Arbitrary arrests, disappearance of civilians by police in Tolikara and Mulia
Independent human rights workers in Puncak Jaya regency have reported that Indonesian police and army in the remote highlands district of Tolikara have been continuing to arbitrarily arrest civilians, allegedly to fill arrest quotas required for promotion, as part of routine crackdowns on civilians harbouring pro-independence thought in Papua.
Three civilians were also arrested by a combined Indonesian army (TNI) and Police platoon on March 9, at the Pasar Lama market in Mulia town, Puncak Jaya. Nonggop Tabuni, Delemu Enumby and Jelek Enembe, were arrested based on false allegations according to witnesses interviewed by human rights workers, though the exact nature of the false allegations was unreported.
Credible sources have also reported that the same motive was behind the arbitrary arrest and an alleged beating by Papua Police (POLDA) in Tolikara on April 1.
Police from Tolikara station arrested a 35-year-old farmer, Josiah Karoba, 9,.25 am on April 1, while he was standing in front of a kiosk on Jalan Irian Tolikara. The victim was arrested on the pretext of failing to carry his KTP (National Identity Card), a Suharto-era law designed to identify Communists that has been relaxed everywhere but Papua.
Karoba was then arrested “roughly” and taken to the police station Tolikara, according to witness reports, however Karoba’s family have no information about his current status or whereabouts since his arrest. Karoba’s family and human rights workers hold grave fears for his safety and freedom from torture.
Human rights sources have told West Papua Media that the Tolikara arrests are motivated in the interest of police promotion, by arresting innocent civilians and continuing to make victims of innocent Papuan civilians.
There is no indication as yet that the arrests are connected with a massive operation currently ongoing targeting National Liberation Army fighters under Goliat Tabuni, hunted after their killing of six Kopassus special forces soldiers on February 21. With independent media heavily restricted by the operation, details of sweep arrest of other civilians during the operation has been unverifiable, but local sources have reported that hundreds if not thousands of civilians have been detained or forced to flee from their villages during the operation.
westpapuamedia
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Selpius Bobii: “Stop violence in Paniai, proceed with heart to heart communication”
(Apologies for the delay in posting due to significant funding shortfall and time over-commitments from WPM team)
Analysis/ Opinion
27 March, 2013
by Selpius Bobii, Abepura Prison
The ongoing conflict in Papua is deliberately generated and professionally driven by Indonesian government through its defence system, purposely to defend the sovereignty of Indonesia over Papua. Beside political conflicts, economic factors play a certain role in initiating conflicts in Papua. As a result, both Papuan and non-Papuan civilians suffer the consequences, but mostly indigenous Papuans suffer the worst outcome of these conflicts.
One of the regions in Papua that draws major attention of the Indonesian military is Paniai. The conflicts there that are deliberately initiated by the Defence force of the Republic of Indonesia in confronting the OPM troops led by John Yogi has left the people of Paniai in great devastation.
These ongoing conflicts have left the civilians in a frightening and intimidating situation because Indonesian Police and Indonesian National Army have been doing mass military mobilisation and convoys, committing sexual harassment and assaults on woman and girls, carrying out unlawful arrests, torturing innocent civilians, and raids from house to house, confiscating hunting tools like bows and arrows, axes, and knives. The local people had to move to the neighboring villages searching for refuge, food and health. Some of them got sick and died, some were shot dead by the Indonesian military.
Violence, intimidation and unlawful detentions by Police Army are escalating in Paniai in the last few weeks, especially to combat the (local) OPM movement led by John Yogi.
Marko Okto Pekei, SS (Activist from Timika Catholic Parish) reported that the tense situation in Paniai has been going for a long period of time following the forceful disbanding (by Indonesian security forces) of the OPM HQ in Eduda in October 2012. After the incident, Indonesian Security Forces deployed massive number of Indonesian Military personnel in Paniai.
On the afternoon of February 24th 2013 the people of Paniai witnessed the deployment of Indonesia Military into Paniai, 53 trucks dropped them. During the deployment, a source that did not wish to be named mentioned that an Indonesia police officer (told him) that, in February 2013 alone, the government ( especially the Defence Ministry) of Indonesia has deployed more than one thousand military personnel from Kelapa Dua Jakarta to Paniai. As a result, people in Paniai, especially fathers and young men, feel intimidated everywhere they go. They could not go out for gardening because of the fear that they would be suspected as members of OPM.
During that tensed situation, Marko Pekei also reported that there has been raids carried out in the middle of the night in the villages, unlawful arrest, torture, and forceful kidnapping, abduction and killing of innocent civilians in Paniai.
The latest cases for example are, Stefanus Yeimo who was shot dead by Indonesian Police (Brigade Mobile) at 15:30 (west Papuan time) in Kopo Paniai. He was shot when he and his friend were at a local store buying cigarette. According to the Indonesian Police (POLRI) the reason behind the shooting is, he was suspected to be member of OPM.
At 18:00 on the same day, Stefanus was buried by his family in Kopo village, Paniai.
Meanwhile, according to report from an Activist from Justice and Peace Division of Timika Catholic Parish, there is another victim from the Moni Clan; Indonesian National Army Special Team 753 in Uwibutu tortured him on Saturday March 23rd 2013 at 21:30 local time.
After the victim was arrested he was beaten, kicked and was dragged along the asphalt road. At that time few by passers witnessed that violent and unjust treatment. The victim was even dragged into the police checkroom and brutally tortured until the next day and he was rushed to the hospital for medication.
According to the relative of the victim who did not wish to be named, the victim was intoxicated but was not violent when he went to visit a family friend at the hospital. He left the hospital at 21:30 local time. That was when the Indonesian Army Special team 753 from Paniai unlawfully arrested him took him to their base and beat him up, tortured him and they took him the hospital.
In response to the escalating and ongoing violence in Paniai, We the Front PEPERA (Act Of Free Choice) would like to take this opportunity to demand:
1). Indonesian Army (TNI) and Indonesian Police (POLRI) to stop excessive terror, torture, kidnapping and unlawful arrests and shootings in Paniai.
2). Cenderawasih Regional Military Commander XVII and Provincial Police Commander to stop deploying military personnel in Paniai and as soon as possible withdraw the additional personnel that was deployed from Jakarta.
3). The military personnel who violates human rights in Paniai be brought to justice.
4) Cenderawasih Regional Military Commander XVII and Provincial Police Commander as soon as possible sack the Indonesian Army (TNI) and Indonesian Police (POLRI) personnel who are responsible for the ongoing violence in Paniai.
5). People, Government and Church to work together hand in hand, establishing communications from heart to heart in order to curtail the violence and human right abuses that has been going on in Paniai for a very long time.
