A group of18 professors from the country’s top universities released a statement Thursdaycalling on the government to use dialogue instead of military force to addressproblems in Papua.
Theso-called Academic Forum for a Peaceful Papua said separatism was not astandalone problem in Papua and therefore deploying military troops would neverbring to an end the conflicts ravaging the region.
“Using gunswill never solve the problem because the issues are not only about separatism.The complexity of the problems in Papua involve many other factors includinghistory, politics, economics, sociocultural issues and of course welfare.Papua’s issues cannot be simplified to only separatism,” the group said in astatement sent to The Jakarta Post on Thursday.
To addresssuch a complex problems, the academics said, peaceful dialogue must be used.“Only by using dialogue we can root out the problems in Papua and find the bestway to solve them,” they said.
The groupincludes Padang State University’s Mestika Zed, Hasanuddin University’s ArfinHamid, Gajah Mada University’s Purwo Santoso, and University of Indonesia’sMuridan S. Widjojo.
Last week,a string of deadly events took place across Papua while thousands of Papuansrallied to demand a referendum.
Clashes betweensupporters of candidates for regent of newly Puncak regency claimed at least 21lives followed by the killing of four people by gunfire and machetes in theprovincial capital of Jayapura.
TheIndonesian Military has, as always, blamed the violence partly on the FreePapua Movement (OPM).
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