Calls for an end to violence in West Papua

Markus Haluk, ULMWP secretary (right) with Cardinal John Ribat (center) in Port Moresby, PNG, 2018. 

The humanitarian tragedy in West Papua has drawn empathy from various communities and religious leaders around the world, starting from Melanesia.

Since the forced annexation of West Papua into the Republic of Indonesia in the late 1960s, Melanesian Christians in the South Pacific, both Catholic and Protestant, have consistently shown their solidarity with the plight of their West Papuan brothers and sisters. Over the past five years, their support has become more evident with regular prayers held both inside and outside their churches. Special vigils for West Papua are held in Honiara Cathedral in Solomon Islands, Port Vila Cathedral in Vanuatu, as well as in a number of main churches in Fiji, Papua New Guinea and New Caledonia. 

In June 2015, a year after the founding of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP), a fasting and prayer rally was held in Honiara for the ULMWP to be accepted as a full member of the South Pacific regional forum known as the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG). This was aimed to facilitate a balanced dialog between West Papua and Indonesia at the international level.

Over time, church leaders in Oceania, Australia and New Zealand joined this solidarity impulse. At several meetings at the Vatican, Cardinal Soane Patita Paini Mafi of Tonga raised his concerns about the West Papuan tragedy. For years, Protestant church leaders, members of the Pacific Conference of Churches continue to call for an end to the violence perpetrated by Indonesian security forces. They have also called for a boycott of Indonesian products.

On November 9, 2023, a number of Indonesian prominent religious figures involving the Indonesian Bishops' Conference (KWI), the Fellowship of Indonesian Churches (PGI), as well as Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the largest Islamic organization in Indonesia, made an unprecedented joint call for a humanitarian pause to defuse the armed conflict and improve the situation in West Papua.

Indeed, the human tragedy in West Papua can no longer be tolerated. Entering Advent as we await the coming of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, let us pray that the Indonesian Government will put an end to its military operations. Hopefully the tens of thousands of Papuan civilians affected by the armed conflict in Nduga, Maybrat, Intan Jaya, Puncak, Kiwirok, Yahukimo and Bintang Mountains can return home safely soon.