6). Journalists to truthfully and honestly expose the real situation that has been happening in Paniai
7) Violence will never solve the conflicts in Papua, therefore We the PEPERA (Act Of Free Choice) Front would like to take this opportunity to demand the United Nation or a neutral third-party to immediately act unconditionally and according to the international law to end the political and social injustice in Papua.
This statement serves as guide and to be carried out by the concerning parties who thinks Papuans deserves justice, peace and security in Papua and especially in Paniai.
Selpius Bobii, Abepura Prison: Wednesday, 27th March 2013.
Selpius Bobii is the General Chairperson of Front Pepera (The United Front of the Struggle of the People of Papua) and is currently one of the “Jayapura Five”, Political Prisoners held in Abepura Prison, Jayapura, West Papua. The five (Bobii, Forkorus Yaboisembut, Edison Waromi, Dominikus Sorabut and Agus Kraar) were found guilty in an opaque and predetermined trial of Treason (Makar) charges, laid after the violent Indonesian security force crackdown on the Third Papuan People’s Congress in October 2011.
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TPN in Yapen arrest local Indon police chief for abuses on civilians
March 18, 2013
from West Papua Media, with local sources in Yapen
Ongoing repression on peaceful dissent and acts of torture on civilians by Indonesian police (Polri) in Yapen has drawn a sharp reaction from West Papuan pro-independence guerrillas, who have captured and carried out an arrest of the local Police chief for human rights abuses committed under his watch.
Details have emerged from the remote island district that the North Yapen Sector Chief of Police (Kapolsek), Bripka (Chief Brigadier) Saimima, was apprehended in Yobi village outside Serui just after 9pm local time on Wednesday March 13 by a small group of men led by local pro-independence West Papua National Liberation Army (Tentara Pembebasan Nasional or TPN) commander Ferdinand Worabay.
Local human rights sources have reported that the action, which is being treated as a hostage taking action by Indonesian security forces, was carried out as a lawful arrest under international law for crimes committed under the Kapolsek’s command, and is being claimed by TPN sources as a legitimate assertion of both Papuan sovereignty and the rule of law on alleged human rights abusers.
The apprehension of Bripka Saimima was carried in retaliation for his alleged involvement in continual violence against Papuan community members, carried out by Indonesian police officers on duty in the Yapen archipelago, according to TPN spokespeople.
There are unconfirmed reports from local human rights sources that at least 100 heavily armed police have been sent into the area to free Bripka Saimima. It is believed that a tense stand off between the highly mobile guerrillas and heavily armed police and army is continuing, though heavy exchanges of gunfire were reported in the area from 9.15 pm Thursday night (local time).
More unconfirmed reports on March 17 claimed that the Kapolsek has been freed after three days in TPN custody , though further details have yet to surface, and no reports of attacks on civilians have been received at time of writing. Most armed assaults by Indonesian security forces result in significant civilian casualties.
The captured police officer, Saimima, is well known in Yapen for his alleged human rights abuses. Whilst under the command of notorious torturer, the former Yapen Police Chief Roycke Henry Langie, Saimima was allegedly involved at a command level in the systematic torture, arbitrary arrests and repression of local nonviolent activists and civilians, including the brutal torture and disappearance of political activist Lodik Ayomi in October 2012.
According to TPN sources, another reason for his apprehension is the detention and torture carried out by Polres Yapen officers against members of the TPNheld at the Polres Yapen station.
Local activist sources have told West Papua Media that the demands surrounding the release of Saimima are nothing more than basic bail conditions for any criminal suspect. It is not known if Worabay’s men have demands to hand over Kapolsek Saimima to human rights prosecutors, an unlikely tactic given the lack of trust Papuan people have for human rights violations being successfully or honestly prosecuted under Indonesian law.
However, Worabay has attached clear political demands to the arrest. Worabay claimed responsibility for the arrest of the Kapolsek of North Yapen, telling West Papua Media stringers by phone that the objective of the hostage taking was to demand the release of all Papuan political prisoners in all prisons in Indonesia, including particularly a local activist Decky Makabori, who is imprisoned in Sarmi Polres.
Worabay also demanded that both Polri and the Indonesian Army (TNI) immediately halt the violence in Puncak Jaya, Paniai, Wamena and other districts, and for the Indonesian government to “immediately enter into dialogue with the transitional Government of West Papua.”
“If these demands are not responded to seriously in order to be resolved …. there will be effects on the situation which will be worse,” Worabay told WPM stringers.
Meanwhile, at 5am on March 15 in a separate incident on Jalan Pasir Putih (White Sands Road) in the Serui sea village, an exchange of gunfire occurred between police and members of Rudy Orarei’s local TPN Yapen unit. The TPN unit were surrounded and ambushed by three members of the Brimob from Yapen police headquarters, but Rudy Orarei returned fire from his house, according to local sources. Two police were injured in the shootout, with Orarei reportedly fleeing the police cordon into the bush. The area remains tense under heavy police occupation, according to witnesses.
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STATE VIOLENCE WHICH PARALYSES COMMUNITIES IS INTENSIFYING IN THE LAND OF PAPUA: Press Release by KINGMI Church and Papuan Alliance of Baptist Churches
PRESS RELEASE
LEADERSHIP WORKING FORUM OF PAPUAN CHURCHES
STATE VIOLENCE WHICH PARALYSES COMMUNITIES IS INTENSIFYING IN THE LAND OF PAPUA
As leaders of churches in the Land of Papua, we are deeply concerned about the state violence which is occurring in our sacred motherland. This is clear proof of the fact that the government and the security forces have failed to provide protection for the indigenous Papua people. These concerns of ours have already been conveyed by our communities in the following statements:
(a) The eleven recommendations made by the Consultation of the Papuan People’s Council (MRP) and the Indigenous Papuan Communities on 9-10 June 2010;
(b) The Joint Communique of Church Leaders on 10 January 2011;
(c) The Theological Declaration of Church Leaders on 26 January 2011, and
(d) The Prophetic Message by Papuan Church Leaders to the President of Indonesia on 16 December 2011, in Cikeas, Jakarta.
Similar concerns have been expressed by member countries of the United Nations (the USA, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Canada, Norway, South Korea, Japan, France, Germany, Mexico, New Zealand, Australia Spain and Italy) on the occasion of the 23 May 2012 session of the Human Rights Council (UPR) in Geneva, Switzerland.
Based on the above facts, we believe that the Indonesian Government and the security forces are part of the problem of violence which has been created by the State, preserved by the state and allowed to continue in order to legitimise yet more acts of violence in the Land of Papua and to take advantage thereof in order to strengthen the security forces.
We regard these developments as a reflection of [Generative Politics] which was described in an article by Nugroho published by The Jakarta Post on 10 July, 2012. According to Nugroho, generative politics are political views and considerations which have paralysed and worsened the situation of Papuan communities and which have been pursued in accordance with the policies of the Indonesian Government for the past fifty years.
