Bishops vow to fight for West Papuan refugees

The 57th annual general meeting of the bishops of Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands ended in Vanimo, West Sepik Province, last Friday.

The two-week conference brought positive response to issues affecting PNG and its neighbours.

The 22 bishops of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands, after a recent visit to Jayapura, have sworn to make a stand on the independence of the refugees of West Papua in Indonesia.

They were met by other West Papuan bishops and discussed issues of cooperation between each diocese in PNG as well Solomon Islands and West Papua. They will be writing a statement to address the issue of refugees and West Papua’s call for independence.

Other concerns like the free health and education fees were also highlighted and discussed during the meeting. They talked about how the PNG Government needed further consultation and to look at its neighbours as examples in terms of development and human resource skill-building.

General secretary of the Catholic Bishops Conference, Fr Victor Roche said this is the first time for the AGM to be held in Vanimo.

Picture source: Loop file picture.

 

Author: 
Annette Kora