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A new approach to violent conflict in Papua
Recognizing and allowing a nonpartisan third party to focus solely on protecting civilians from violent conflict could be a stepping stone to conflict management in Papua.
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An illustration of conflict in Papua (JP/Hengky Wijaya) (JP/Hengky Wijaya)
U
a href="https://nonviolentpeaceforce.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/UCP_An-Introduction.pdf">Unarmed civilian protection (UCP), as defined by the Nonviolent Peaceforce, “is a methodology and a set of practices for the direct physical protection of civilians by other trained unarmed civilians before, during and after violent conflict”.
Upon the principle of respecting local supremacy, most UCP practitioners support local civilians through various training and other activities as they work “to protect themselves and their communities and transform violent conflict”.
My colleagues and I sequentially organized an introductory training workshop on UCP, as well as art activities to capture the participants’ feelings, thoughts and concerns.
After the workshop, we not only found out about participants’ grievances about the various developments related to conflicts in Papua, from land grabbing and disputes to armed conflict, and their impact on society, but also saw a change in attitude, as captured in their drawings and during post-training discussions.
One of the drawings capturing this changing response to the violence and conflict in Papua was created by an activist lawyer, who then explained what it represented. The drawing shows what should be done in Papua, and how.
The outer line drawn in red represents past anger in the artist’s life, which was filled with anger toward the Indonesian government and the armed forces for the yearslong violence, repression and inequality in Papua. The artist’s soul was full of anger. There was no trust or hope.
The yellow line represents a new consciousness that there is a peaceful way to fight for the Papuan people. Guns and street protests do not help them win and save other Papuans.