Herewith is a list of several incidents of violence that have systematically and structurally been perpetrated as a reflection of the generative politics mentioned above:
- On 2 March 2013, a priest named Yunus Gobay (male, 55 years old) was tortured and mal-treated and after being released, he paid ransom money to the police forces in the Police Command Post in the town of Enarotali, Paniai.
- The shooting incident in Sinak, District of Paniai, Tinginambut, Puncak Jaya on 21 February 2013 and the shooting incident in Udaugi on the border of the District of Delyai on 31 January 2013 when a number of civilians and members of the security forces were killed, which in our opinion happened because of the neglect of the unlawful sale of weapons.
- On 15 February 2013, Dago Ronald Gobay (male, 30 years old) was arrested in Depepre, district of Jayapura by the police and while being interrogated was tortured in the office of police intelligence in Jayapura.
- The attempt by the government and the security forces to forcibly disband a religious ceremony which was being held on the 4th anniversary of National Committee of West Papua (KNPB) on 19 November, 2012 in the STAKIN ASSEMBLY HALL, Sentani, on which occasion the security forces were under the command of the Police Chief of Jayapura, AKBP Roycke Harry Langgie and the deputy of the District Head (Bupati) of the District of Jayapura, Robert Djoenso D, SH.
- The unlawful murder of Mako Musa Tabuni, first chairman of the NKPB on 14 July 2012 in Perumnas, Jayapura.
- The murder of TPN/OPM General Kelly Kwalik by police from Densus 88 and a member of the Indonesian army (TNI) on 16 December 2009 in the town of Timika, and on the same day and month in 2012 another Papuan Hubertus Mabel was murdered by police of Densus 88 in Kuruku, the town of Wamena.
- Ferdinand Pakage was tortured in Abepura Prison by Herbert Toam, a warder at Abepura Prison, on 22 September 2008, as a result of which he was permanently blinded in the right eye.
- The torture and murder of Yawan Wayeni on 13 August 2009 by the police chief in Serui, AKBP Imam Setiawan.
- Two incidents of gross violations of human rights in Wasior in 2001 and in Wamena on 4 April 2003, the latter of which is related to the assault on an ammunitions dump; this incident has been investigated by Komnas HAM (National Commission of Human Rights), but the results of which have not been forwarded by the Attorney General to the Human Rights Court for a verdict.
These are just a few of the cases which are evidence of crimes which have been perpetrated by the Indonesian state and the security forces in a systematic, well-structured, widely-based and prolonged way and which are reflective of the generative politics (paralysis, destructive, eliminating) which, according to Nugroho in his Jakarta Post article of 10 July 2012, have been perpetrated by the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia in the Land of Papua for the past fifty years, since 1961.
Bearing in mind all the very disturbing facts given above and the living experiences of the indigenous Papuan people, we church leaders in the Land of Papua, make the following recommendations:
Firstly, the Indonesian Government and the security forces should return to the original aspirations of this country by investigating and putting an end to the unlawful sale of weapons and ammunition which is happening in the Land of Papua.
Secondly, the Indonesian Government should speedily take cognisance of the prophetic messages from the Church, the eleven recommendations of the MRP on 9-10 June 2010 and the Appeal by members of the UN Human Rights Commission at its session 23 May 2012.
Thirdly, we believe that the Indonesian Government is responding in a very discriminatory way to the aspirations of the Papuan people for peaceful dialogue. We therefore press the Indonesian Government to enter unconditionally into a dialogue based on the principle of equality between Indonesia and West Papua, with mediation by a neutral party, which is what happened in the dialogue between GAM (Gerakan Aceh Merdeka – the Aceh Liberation Movement) in Aceh.
Fourthly, the Indonesian Government should unconditionally release all political prisoners in Papua and should allow a visit to Papua by the Special Rapporteur of the United Nations, as well as by foreign journalists and human rights defenders. And it should forthwith end all its efforts to criminalise the political struggle of the Papuan people for self-determination.
Fifthly, the shooting to death of members of the TNI as well as civilians which occurred in the district of Sinak, Puncak Jaya and in the district of Tingginambut, Puncak Jaya on 21 February 2013 should be regarded as a separate incident. It was in no way connected to the election of the bupati (district chief) of the district of Puncak. This violent incident is part and parcel of state policy to build the necessary infrastructure for the TNI and Polri (the police) in the mountainous interior in order to establish the Puncak Jaya 1714 military command, to increase the budget for the security forces and to criminalise the peaceful struggle of the Papuan people at the international level.
Sixthly, the Chief of Police in Papua, Inspector-General (pol) Drs M Tito Karnavian, MA, has failed to investigate who it was who perpetrated acts of violence in the Land of Papua and has created the impression that he is allowing the illegal sale of weapons to go ahead. We urge the chief of police in Papua to implement the statement made by the chief of police, Inspector-General Bekto Suprapto in December 2010 that those who are responsible for the entry into West Papua of illegal weapons will be investigated.
Seventhly. we call on all Papuan communities and all components in society to study the laws in force regarding the TNI and Polri, in order to be able to control criminal actions as well as the policy of the Indonesian government and security forces in the Land of Papua.
Port Numbay (Jayapura), 6 March 2013
Chairman of the Synod of KINGMI Church, Papua:
The Rev. Dr Benny Giay.
Chairman of the Executive Board of the Alliances of Baptist Churches in Papua:
Socratez Sofyan Yoman
End of translation by TAPOL
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Yoman rejects the Use of violence
Socrates reiterated that as a church leader that he was absolutely opposed to acts of violence.
‘We must engage in a peaceful struggle ,’ he said, speaking at the launching of his book titled: ‘OTSUS in Papua has Failed’
He went on to say that it was not about whether this violence was committed by Goliat Tabuni or anyone else . ‘There have been many acts of violence in Papua since 2004 and none of these incidents have been investigated and nothing is known about who was responsible for the violence. ‘It is said that the are large numbers of intelligence officers but nothing is known about these incidents. Is this some kind of project that is being defended or what is it all about?’
He said that the only way to deal with all the problems in the most easterly province of Indonesia is by means of mutually respectful dialogue, mediated by a third party.
He went on the call on young Papuans, men and women to get on with their education so as to be able to improve their standard of living, to be able to read and write, to become intellectuals, anthropologists , sociologists, scientists. Pursuing education will bring about a major change for the whole population, he said.
His book on OTSUS (Special Autonomy) is 408 pages long and has five chapters, which among others explain the background to OTSUS which is seen by Indonesia as the political solution for Papua.It also deals with the problem of the obliteration of the indigenous people, crimes committed by the state apparatus, the case of human rights violations on 19 October 2011 as well as the shooting dead of Mako Tabuni on 14 June 2012.
