Jayapura: The Dutch Government has been urged to support the idea of dialogue between Jakarta and Papua to resolve the problem of Papua, as has been suggested by the Papuan Peace Network.
‘We call on the Indonesian Government and the Papuan people not to be afraid of sitting down together and thinking about what needs to be done to resolve the Papuan problem by means of dialogue between Jakarta and Papua,’ said Yan Douw, a Catholic Monk during a meeting with the Dutch ambassador, Tjeer de Zwaan. He also had meetings with the chief of police, community leaders, religious leaders and youth leaders in Jayapura.
He therefore called on the Netherlands, the United States and the United Nations together with Indonesia to come together to discuss the Papuan situation. ‘If they fail to do so, they will share responsibility for any Papuan blood that may be shed,’ he said.
The representative of the Catholic Diocese said he cannot understand why it was possible to resolve the conflict with Aceh by means of dialogue but Indonesia has found it extremely difficult to respond to calls for a dialogue between Jakarta and Papua.
The Chairman the Alliance of Traditional People, Lenis Kogoya said that information being disseminated abroad about the question of Papua does not reflect the reality in the Land of Papua. and he urged the Dutch Government to make sure that it receives information from a variety of sources.
The chairman of the Jayapura branch of the GKI (Gereja Christian
Indonesia) in Papua, Willem Itaar pointed out that the GKI was one of the churches from the Netherlands and from Germany that brought the Bible to the people of Papua which happened on 5 February 1855. One hundred years later, in 1956, the GKI was established in Papua.
Willem Itaar said that the GKI was one of the churches that played a part in placing Papua within the territory of the Republic of Indonesia.
But subsequently the churches faced a dilemma because they must share responsibility for the security situation in the Land of Papua, bearing in mind the fact that the churches are present in all parts of the territory, right down to the smallest village.
‘When anyone talks about Papua, one is talking also about the Netherlands because the Netherlands played a role in setting up the sovereign state of Indonesia, whereas it was in 1963 that Papua became integrated as part of the Republic of Indonesia, which it continues to be to this day, said Willlem Itaar.
Translated by TAPOL
