Hundreds of Christians Flee Papua Violence
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
JAYAPURA, INDONESIA (Worthy News) – Hundreds of displaced Christian residents will likely celebrate Christmas outside their homes in an area of Indonesia’s conflict-stricken easternmost Papua province unless Indonesian security forces withdraw there, a bishop says.
Bishop Yanuarius Matopai You of Jayapura, the provincial capital, said in a statement that Indonesia’s military should “immediately” leave Papua’s Oksop district.
He added that they must “stop all actions that could trigger fear and insecurity among civilians.”
Hundreds of Christians reportedly fled the Oksop district in the Pegunungan Bintang regency of Papua Highlands, a province created in November 2022 from Papua’s central and mountainous parts.
They ran away as the military started “a special drive” on November 30 aimed at eliminating fighters of the West Papua National Liberation Army, which seeks an independent Papua away from Indonesian control.
Pegunungan Bintang police chief Anto Seven told the media that the situation in Oksop “was conducive for the uprooted people,” most of them Christians, to return.
However, Bishop You denied Seven’s claims, saying the number of refugees is estimated to have reached 401 people.
GROUPS WORRIED
He noted that church-backed groups such as the “diocese and the Secretariat for Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation of the Franciscans of Papua, and the Department of Law and Human Rights of the Evangelical Church in Indonesia (GIDI) had conducted an independent investigation.”
The displaced people include more than 30 children aged between two months and 12 years and 115 women, including pregnant and elderly, warned the bishop, citing independent investigations.
Catholic Priest Alexandro Rangga, director of the Secretariat for Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation of the Franciscans of Papua, said, “The number of refugees does not include those who fled to the forest.”
You said the presence of troops and their special drive “prevent the displaced” from returning to their hometowns in the run-up to Christmas.
“The situation in Oksop indicates a humanitarian emergency that requires serious attention from all parties,” he noted. Only district heads and village heads can enter Oksop, Worthy News learned.
Many refugees are stuck in camps in Oksibil in Pengunungan Bintang regency, according to local Christians.
The bishop asked the local government “to provide protection and assistance to the refugees” in return. He also requested that the National Human Rights Commission conduct an independent investigation.
PEACEFUL SOLUTION?
The bishop also urged the rebels “to refrain from acts of violence and open up space for dialogue to find a peaceful solution.”
Papua was incorporated into Indonesia in 1969 after a U.N.-sponsored ballot widely seen as a sham.
Since then, a low-level insurgency has simmered in the region that activists say killed up to 500,000 people, though that figure has been complicated to verify independently due to reporting restrictions.
Data collected by advocacy group Amnesty International Indonesia showed at least 179 civilians, 35 Indonesian troops, and nine police, along with 23 independence fighters, were killed in clashes between rebels and security forces between 2018 and 2022.
Observers say Indonesia’s government, which has sent Javanese and other Indonesians to settle in Papua for decades, is trying to spur economic development to dampen the separatist movement.
The suffering of predominantly Christian ethnic groups in the area underscored broader concerns about the plight of Christians in the world’s largest Muslim nation.
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