November 27, 2025
JAKARTA – Prolonged armed conflict in Papua has forced more than 100,000 indigenous people, most of them women and children, to flee their homes. The government’s failure to provide adequate protection has also left many displaced families struggling to meet basic needs, prompting serious concerns from rights advocates.
Resource-rich Papua has endured clashes between separatists and security forces since the 1970s, but hostilities have surged since 2018, marked by more frequent and deadlier confrontations between the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB), the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement (OPM).
While the government has largely focused on responding to the situation with increased military deployments, Emmanuel Gobay, head of the Foundation of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute’s (YLBHI) Papua desk, said thousands of displaced residents had received little to no state support.
“In the midst of the armed-conflict emergency, churches have become the first responders, providing humanitarian assistance to refugees, many of whom are women and children,” said Emmanuel, who also coordinates the Rumah Solidaritas Papua (Papua Solidarity House) coalition, during a media visit to The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
The coalition comprises 15 civil society organizations including Amnesty International Indonesia, the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), the Legal Aid Institute for the Press (LBH Pers) and YLBHI.
“What is increasingly concerning is the government’s continued absence in fulfilling the basic rights of displaced residents. This is clearly a state responsibility, yet their contribution remains largely nonexistent,” Emmanuel said.
Read also: Pregnant woman, unborn baby die after Papua hospitals refuse treatment
Data from the Papua Council of Churches shows that since hostilities escalated in 2018 up to October this year, at least 103,218 people, mostly indigenous women and children, have been displaced across Papua.
Emmanuel said many displaced children have seen their education severely disrupted, either because they were forced to flee or because the TNI has established security posts near schools in conflict zones, putting them at risk of becoming targets in separatist attacks.
Women face similar dangers, ranging from the loss of livelihood, to heightened vulnerability and gender-based violence. He cited the 2023 rape and murder of two displaced women in Yahukimo, Papua Highlands, who were assaulted and killed by unidentified perpetrators while searching for food.
“What we want to show here is that the state’s failure to ensure basic rights has pushed refugees into these degrading conditions,” Emmanuel continued.
Also on Tuesday, Kontras’ Yahya Iharoza said the crisis stemmed in part from the government’s refusal to clarify the legal status of the conflict, even as it continues to send large contingents of security forces to Papua.
Kontras recorded that 21,000 combined military and police personnel have been deployed to the country’s easternmost region since 2022. Of these, around 2,600 are police officers and the rest are TNI troops.
“The conflict in Papua continues to violate basic rights, and the TNI’s placement of security posts near civilian buildings has forced residents to flee. Yet the state has offered no compensation, and refugees still lack access to basic education and healthcare,” Yahya added.
In response, Human Rights Minister Natalius Pigai acknowledged that large numbers of Papuans have been uprooted by the conflict and said his office had visited several affected areas to meet with refugees and local officials.
Although responsibility for handling displaced people is shared across ministries, Pigai said his office intended to take on a more substantial role. He said the ministry had formed a special Papua team led by its director general for human rights development.
“By the end of the year, we will finalize our recommendations and begin coordinating with relevant ministries, agencies and local administrations [to handle the refugees],” Pigai told the Post on Wednesday. “Resolving the issues in Papua must be done comprehensively.”
When asked whether the continued TNI presence has exacerbated the refugee crisis, Pigai said that the government was still assessing the factors behind the displacement and could not draw yet conclusions.
Read also: The hard road to effective conflict resolution in Papua
TNI spokesperson Maj. Gen. Freddy Ardianzah, however, disputed claims that military operations were forcing civilians to flee, arguing that most residents had escaped “terror and intimidation” by the TPNPB, including the burning of public facilities and attacks on civilians.
“Don’t get it twisted. In the establishment of TNI security posts and the proportional, effective and measured use of force against the OPM, we succeeded in driving them into the forests and mountains. As a result, displaced residents have been able to return home,” he said on Wednesday.
On Monday, Defense Minister Sjafrie Samsoeddin said Papua was one of three “centers of gravity” prioritized by President Prabowo Subianto.
To this end, he said the TNI would deploy additional troops under what he described as a “smart approach”, combining soft and hard tactics aimed at “winning the hearts” of Papuan communities.