West Papua Liberation Movement Condemns Racist Slurs
RNZ, January 29, 2021
he United Liberation Movement of West Papua has condemned more racist slurs directed at West Papuans from members of Indonesia’s elite.
Two incidents have provoked fresh outrage, with at least one case prompting Indonesian police to make an arrest before public anger spills over.
Last month a former head of the Indonesian intelligence agency and special forces, General Hendropriyono, said that West Papuans should be resettled away from their homeland on the island of Manado.
He explained that the idea to move two million West Papuans was so Indonesia “could racially separate them from Papuans in PNG, so that they could feel more like Indonesians instead of foreigners”.
The United Liberation Movement of West Papua has condemned more racist slurs directed at West Papuans from members of Indonesia s elite.
Two incidents have provoked fresh outrage, with at least one case prompting Indonesian police to make an arrest before public anger spills over.
A former head of Indonesia s intelligence agency and special forces, General Hendropriyono.
Photo: TEMPO/Dhemas Reviyanto
Last month a former head of the Indonesian intelligence agency and special forces, General Hendropriyono, said that West Papuans should be resettled away from their homeland on the island of Manado.
He explained that the idea to move two million West Papuans was so Indonesia could racially separate them from Papuans in PNG, so that they could feel more like Indonesians instead of foreigners .
Indonesian soldiers stand guard during a protest in Timika, Papua province on August 21, 2019 [File: AP/Jimmy Rahadat]
On October 28, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Indonesia as part of a five-country tour of Asia focused on strengthening ties amid ongoing tensions with China. A day after his arrival, an independent humanitarian team, consisting of several religious leaders, academics, and humanitarian activists in Papua, announced that it had found evidence that Yeremia Zanambani, a pastor in the region of Intan Jaya, Papua, had been allegedly shot, stabbed and ultimately killed by an Indonesian soldier. On November 2, Indonesia’s National Human Rights Commission further said that the soldier had allegedly tortured Pastor Yeremia in an attempt to extract information about an armed criminal group in the area.