Published by Cenderawasih Press, it is the latest of a number of books written by Yoman.
Yoman was born on 15 December 1969 and is a highly vocal church leader. He also teaches as a number of colleges, including the Theology College in Jayapura. In October 2011, he had discussions with members of staff of the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
‘I will launch my latest book on 6 March, he said, adding that Papuans were not a nation of slaves.
[Translated by TAPOL]
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Paniai sweeps intensify misery under Indonesian control as security forces ban music and torture priest
by West Papua Media
March 6, 2013
Local residents in Paniai regency are bracing for more repression in sweep operations by Indonesian security forces after two separate incidents across the Paniai have intensified ongoing crackdowns on West Papuan independence sentiment, torturing a local priest and even banning the possession of traditional music.
The latest crackdown, imposed in Paniai after guerrillas from Paniai commander Jhon Yogi’s Paniai unit of the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPN-PB) were involved in armed engagements with the Indonesian army (TNI) and Police throughout February .
Reliable human rights sources in Paniai have reported to West Papua Media that an influx of joint TNI and police have “arrived with total war equipment” to bolster sweeps and raids across Paniai against civilians accused of holding pro-independence sentiments.
“In order to confront the TPN PB and on orders from President SBY, a brigade of TNI / Police have arrived with total war equipment. There were drops of TNI/POLRI in Paniai on 3 March 2013. The brigade arrived by 7 ‘Inova’ vehicles via the coast road,” the source told West Papua Media.
Helicopters belonging to illegal gold miners in Degouwo were again being used by Indonesian troops to support the operation, similar to the massive offensive against Paniai people during 2011 and early 2012, according to both human rights and church sources.
“A yellow and white helicopter owned by an illegal business in Degouwo at 13.00 WPB (west Papua time) made two drops of personnel and logistical war equipment. The first drop was to the Enarotali airport in Paniai district, and the second helicopter drop of the brigade forces together with war equipment was at Obano also, in the west of Paniai district,” the human rights source told West Papua Media.
Independent sources are also reporting that Indonesian colonial occupation forces are putting massive pressure on local civilians, with routine violations of civilian’s dignity, and arbitrary strip searches, that have created opportunities for brutality and torture on local people.
The notorious battalion 753 from Nabire has erected scores of “state of emergency tents” every 5-10 kilometres along the main road between Nabire and Paniai, according to witnesses. “TNI are carrying out very strict checking of everything. The TNI from unit 753 are undoing the clothes of every passenger in the area to check them including females. Advocacy and monitoring is requested,” said the human rights worker.
Military Destruction of traditional culture amounting to cultural genocide
Papuan independent media outlet Tabloid Jubi has reported remarkable accounts of the extraordinary measures Indonesian police commandos from Paniai police headquarters are taking to destroy traditional Papuan culture by banning music.
Father Saul Wanimbo, the Director of the Commission for Justice and Peace (SKP) in Timika diocese, told Tabloid Jubi that during police sweeps, local people are being forced to hand over their mobile phones. They analyse the memory cards on the mobile phones to find songs in Papuan language, and if the memory card is found to contain either one or many Papuan folk songs, police will smash the memory card with stones, according to Fr Wanimbo.
“The police are sweeping HP (Handphone) memory cards of Enaro society (people) for the last two months,” Wanimbo told Jubi, citing his own experiences and stories directly from Enaro residents from 1-20 Febrruary 2013. Wanimbo said that Paniai people have been so demoralised that they just accept the oppressive actions of the occupation forces.
Wanimbo said that the actions by Police were killing three values: “There is destruction of cultural values, murder of the people’s creativity, and character assassination.”
“The situation is conditioned in such a way so that people cannot resist. How can the people fight if the area has a variety of (security force) members lurking there,” Fr Wanimbo told Jubi. The police acts were morally and legally wrong, police could not arbitrarily violate people’s privacy for no apparent reason, and such actions must be done with a warrant, he said.
“Paniai Police must explain the meaning of this sweeps. Or the Papua Police chief must stop the actions of the Kapolresnya (local police command) men in Enaro. This is serious. We can say it’s the beginning of the genocide, ” he said.
Priest tortured by police who then demand bribe for his release
Meanwhile, again in the Paniai regional centre of Enarotoli, local human rights workers have documented a serious case of torture of a local priest. According to human rights workers attached to the Kingmi church, at 8.30 in the morning on March 2, Reverend Yunus Gobai (55 years) was arrested, threatened and tortured by local and Brimob commando police at the Enarotali (Kapolresnya) police compound in Paniai district.
According to the report received and confirmed by West Papua Media, as a result of beating Gobai’s nose was bleeding, his upper and lower lips were split and bleeding, and he sustained abrasions on his hands, swelling on his forehead and cuts on his head, after which he he was put in a cell at the Police Sector command (Polsek) in Enarotali.
Family members went to request his release from the Police station, but the Paniai police demanded a bribe or ransom money to free him, according to the report. Family members reported they were forced to gather money in order to pay the police, and a Paniai member of the DPRD directly handed over to police one million rupiah (about US$103) at Polsek Paniai. Reverend Gobai was then released at 1030am local time, and taken straight home to his village by his family, according to the report.
Rev Gobai is the former pastor and head of the council of the community of KINGMI Maranatha Nabire. According to his family, after Rev Gobai became pastor of the community he suffered from (an undefined) mental disturbance together with epilepsy. Gobai’s family reported that he would regularly be seen “shouting for no reason or running around shouting”.
Reverend Gobai was arrested after exhibiting these symptoms outside the police station in Enarotoli, causing his arrest, but police did not treat the issue as an illness and used unwarranted torture and inhumane treatment on the pastor, according to the report.
(WPM Editor’s Comment: Whilst the KINGMI report uses unclear terminology describing the pastor’s behaviour as “mental illness”, often random outbursts of unintelligible shouting and psychotic visions are perfectly normal and accepted behaviour of Christian pentecostal pastors, Muslim imans, Hindu holy people, and almost all other religious leaders and clerics across human history. To arrest and torture someone for this behaviour is to ignore the experience of humanity.)
Paniai is no stranger to unrestrained Indonesian security force violence and torture against local people, primarily made up of members of the Mee tribe. Previous offensives in the Paniai since December 2011 have displaced tens of thousands of civilians, and burnt down hundreds of villages. Paniai was the scene of widespread military operations between 1963-1969, 1977-1978, and again in 1981-1982. During this period U.S. supplied Bronco aircraft were used to bomb villages while helicopters strafed Papuans with machine gun fire.
