Christians of West Papua Under Indonesian Watch
The Indonesian constitution recognizes five major religions: 1. Islam, 2. Christianity (Catholicism and Protestantism), 3. Hindu, 4. Buddhism, and 5. Confucianism
CONSTITUTIONAL RECOGNITION OF “BELIEFS” IN INDONESIA
Cambridge University PRess, UK
When it comes to West Papua, however, there’s little freedom of religion, or the freedom to exercise one’s religion among West Papuans. In other words, the state doesn’t protect West Papuans’ religious rights. This is because the majority of the Melanesian West Papuan people are Christian and the majority of the Indonesian population is Muslim.
Christian Persecution in West Papua
Majority of West Papuans are Christians – the only majority Christian region inside Indonesia. It was the Dutch colonialists who brought Christianity to West Papua, and by the time of the Dutch administration withdrawal from West Papua, the indigenous people were majority Christians. That changed with Indonesian occupation of West Papua.
Indonesia is predominantly a Muslim country – one of the largest Muslim countries outside of the Middle East, and they pay little respect for our Christian traditions, practices, and rituals. They often target churches in reprisal attacks sometimes for fun, other times when Christians were in the midst of a prayer session of communion. Stories of church buildings being set ablaze, congregations being shot at, church services being invaded are know throughout West Papua. There’s little regard to the sanctity of the church, and each time an Indonesian military raided a church, they found nothing. Sometimes the tact is used by soldiers to intimidate and disrupt church services.
Religious Rights and Freedom
Promoting religious rights and freedom are a huge part of our mission in West Papua and here in the United States. The right to worship must be afforded everyone regardless of what religion they are, which also mean that West Papuans must be allowed, without any government interruption, to worship their Christian god. Furthermore, their places of worship must be protected and treated as sanctuaries for Christian believers. No soldier, police, or secret police should be allowed to violate their house of worship. The Indonesian government must accord the West Papuan Christians and other religious minorities the same respect and right they give to Muslim Mosques throughout Indonesia.
Religious rights is not optional
We view ‘Religious Rights and Freedom’ as equal to human rights in many respects, and it is out obligation to discourage religious intolerance in West Papua. People should be free to worship their God in any setting and geographical location. It is therefore incumbent on us to promote this area and to call on the Indonesian government to treat West Papuan Christians the same way Muslims are treated. This should also apply to other religious minorities.
Part of our mission is to expose the persecution of West Papuan Christians by the Indonesian military and police, and document instances where their religious rights are being rejected or denied. People need to know the truth of the persecution of Christian West Papuans.
The International Community
We take the issue of West Papuan Christian persecution seriously. Beside documenting evidence of persecution from sources on the ground, we also take this issue to the World International church every chance we get – this is where we get the chance to speak on behalf our persecuted brothers and sisters in West Papua. The recent meeting held by the international religious organization gave our representative Charity Titiulu and her colleague the opportunity to speak on the important of ‘religion’.
Today, the Christian organizations around the world are aware of the atrocities suffered by the Christian people of Papua in the hands of the Indonesian brutal military and police.