Don't Sacrifice Nduga Children For Pseudo Independence

Don't Sacrifice Nduga Children For Pseudo Independence

Armed conflict in Nduga, Papua, in the last eight months has left children in teaching and learning activities neglected. More than 700 children are now forced to study in emergency schools built by volunteers. Children victims of this conflict face many obstacles in getting the right to education.

Opinus, the boy who was in the fourth grade of elementary school, stammered reading the writing that was offered to him. He is one of Nduga's refugee children who now lives in Wamena, Jayawijaya Regency. As a result of the conflict, he was forced to separate from his mother.

For a long time, Opinus did not study at his school in the Yigi District. In contrast to Opinus, Dutiana, who had been displaced for months in Wamena, had studied at an emergency school built for refugees.

Another refugee child, Balison, who is still in the third grade of elementary school, claimed to have learned a lot while attending an emergency school located in the Weneroma Church yard. The condition of the emergency school which was heavily damaged made refugee children forced to return to education.

The conflict between separatist groups of the Free Papua Movement (OPM) has closed the cheerfulness of Papuan children, children who are the nation's next generation must be victims of cruelty of separatist groups who are concerned with ego and not concerned with the education of children in Nduga.

In order to stop the conflict and violence against the people of Nduga, because children are the victims, children can no longer get the education they should have received at their early age. The government and security forces must stop the separatist movement immediately.

Give back the joy of the Nduga children, because they really need education so they can build Papua to be better in the future. Don't sacrifice children for pseudo power at the expense of lives.