West Papua Media
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AHRC: Guards torture 20 prisoners at the Abepura Correctional Facility, Papua
Urgent Appeal Case: AHRC-UAC-025-2013
22 February 2013
———————————————————————
INDONESIA: Guards torture 20 prisoners at the Abepura Correctional Facility, Papua
ISSUES: Inhuman and degrading treatment; torture
———————————————————————
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the torture of twenty prisoners at the Abepura Correctional Facility, Papua, on 21 January 2013. Information gathered by local activists reveals that the torture was conducted by three prison guards with the acquiescence of the head of the prison. The victims were beaten with bare hands as well as whipped with thick wire until some parts of their bodies were bleeding. Despite the injuries suffered the prison guards did not give any medical treatment to the tortured prisoners.
CASE NARRATIVE:
According to local activists from KontraS Papua, Bersatu untuk Kebenaran (BUK), and SKPKC Fransiskan Papua, three new prisoners were admitted to the Abepura Class II.A Correctional Facility at around 6pm on 21 January 2013. The other prisoners made spontaneous comments to welcome the new prisoners such as “welcome to the prodeo hotel” and “welcome to isolation”. Not long afterwards, two prison guards named Bonifasius Manuputy and Yulianan Wanane ordered the inmates’ coordinator (tahanan pendamping, tamping) to unlock cell number 5 and asked all the five prisoners staying there to exit the cells. The prisoners were ordered to walk in a crouch position to the guards’ office which is about 100-150 meters away from the cell.
Bonifasius Manuputy started beating the prisoners once they reached the guards’ office. At this stage, another prison guard called Eli Asip Wamuar also joined Bonifasius in torturing the prisoners by whipping them with a thick white wire. The diameter of the wire was about 10 inches and its length was around 2 meters. As the prisoners from cell five were being beaten, the other prisoners staying in other cells made noises, asking Bonifasius not to torture the prisoners from cell number 5. It was alleged that the beating took place because the guards got annoyed with the prisoners’ welcoming remarks addressed to the new enrolled prisoners.
At around 6.30pm on the same day, Eli Asip Wamuar ordered the inmates’ coordinator to unlock cell number 2 and 3. There were seven prisoners inside cell number 2 and eight prisoners inside cell number 3. All prisoners staying in both cells were asked to walk to the guards’ office in a crouch position as well. As their fellows from cell number 5, those prisoners were also whipped by Eli Asip Wamuar in their body using the thick white wire. As a result, the prisoners suffered wounds and injuries to different parts of their body including arms, back, and shoulder. Some parts of their body were also bleeding and bruised. One of the prisoners, Pelius Tabuni, had his left arm broken, allegedly caused by the severe beating with the thick wire. The head of the Abepura Correctional Facility, Nuridin, as well as the Head of the Correctional Facility’s Security Unit, Juwaini, were present as the torture was taking place.
After the beating the prison guards simply put the prisoners back in their cells without giving them any medical treatment which could have been made available at the prison’s clinic despite the injury they suffered.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
This is not the first time that a report on the allegation of torture at the Abepura Correctional Facility has been received by the AHRC. Previously in June 2012, the AHRC released an urgent appeal concerning the torture of 42 prisoners and detainees at the same correctional facility. The AHRC was informed that after heavy criticism directed by human rights activists at that time, the then Head Correctional Facility Liberti Sitinjak was replaced by Nuridin in 2012. However, no criminal investigation was conducted on this matter that those responsible for such abuse remain unpunished.
In a greater picture, torture is no longer a new issue in Papua in general. In 2010, a video revealing military officers torturing a Papuan man was released but the perpetrators were sentenced only to 9-12 months imprisonment. The AHRC has also recently published an urgent appeal concerning the torture of seven Papuans by Indonesian police in Jayapura on false allegations for having a relationship with pro-independence activists.
SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write to the authorities listed below asking for their intervention in this matter. The torture allegation should be impartially and effectively investigated that those responsible for it will be punished proportionately. Please also urge the authorities to provide compensation and medical treatment needed for the loss and injury suffered by the victims.
The AHRC is writing separately to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
To support this appeal, please click here:
SAMPLE LETTER:
Dear ___________,
INDONESIA: Prison guards tortured 20 prisoners at Abepura Correctional Facility, Papua
Name of victims:
1. Pelius Tabuni, 32 year old, left arm got broken and suffer wounds in his shoulder and back;
2. Gidion Hanuebi (Bob), 37 year old, suffers wounds in his back;
3. Serko Itlai, 19 year old, suffers wounds in his back;
4. Yoris Fernando W. Rengil, 17 year old, suffers wounds in his back;
5. Ami Wenda (Soy), 25 year old, suffers wounds in his back and arms;
6. Roy Olvin Wally, 31 year old, suffers wounds in his back and left arm;
7. Ormi Wandik, 17 year old, suffers wounds in his back and arms;
8. Roy Kabarek, 37 year old, suffers bruises in his forehead and jaws as well as wounds in his back;
9. Irsan Mananggel (Irs), 19 year old, suffers wounds in his back and arms that he could not move his arms for a couple of days;
10. Yosua Merahabia, 41 year old, suffers wounds in his back and left arm;
11. Samuel Waren, 26 year old, suffers wounds in his back and arms;
12. Yakobus Bue, 20 year old, suffers wounds in his back and arms;
13. Hendro Wambrau, 21 year old, suffers wounds in his back, left arm and left elbow;
14. Ibe Huby, 22 year old, suffers wounds in his back as well as bruises in left ear;
15. Kaharudin, 28 year old, suffers wounds in his back and right arm;
16. Kaleb Mantanaway, 21 year old, suffers wounds in his back and arms;
17. Imanuel Mauri, 21 year old, suffers bruises in his back of head and ears;
18. Zikenele Hisage, 20 year old, suffers wounds in his back and right arm;
19. Widodo Santoso, 26 year old, suffers bruises in his forehead;
20. Ahmad Alia, age unidentified, suffers wounds in his back.
Names of alleged perpetrators:
1. Eli Asip Wamuar, prison guard
2. Bonifasius Manuputy, prison guard
3. Yulianan Wanane, prison guard
4. Juwaini, Head of Abepura Correctional Facility’s Security Unit
5. Nuridin, Head of Abepura Correctional Facility
Date of incident: 21 January 2013
Place of incident: Abepura, Papua
I am writing to express my deep concern regarding the torture of prisoners which took place in the Abepura Class II, a Correctional Facility. I received the information that 20 prisoners were tortured by three prison guards with the acquiescence of the Head of the Correctional Facility as well as the Head of the Correctional Facility’s Security Unit on 21 January 2013.
