Rights activists have criticized the Timor-Leste government for arresting activists who expressed solidarity with West Papuans’ independence struggle during Pope Francis' visit.
Police arrested physically disabled Nelson Barros Pereira Xavier on Sept. 10, a day after Pope Francis arrived in the national capital for a three-day visit.
Xavier was arrested for holding flags of the Vatican and Timor-Leste with writings “Free West Papua” and “Free Palestine” on them at a papal program in the cathedral in Dili, local media reports said.
He was released after a few hours but told “that the case will be forwarded to the public prosecutor's office,” news outlet Neonmetin.info said, quoting Cesario da Silva, coordinator of the Association of Disabled Persons’ Organization.
The arrest was an “act that can't be justified,” said Ivo Mateus Goncalves da Cruz Fernandes, who researched at the Australian National University on Timor-Leste’s history.
This is the second arrest for showing solidarity with West Papua in recent days in the Catholic-majority nation.
On Sept. 2, Nelson Roldão, a Timorese rights activist supporting Papuans, was arrested at Nicolau Lobato International Airport in Dili for displaying the Morning Star flag of Papua. He was released later.
The freedom of West Papua, which is part of Indonesia, is a politically sensitive subject. Indonesia considers the freedom movement a secessionist movement and wants to crush it militarily.
Timor-Leste was under Indonesian occupation until 2002 when it gained independence and became a free nation.
Fernandes told UCA News that the constitution of Timor-Leste requires the country “to show solidarity with the people of any country that is fighting for its freedom. "
“The authorities are violating the constitution” by such arrests, he said.
Armindo Moniz Amaral, a lecturer at Dom Jaime Garcia Goulart Dili College of Philosophy and Theology, said the arrests were “illegal and arbitrary.”
Timor-Leste officials seemed to act like the Indonesian state that prohibits Papuans from wearing attributes such as the Morning Star flag, he told UCA News.
Earlier too, Timor-Leste has stifled efforts to show solidarity with Papua.
In August 2019, police arrested 47 youths when they were about to hold a demonstration to express support for Papua before the embassies of Indonesia and the US.
Indonesia's Christian-majority Papua region has been a hotbed of conflict and death for more than six decades since it became a part of Muslim-Majority Indonesia following the end of Dutch rule in the 1960s.
The Papuan freedom struggle and the Indonesian efforts to suppress it have killed up to 500,000 people.
The Papuan activists are trying to get the pope to talk about the Papuan issue and exert political pressure. But the government is trying to keep the issue away from the pope, he said.
Papuan activities planned to present the pope with a 124-page book, titled "The Prayers and Hopes of Papuans to the Holy Father Pope Francis," written by 34 Papuans, including priests, and translated into Italian.
However, the book was not allowed to be presented wrapped in an open Papuan bag (a traditional Papuan bag woven from dried tree bark).
Jayapura – The arrival of Pope Francis in Dili, the capital of East Timor, on the afternoon of Monday September 9, was welcomed by the Catholic community. The flag of the struggle of the West Papuan nation, the Morning Star flag, was also flown in Dili.
The Morning Star flag was raised by a West Papuan solidarity group in East Timor.
Rogerio Cabral, one of the activists in East Timor, reported that the Morning Star flag was raised by a group of activists in Dili who are concerned about the struggle of the West Papuan nation.
According to Cabral, the flag raising action held by East Timor residents to welcome Pope Francis' arrival in in Dili was a natural thing.
They claimed it was done because they care about and well understand the fate their West Papuan sisters and brother, who to this day continue to fight for independence.
"I also appreciate my friends who consciously help the struggle of fellow sisters and brothers in West Papua", he said.
This is not something that is taboo for the East Timor citizens, continued Cabral, to support the struggle of the West Papua nation when looking at the facts of its prior political history.
"The historical fact is that West Papua is already independent, but Indonesia forcibly annexed it through Indonesian military power. To this day our sisters and brothers are still alive under colonialism. They must separate, be free, independent", asserted Cabral.
The flag of the West Papua nation, added Cabral, was unfurled on the side of a highway as Pope Francis passed by in an open car.
Pope Francis arrived at Dili after "flying" from Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea (PNG) on Monday morning. The Pope conducted an apostolic visit to Vanimo and Port Moresby over several days after previously "flying" from Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Bendera Bintang Kejora Turut Sambut Paus Fransiskus di Timor Leste".]
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