Papuan pastor fights for self-determination

Rev. Sofyan Socratez Yoman says Widodo's 'fixes' not enough as restive province still suffers human rights abuses.

Jayapura:  Papuan pastor Sofyan Socratez Yoman has been subject to military surveillance and seen his books banned, yet he remains undeterred in his fight for self-determination for West Papua.

As chairman of the Communion of Baptist Churches in Papua, Yoman is known as one of the few religious leaders who chose to support the province's battle for independence.

"This is the responsibility of my faith, my conscience, so I won't compromise," he told ucanews.com in the Papuan city of Abepura on Nov. 22.

Since it was annexed by Indonesia in 1963, Papua, a Christian-majority region, has emerged as a conflict hot spot with torture, killings and arrests rampant.

An Amnesty International report said 95 people were killed between January 2010 and February 2018. Of those, 56 were not related to pro-independence activities. Thirty-nine were linked to peaceful political activities, including raising the Papuan independence flag, the Morning Star.

Another report by the International Coalition for Papua found that the number of arrests quadrupled from 1,083 in 2015 to 5,361 in 2016, mostly during peaceful protests.

On Dec. 1, 560 university students and activists were arrested during rallies held in several cities to commemorate what Papuans claim to be the birth of the West Papua nation in 1961.
Earlier on Nov. 19, Jayapura police arrested 126 students as they celebrated the 10th anniversary of the West Papua National Committee, a pro-independence group.

As a witness to the litany of violence,56-year-old Yoman said: "I cannot choose silence. I have an obligation to stand with my sheep. During all that suffering, the cross was being carried by Papuans."

Yoman uses various ways to voice his concerns — speaking from the pulpit, writing in the mass media, and authoring books.

He also raised his fears before former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono when he joined several Papuan religious leaders at a special meeting in 2011.

"I told him [Yudhoyono] that Papuans wanted self-determination because we haven't felt any [positive] change since joining Indonesia," he said.

In October 2017, he wrote an open letter to President Joko Widodo reminding him that Papuans had lost confidence in the government.



Human rights first

Yoman criticized the government's claims that it has done many things for Papua, saying the government has not addressed the core problems plaguing the province.

He conceded that roads and bridges have been built during the era of President Widodo, who last visited on Nov. 19, to inaugurate the Time Capsule Monument in Merauke, but he saw this as mere gestures.

"He didn't get to the heart of the problem, such as the ongoing human rights violations or the absence of solutions to past abuses. Indonesia doesn't have any firm commitment to resolving those," he said.

He cites the shooting of four students in Paniai on Dec. 8, 2014, by security forces. "It happened in broad daylight and the perpetrators were soldiers. However, they still haven't been arrested," he said.

He also mentioned the murder of Dortheys Hiyo Eluay in 2001 in Jayapura. Eluay was chairman of the Papua Presidium Council, a tribal organization, and was considered a hero by many Papuans.

"In 2016, one of the killers, Hartomo, was appointed head of the Strategic Intelligence Agency," Yoman said.

Widodo has visited the province on multiple occasions but the kidnapping and murder of indigenous Papuans has not stopped, he said.

"When the violence continues and more Papuans die, then we ask, for whom is all this development being done by the government? Human dignity is far more important than anything else."



Intimidation tactics

Yoman's outspoken views have seen him face various threats and forms of pressure.

In 2008, his book Eradication of Ethnic Melanesia: Breaking the Silence of the History of Violence in West Papua was banned by the government as it was considered a threat.

Three years later a leaked document of an Indonesian elite force listed him as the most watched figure in Papua.

But he claims he was never intimidated — or silenced. "I speak about truth and I'm not afraid because fear imprisons us, creating room for even greater persecution."



Hope for the church

Indigenous Papuans have hailed his efforts and those of other church leaders, even though most Catholics have not shown such courage.

"We hang our hope on people like him," said Agustinus Asso, 36, from Wamena. "What he says represents the will of the majority of Papuans. If all religious leaders could speak openly like him, the impact would be different, especially for human rights."

Papuan activists and students have urged Catholic bishops in the region to speak up about cases of rights abuse.

Franciscan Father Nico Syukur Dister, a professor at the Fajar Timur School of Philosophy and Theology in Jayapura, wrote that "the real-politics in West Papua makes it impossible for the church to remain neutral and hide [its] position."

The question of Papuan independence seems to be a political subject, but he said "the distinction between politicians' concern and the church's concern loses its relevance the moment we ask whether or not every nation has a right to own a country."

Many Papuans, the Dutch-born priest said, consider themselves part of a separate nation, not just a tribe in Indonesia, where their decolonization process was interrupted by international politics and military infiltrations in 1963.

"This complicated historical process, combined with military oppression, human rights violations, marginalization and exploitation of resources caused their integration with Indonesia to feel more like a colonial occupation," Father Dister said.

"With respect to that reality, isn't it an injustice that Papua is not yet independent; shouldn't it be part of the church's concern to raise the injustice that occurs in Papua?"

Markus Haluk, a Catholic and executive director of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP), said that support from religious leaders, especially to voice human rights issues, was very important.

"Their vocation is clear, namely, to voice the suffering of the people," he said. "If the church is silent on our suffering, then we will ask whether the church is still our future or not."

The ULMWP was formed in 2014 as an umbrella organization uniting movements seeking independence.

Yoman said he hoped other religious leaders and congregations would follow his lead but that he plans to fight on regardless.

Source: UCAN