I have been informed that on the day in question at around 6pm, three new prisoners were admitted to the correctional facility. Responding to it, the other prisoners were making spontaneous welcoming remarks such as “welcome to isolation” as well as “welcome to the prodeo hotel”. Not long afterwards, two prison guards named Bonifasius Manuputy and Yulianan Wanane asked the inmates’ coordinator (tahanan pendamping, tamping) to unlock cell number 5 and ordered the prisoners staying there to walk to the guards’ office in a crouch position. Once they reached the office, the prisoners were beaten by Bonifasius and whipped with a thick white wire by another prison guard named Eli Asip Wanuar. The white wire was about 2 meters long. During the beatings and whippings, the other prisoners made noises asking the prison guards to stop torturing their fellow inmates.
Eli Asip Wanuar later ordered the inmates’ coordinator to unlock cell number 2 and 3 and also asked the prisoners staying there to walk in a crouch position to the guards’ office. Similarly, the prisoners from these two cells were beaten and whipped by the prison guards. Nuridin, the Head of Abepura Correctional Facility, as well as Juwaini, the Head of the Correctional Facility’s Security Unit were present during the torture and did not do anything to stop it from happening.
I was told that due to the beatings and whippings, the twenty prisoners suffer wounds and injuries to several parts of their body. It was reported that one of them, Pelias Tabuni, had his left arm broken. Even though the prisoners were injured and bleeding, the prison authorities did not provide them with any medical treatment afterwards and just put them back in their cells.
I am concerned that torture is still practiced in your country, despite the fact that Indonesia is a state party to the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and the right not to be tortured is guaranteed under the 1945 Constitution. I am particularly disturbed knowing that this is not the first time I received the report that torture is taking place in Abepura Class II.A Correctional Facility. I am aware it was previously reported that 42 prisoners and detainees were tortured at the same correctional facility in April last year and that the perpetrators are still unpunished as of today. It saddens me that the Indonesian government and law enforcement officials do not take torture as a serious matter that deserves serious concern and efforts. Those who are responsible for such abuse are hardly taken before the court. Even for cases that managed to reach the court, the perpetrators have always been punished with light sentence that does not reflect the gravity of the abuse.
I therefore urge you and your institution to prove your commitment in combating torture and enforcing law and human rights in your country. The torture allegation in this case should be impartially and effectively investigated that those responsible for it are punished proportionately according to law. I also wish to emphasise that, under international human rights law, not providing detainees or prisoners with adequate medical treatment may also constitute torture that you are also obliged to give any health assistance needed by the victims in this case. Compensation should also be adequately granted to them.
I look forward for your positive and prompt response in this matter.
Yours sincerely,
—————-
PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTERS TO:
1. Mr. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
President of Republic of Indonesia
Jl. Veteran No. 16
Jakarta Pusat
INDONESIA
Tel: +62 21 386 3777, 350 3088.
Fax: + 62 21 344 2223, 3483 4759
E-mail: presiden@ri.go.id
2. Ms. Harkristuti Harkrisnowo
General Director of Human Rights
Ministry of Law and Human Rights
Jl. HR Rasuna Said Kav. 6-7
Kuningan, Jakarta 12940
INDONESIA
Tel: +62 21 525 3006, 525 3889
Fax: +62 21 525 3095
3. Mr. Mochamad Sueb
General Director of Corrections
Ministry of Law and Human Rights
Jl. Veteran No. 11
Jakarta Pusat
INDONESIA
Tel: +62 21 385 7611
Fax: +62 21 345 2155, 231 2140
4. Gen. Timur Pradopo
Chief of the Indonesian National Police
Jl. Trunojoyo No. 3
Kebayoran Baru, Jakarta Selatan 12110
INDONESIA
Tel: +62 21 384 8537, 726 0306
Fax: +62 21 7220 669
E-mail: info@polri.go.id
5. Ir. Gen. Drs. Tito Karnavian
Chief of Papua Regional Police
Jl. Dr. Sam Ratulangi No. 8
Jayapura
INDONESIA
Tel: +62967 531 014, 533 396
Fax: +62967 533 763
6. Mr. Otto Nur Abdullah
Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission
Jalan Latuharhary No.4-B,
Jakarta 10310
INDONESIA
Tel: +62 21 392 5227-30
Fax: +62 21 392 5227
Email: info@komnas.go.id
Thank you.
Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (ua@ahrc.asia)
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- Violence and intimidation of journalists in Papua in 2012 (westpapuamedia.info)
Amnesty: Two men detained, feared tortured in Papua
UA: 48/13 Index: ASA 21/005/2013 Indonesia
22 February 2013
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL URGENT ACTION
Two Indonesian men now arbitrarily detained in Jayapura, Papua province, are believed to have been tortured or otherwise ill-treated by police.
Daniel Gobay and Matan Klembiap are currently detained at the Jayapura district police station in Papua province. Police officers allegedly tortured or other otherwise ill-treated them and five other men while interrogating them about the whereabouts of two pro-independence activists. They have not received medical treatment and they have not had access to a lawyer since their arrest.
According to credible sources, plainclothes police officers arbitrarily arrested Daniel Gobay and two other men on the morning of 15 February 2013 in Depapre, Papua province. The three men were first forced to crawl on their stomachs to the Depapre sub-district police station approximately 30 metres away and then moved to the Jayapura district police station an hour later. There they were then forced to
strip, were kicked in the face, head and back, and beaten with rattan sticks. Police officers allegedly pressed the barrels of their guns to their heads, mouth and ears. They were interrogated until late at night and in the morning of the following day.
Matan Klembiap and three other men were arbitrarily arrested separately by plainclothes police officers on the morning of 15 February in Depapre and taken to the Jayapura district police station.
The four men were also forced to strip and were kicked and beaten with rattan sticks and wooden blocks by police officers. One of the men has testified on video that police gave him electric shocks.
On 16 February, five of the men were released without charge but Daniel Gobay and Matan Klembiap remain in police custody and are reportedly to be charged with “possession of a sharp weapon” under the Emergency Regulation 12/1951.
Amnesty International has asked that readers “Please write immediately in English, Indonesian or your own language calling on authorities in Indonesia” to take the following urgent action:
- To ensure that Daniel Gobay and Matan Klembiap are not tortured or otherwise ill-treated;
- To ensure that the two men have access to medical treatment, and to lawyers of their choosing; and
- To immediately order an effective and independent investigation into the allegations of torture and other ill-treatment of the seven men by police officers. Suspected criminal offences involving human rights violations must be dealt with through the criminal justice system, rather than only internally and as disciplinary breaches to ensure that all those responsible for torture and other ill-treatment, including persons with chain of command responsibility, are brought to justice in fair trials, and that victims are provided reparations. Particular attention must be paid to the protection of victims, witnesses and their families.
Amnesty International
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Seven Papuans are arrested and tortured on false allegations of having a relationship with pro-independence activists
By Asian Human Rights Commission
Urgent Action report
19 February 2013
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the arbitrary arrest and torture of seven Papuans which took place on 15 February 2013. The victims were driving home in two cars when the police stopped them as they were looking for two pro-independence activists. The victims were later brought to the police station where they were further questioned on the whereabouts of the activists. They were severely beaten, kicked and electrocuted before being five of them were released without charge the next day. However, as at the time of writing two of the victims remain in police custody.
