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Pacific Archbishops make surprise 'fact-finding' visit to West Papua
ABC Radio Australia - April 12, 2016
The Archbishop of Port Moresby, John Ribat, and the Archbishop of Honiara, Adrian Smith were among those who took time to talk to members of the local community in the Indonesian province, the site of conflict between indigenous Melanesians and the Indonesian military and police forces for decades.
Frederika Korain, a West Papua-based lawyer and activist, said the visit was unexpected. "It was a very big surprise for us, because for decades there was no big delegations like that coming to this country. So for us it is really a big surprise".
"We just got information about their visit [on] the first day that they arrived, late in the afternoon when they were already in the city. We just got the news from the students that they met. Once we heard about it, we tried to get their agenda in Jayapura, because we would really have liked to have a chat with them as well," she said.
However Ms Korain said the Indonesian military presence was noticeable, and she felt the meeting was quite closed off to locals. "They came [from the border with Papua New Guinea] by the military buses, two buses, accompanied by huge military officials as well, some of them in uniform and some of them without.
"I don't think [they got an accurate picture of life in Jayapura]... There was no time for them to freely chat with ordinary people, so we used the moment during the meeting, even after the mass, we tried to approach them then we explained to them what was going on in West Papua, especially around the issue of human rights violations."
While it wasn't said explicitly, Ms Korain said she thought the visit was an opportunity for Catholic leaders to see the situation in West Papua for themselves.
"We got that a clear statement, especially from the president of the Bishops Conference in the meeting they had with the Catholic Bishops of Jayapura, they said that they would like to come and listen and see what is going on here. It is a kind of fact-finding," she said.
Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-12/pacific-archbishops-make-surprise-'fact-finding'/7318710.
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