Indonesia’s government is pushing ahead with the establishment of a team tasked with addressing a number of cases of human rights abuses in Papua.
The team is being created under the Coordinating Minister of Political, Legal and Security Affairs, Luhut Pandjaitan.
This month he travelled to Papua with a number of regional ambassadors, including New Zealand’s Trevor Matheson, to monitor the handling of rights cases there.
However various Papuan provincial government and civil society figures were concerned that the team was not independent.
Karel Phil Erari.
One of those is Karel Phil Erari, deputy chairman of the Alliance of Churches in Indonesia who said the team had not consulted with the main Papuan churches and others.
He wanted Jakarta to open an all-inclusive dialogue to address the abuses.
“So we strongly urge the international community to urge Jakarta to end any kinds of human rights abuses exercised in Papua for the last fifty-three years.”
Papua Merdeka News 