CASE NARRATIVE:
An hour after they arrived at Depapre Sub-District Police Station, Daniel, Arsel and Eneko were taken to Jayapura District Police Station. The police started questioning three of them on the whereabouts of Terianus Satto and Sebby Sambom, two pro-independence activists whom Daniel, Arsel and Eneko do not have any relationship with. Eneko Pahabol told the local activists that he was repeatedly kicked in his face by officers who were wearing police boots. The officers kicked him both in his left and right knees which caused them to bleed. Eneko and his friends were also beaten with a rattan stick as well as being electrocuted on their legs. The police officers pressed the barrels of their guns to their heads, forced them into their mouths and ears. Arsel Kobak told the AHRC that he was asked to take his clothes off and kicked on his head, face and back by the police officers. As a result, his mouth and nose were bleeding, his forehead was wounded and he is now experiencing hearing difficulties.
On the next day on 16 February 2013, five of the seven arrested persons were released without charge. As the time of writing, Daniel Gobay and Matan Klembiap are still detained in the police custody, allegedly for possessing bladed articles. However, the charge and their reason of detention are still subject to clarification. Neither Daniel nor Matan has any legal representation as of the time of writing.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
In his report in 2008, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment highlighted that torture is practised widely across Indonesia, including Papua. In 2010, for instance, the AHRC released a video online which depicts military officers brutally torturing an indigenous Papua. Last year, the AHRC also issued an urgent appeal on the torture of 42 prisoners and detainees by prison authorities at Abepura Correctional Facility.
Despite the abuse took place, little have been done by the Indonesian authorities to make sure the perpetrators are punished proportionately to provide justice for the victims. Military officers who were responsible torturing a Papuan on the video in 2010 were sentenced only to 9-12 months imprisonment while the allegation on torture at Abepura Correctional Facility has never been investigated by the police.
Indonesia has been a state party to the UN Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment since 1998. Torture is not yet a crime under the country’s legal system that state officials who conducted such abuse are usually unpunished or charged with provisions on assault under the Penal Code whose punishment do not reflect the gravity of the act. For example, the Muaro Sijunjung District Court recently sentenced four police officers responsible for the torture and death of two minors only to 18 months to three years imprisonment.
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Growing international solidarity for West Papua freedom campaigns
by Herman Wainggai*
January 21, 2013
Opinion
It is likely that most US citizens who consider themselves informed about global events are aware of the genocides in Rwanda, Bosnia and East Timor, yet it’s likely that few people in the US are aware of the ongoing genocide in West Papua, New Guinea.
In Rwanda, genocide resulted in an estimated 500,000 deaths in a 3-month period; in Bosnia, genocide resulted in an estimated 200,000 deaths in a 3-year period. In East Timor, there were more than 103,000 deaths in a 3-year period; and, in West Papua, New Guinea, there are conservative estimates of 100,000 Melanesian Papuans killed, and 300,000 displaced or missing over a 47-year period. Remarkable is the disparity of time between the Rwanda, Bosnia and East Timor genocides, ranging from 3 months to 3 years, contrasted with the ongoing 50-year genocide of indigenous West Papuans. In the aftermath of the Rwandan 3-month slaughter of 500,000 people, the carnage was blatant, the atrocities flagrant.
In view of the continuing carnage wrought in West Papua by the Indonesian military during the past 50 years, we must wonder why most people in the Western world are oblivious to the indigenous Melanesians’ plight, and what factors are contributing to the protraction of such abuse.
Indonesia’s colonization and military occupation of Dutch-owned West Papua was achieved, and continues, with the blessing of the governments of the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States, and facilitated by the operation of the world’s largest copper and gold mine owned by Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc., a US corporation.
In addition, for more than 50 years, some of the world’s largest transnational mining corporations have been exploiting West Papua’s oil and minerals, including Union Oil, Amoco, Agip, Conoco, Phillips, Esso, Texaco, Mobil, Shell, Petromer Trend Exploration, Atlantic Richfield, Sun Oil and Freeport (USA); Oppenheimer (South Africa); Total SA (France); Ingold (Canada); Marathon Oil, Bird’s Head Peninsula (UK); Dominion Mining, Aneka Tambang, BHP, Cudgen RZ, and most critically, Rio Tinto (formerly RTZ-CRA) (Australia/UK).
The exploitation of natural resources by extractive industries results in catastrophic harms to human and environmental health and indigenous societies. Typically, mainstream global media, most of which are in thrall to corporate interests, look the other way when such military/corporate injustices are perpetrated upon indigenous populations.
New Guinea is the second largest island on earth, and one of 20,000-30,000 archipelagos in the South Pacific. The island is divided vertically, with independent Papua New Guinea occupying the eastern section and West Papua, now an unwilling province of Indonesia, occupying the western side. There are more than 250 tribes, more than 270 distinct languages and thousands of different pidgin dialects.
In addition to copper and gold, abundant natural resources include natural gas, oil, timber and fish. These resources profit corporate interests and the Indonesian government without compensation to the Melanesian population, who live in poverty.
In 1969, the Act of Free Choice consultation was held in West Papua to ascertain whether the indigenous Melanesian population preferred to remain a province within the nascent nation of Indonesia or become their own independent nation. The consultation was fraudulent, and free participation by the indigenous people was nil. Only 1025 West Papuans, representing a population of one million, were picked ( by the government of Indonesia ) to vote and it was not implemented in accordance with international law of the New York Agreement on August 15, 1962 – One Man One Vote. It was a whitewash. Nobody gave a thought to the fact that a million people had their fundamental rights trampled ( CV Narasimhan, Deputy Secretary – General of the United Nations 1961 – 1978 ). Thus, the voiceless West Papuans became a province of Indonesia and the victims of 50 years of oppression.
The people of this forgotten land have struggled for freedom for 50 years under brutal Indonesian occupation. The people of the different tribes are raped, tortured and slaughtered, and their natural environment continues to be degraded. In their efforts to resist this injustice, their leaders have been arrested, tortured and threatened with death. For this reason, many now live in exile, where they continue to be involved in education and activism with the goal of enlisting the international community to join their efforts to achieve justice and freedom.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirms the rights of all people to freedom of opinion and expression, and the right to peaceful assembly and association. Indonesia is a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which guarantees the right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, and Indonesia’s constitution also declares those rights. However, Indonesia’s continued arrest and incarceration of nonviolent political activists since the 1980s, and the October 19, 2011 arrests of more than 300 civilians during the Third National Congress, including Edison Waromi and Forkorus Yaboisembut, Prime Minister and President, respectively, will not deter Melanesians from their nonviolent struggle to secure self-determination within a democratic framework, and are recognized, respected and supported by the international community.
