ASIA/INDONESIA - Violence of the military on the population in Papua: the Christian community has also been hit

Jayapura (Agenzia Fides) - The Christian citizens of Indonesian Papua (also known as the province of "Irian Jaya") are victims of abuses and unjustified violence on behalf of the military, who accuse them of being "collaborators" or "of protecting separatist rebel leaders": this is the alarm reported to Fides that comes from authoritative sources in the local Catholic Church, expressing strong concern about the situation. "The local Catholic community is suffering from violence and persecution," says to Fides Fr. Ignazio Ismartono, an Indonesian Jesuit, responsible for years of the Crisis Unit in the Episcopal Conference, calling for "the attention of the universal Church."
The social situation in Papua – Province militarily annexed to Indonesia in 1962, in which independence turmoil has never stopped- degenerated after 19 October, when the army intervened with extreme violence during the third "Papua People's Congress", which brought together over 2,000 people, including social, political and tribal leaders who, according to the police, were "conspiring against the state". The military have killed at least two people and arrested 300 people.
"The raids and indiscriminate violence of the military continue" inform local sources of Fides. The soldiers have no qualms about beating and arresting young people, students, women. Some of the participants at the Congress have sought refuge in the "Fajar Timur" School of Philosophy and Theology of the Diocese of Jayapura. The military - the source of Fides say - fired on several buildings in the compound, entered the structures with heavy vehicles, occupied the monastery, terrorized and beat male and female students (some are now in hospital in intensive care), accusing them of protecting the rebels and of being "insurgents" or "criminal priests." They have damaged classrooms, doors, chairs, computers. "We are still in a state of intense fear and anxiety. There was a clear violation of human dignity," says the source.
The Christians of Indonesian Papua are appealing "to the Indonesian Human Rights Commission" so that they carry out "a serious investigation of these acts of unprecedented violence and patent abuse of rights" and called on the Indonesian President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, to resume dialogue between the government in Jakarta and Papua. "Dialogue is very important to prevent the recurrence of violence in Papua: We ask this to all people of good will", concludes the source of Fides. (PA (Agenzia Fides 03/11/2011)