuan catechists.
It has been almost three years since this appeal was made. However, what was the response of the Catholic Church's top officials?
This morning I asked Ambrosius Mulait, leader of the Papuan Catholic student front, regarding the case of catechist Rufinus Tigau who was shot by the Indonesian military in 2020 in Intan Jaya. Disappointed Ambrosius answered me: "We have reported this to the National Human Rights Commission and also the Catholic Church. But they remain silent."
(After Tigau's murder, several Indonesian bishops including Cardinal Suharyo as the head of KWI reportedly met with the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs, Mahfud MD. Yet, it is unclear what exactly was discussed and there has been no follow-up).
I was disappointed but not surprised, considering that the Indonesian bishops remained silent when nearly two hundred thousand Timorese, the majority of them Catholics, were massacred during the Indonesian occupation of East Timor (1975-1999). We also cannot blame much the National Human Rights Commission. The latter, although independent, is funded by the Indonesian government.
What about the Holy See? The current Vatican ambassador in Jakarta is seen as pro-government considering he likes to praise Indonesia's fake tolerance and other silly things that look only good on the surface. Pope Francis was scheduled to visit Indonesia in 2020 and his presence was eagerly awaited in Papua. However this was canceled due to the Covid Pandemic. Until now, there has been no sign that Pope Francis will ever come to Indonesia. It is disappointing to note that, during his tenure as Pontiff, Francis never mentioned anything about the bloody conflict in Papua!
Today, military operations are intensifying in this Indonesia's easternmost province. There have been more than 60,000 civilians displaced in the last five years. Famine is raging in mountainous central Papua. 620,000 young people of school age do not attend school. Sadly despite this human tragedy, the Cardinal of Jakarta persists to show his unwavering support to the Indonesian Army.
"The official stance of the Catholic church on the Papua issue is very clear, namely supporting the (Indonesian) government's position, because it is guaranteed by international law", said the septuagenarian prelate who was known to be closer to the generals than the war refugees. Now the question is, are extrajudicial killings and land grabbing for development projects guaranteed by international law? Of course not!
It is clear to me that Cardinal Suharyo as well as other Indonesian Bishops are not shepherds who lay down their lives for their sheep:
Under the patriotic principle of "100% Catholic 100% Indonesian", Indonesian bishops have chosen to obey a ruthless regime rather than defend the oppressed. This attitude was clearly visible from the beginning of General Soeharto's dictatorship in the late 1960s. The democratic reform in 1998 did not change the feudalistic nature of Indonesian catholic hierarchy. In the name of obedience, they rebuke Christians who oppose despotic authority. In the name of love for the enemy they tolerate mistreatment against minorities. Church neutrality is used as an excuse not to address serious issues of injustice.
It is unlikely that the Indonesian Catholic Church will ever defend the rights of Papuans. Back in 2014, at a meeting with Pacific bishops in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, Msgr Leo Laba Ladjar, then Chairman of the Indonesian Papuan Bishops' Council, simply denied the poor human rights situation in Papua: "There are no human rights violations to worry about," he said. Whereas in reality, military operations have never ceased in Papua since the first day of its annexation by Indonesia. Some estimates put the number of Papuans killed at 500,000!
In an interview with "hidupkatolik" in September 2019, Cardinal Suharyo stated that "Many people make comments about Papua but have never been there. The reality of Papua is very complex and cannot be resolved in the short term."
In fact, the Papuan problem is very simple and you don't need to go there to understand it. In short, what has been happening in Papua for 60 years is colonization. But the Church just as much as the Indonesian state tries to justify it.
By learning the brutal history of Papua's annexation in the 1960s, an honest person will be able to see that the core of the problem is the violation of the freedom, dignity and honor of the Papuan people. Until now, the Church in Indonesia has tried to mask the deep wounds of the Papuans with various education and health programs, without touching the root cause.
Yet, if this problem is not solved soon, the Papuans will most likely be exterminated like the Aborigines of Australia, as Father Frans Lieshout, one of the first Dutch missionaries in the Baliem valley, warned. Currently, indigenous Papuans make up only about 40% of the population of Indonesian-controlled Papua, or less than 1% of Indonesia's total population.
Worse still, in some cases such as the one in Merauke, the Indonesian Catholic hierarchy has endorsed the predation of Papuan customary land. In the last two decades, 925,000 hectares of forest area in Merauke Regency have been lost, while 2,650,000 has been converted to various projects referred to as "development and growth".
As indigenous communities in South Papua struggle against the environmental damage caused by massive oil palm plantations, the current Bishop of Merauke, Msgr Canisius Mandagi, has instead supported the predatory Korindo corporate group in exchange for 2.4 billion rupiah in aid.
It is not without reason that Papuan Augustinian priest Bernard Baru criticized the Indonesian church hierarchy. The latter indeed "manipulate the teachings of Jesus to justify their power, comfort and status. They themselves are incapable of bringing the Christ who was crucified two thousand years ago into the reality of human life today."
The apathy of church leaders towards the suffering of Papuans makes me wonder: Can we still rely on the Church, especially the Church in Indonesia?
The Church should be the protector of the defenseless and the voice of the voiceless. It shouldn't just preach good words from the pulpit. The Gospel is meaningless if the Church chooses to remain neutral when God's people are being killed and persecuted. Quoting Matthew 5:13: “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot."
Franciscans International: STOP VIOLENCE AND MURDER IN PAPUA
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