Report Says Slow-Motion Genocide Exists In Papua
By UCA News
A report from a fact-finding commission of the Justice and Peace Commission from Brisbane, Australia, has concluded that there is a slow-motion genocide occurring in the Indonesian province of Papua.
It accuses Indonesia of wanting to replace the Christian religion of the indigenous Papuan population with Islam, reported Hong Kong’s diocesan newspaper the Sunday Examiner.
Brisbane’s diocesan weekly, The Catholic Leader, says in its March 9 issue that the report documents Muslims being radicalized in the once predominantly Christian Papuan provinces and what it describes as very active Muslim militias burning down the homes of Papuan families.
The report has not been released publicly, nor has comment been sought from the Indonesian authorities.
It documents religious, social and economic discrimination. It specifically highlights that land is being carved up for development that only benefits multinationals, while excluding Papuans from all benefits, as well as ownership and employment.
The author of the report, Josephite Sister Susan Connelly, was accompanied to Papua by Peter Arndt, from the Justice and Peace Commission. They interviewed more than 250 community leaders in Japapura, Merauke, Timika and Sorong.
Sister Connelly, a respected human rights advocate, described her visit as “stepping back 20 years when I first went to East Timor.”