For this reason, many peaceful demonstrations took place around the world on
The boat that brought 43 West Papuan Asylum seekers to Australia, putting Papua back on the front page and touching off a diplomatic storm . Photo Damien Baker, Mapoon, Queensland, Australia January 17th, 2006
January 17, 2013. The Demonstrations commemorated the escape to freedom by 43 West Papuan refugees on January 17, 2006, when, after paddling across open ocean for four days and surviving a violent storm, they beached their traditional canoe in Australia and found asylum. Myself – Herman Wainggai - am one of those 43.
The Free West Papua Political Prisoners Team in Washington DC is a group of academics and human-rights activists who are willing to stand up for justice and work toward a free West Papua that is independent from military and corporate colonization.
Photo : Free West Papua Political Prisoners Campaign Team, Washington DC, USA
Human Rights Watch reports that Indonesia has incarcerated nearly 100 activists from Maluku and Papua for peacefully voicing their patriotism and political views. As one of those former political prisoners forced into exile, I am now a visiting scholar at George Mason University, after being imprisoned for more than two years after daring to raise the West Papuan flag. My uncle, Dr. Thom Wainggai, died while imprisoned for the same demonstration of patriotism.
Free West Papua Campaign in Los Angeles, California
“I want to commend Moana Nui for organizing this demonstration on behalf of the people of West Papua to give voice to their fight for freedom and self-determination. We call on the leaders of all governments to stop supporting human rights abuses, murder, genocide and the military occupation of West Papua. To our brothers and sisters in West Papua: Continue to fight for what you know is right, for your freedom, your culture, for humanity. Know that, in this fight, you are not alone.” Harold Green. http://mnaa-ca.org/jan-17-2013-west-papua-action/
Free West Papua Campaign in Melbourne
Foreign Affairs Minister of the Federated Republic of West Papua, Jacob Rumbiak, said international activists are demanding that Indonesia remove its military personnel, and that president Yudhoyono must issue orders to stop the slaughter of West Papua National Committee (KNPB) members.
“Six activists were arrested and tortured in Serui yesterday for handing out pamphlets about today’s rally, including Patris Rosumbre (Vice Governor, Saireri State, Federated Republic of West Papua) and Menase Karubaba,” he said. Rosumbre has since escaped, but the whereabouts of Karubaba are not known, and there is deep concern for his safety.
Photo Free West Papua Campaign Melbourne, Australia January 17th, 2013
The Federated Republic of West Papua has called for negotiations with the Indonesian government under the auspices of the United Nations since 2011, and, Rumbiak claims, “Indonesia is losing credibility with its international donors in failing to respond to our invitation.”
Free West Papua Campaign in the Solomon Islands
In a statement from Honiara, Chairman of Solomon Islands for West Papua, Rexy Roses, highlighted that more than 50 years of tyranny and
Photo Rexy Roses, Solomon Islands for West Papua, 17th January 2013
immeasurable human rights abuses suffered by the indigenous people of West Papua at the hands of the occupying Indonesian military forces is more than too much to bear, and it is now time for dialogue and negotiations to end the violence in West Papua and to allow a peaceful referendum. This year will be a challenging one, and we will ensure that the cries of the indigenous Melanesian people of West Papua be heard in every corner of the Pacific and beyond.
Since the recent peaceful demonstration in Yapen Island and Manokwari, I have been told that the military agents are increasing their violent activity in West Papua and in many other places around West Papua. It is not difficult to imagine the impact that tens of thousands of Indonesian troops have on the daily lives of the West Papuan people. This new action by the Indonesian military raises the question: Why would Indonesia send so many troops to West Papua? Is this to intimidate the West Papuan people, to deny us our freedom of speech and prevent us from peacefully gathering in the land of our ancestors to debate and challenge the domination of our land and freedom? This recent West Papua Media report clearly states that the Indonesian government does not provide for the protection of human rights in West Papua.
For West Papuans, daily life is a nightmare, full of pain, suffering, torture, rape and bloodshed. There is no freedom to speak or act freely. The systematic oppression, terror, intimidation, kidnapping, incarceration, poisoning and murder of indigenous Melanesians in West Papua has not changed since I fled the country in 2006. It’s time to support the West Papuan people in their struggle for human rights and political independence.
Herman Wainggai is a West Papuan civil resistance activist based in Washington DC USA, and former political prisoner. He lectures in strategic non-violence and civil resistance and is a visiting scholar at George Mason University, Washington.
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Andreas Harsono: Is Repression Against KNPB Legal?
January 4, 2013
by OKTOVIANUS POGAU of SuaraPapua.Com
ANDREAS HARSONO, Indonesia Consultant for Human Rights Watch. (FOTO: RIDHA/SuaraPapua)
SUARAPAPUA, Jakarta - Human Rights Watch (HRW) consultant for Indonesia, Andreas Harsono, questioned the actions of the Indonesian security forces whose shootings led to the death of 22 members of the West Papua National Committee (KNPB) during the year 2012; 55 people were arrested, and hundreds of others were injured.
‘Given that 22 KNPB members died from shootings, dozens were arrested and unknown hundreds were injured, there has been no transparent judicial process, and no internal mechanism to question police procedures in Papua, we have to raise the question of whether this repression of the KNPB is legal?’.
The statement was re-affirmed by Andreas, when interviewed by suarapapua.com on Thursday 3rd Jan 2013). According to Harsono , the police may justify their actions by incriminating KNPB members in violence, attacks on transmigrant settlers and security forces, but they still need to make their case transparent.
“The problem for police is working with transparency – can the police show this? At the same time, the KNPB needs to carry out an internal investigation in response to police accusations of involvement in violence’, he said.
Harsono also hopes that the organisation led by Victor Yeimo will quickly announce the outcome of the investigation, along with decisions to dismiss KNPB members found to be involved in acts of violence. As previously quoted, the KNPB head Victor Yeimo has stated that 22 KNPB members were killed in 2012 by Indonesian forces, 55 arrested and many among them are currently listed on the police wanted list.
(Translated by West Papua Media translators)
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Manokwari Riots: Human rights investigation Report
Report of Human Rights Investigation by Monitoring Team from LP3PH (Institute for Research and Development of Legal Aid), Manokwari, as assembled from various local sources and members of the victim’s family.
December 6, 2012
Wednesday 5 December 2012, the weather was overcast without rain, seeming to restrain the usual busy activities of the local population, government and private company staff, white and blue collar workers, market traders, farmers, fishers, schoolkids and students, plus the security forces: army, police and intelligence.
From early morning the atmosphere was tense: from about 07.00 to 09.oo [Papua time] groups of local people could be seen moving to blockade various major road intersections in Manokwari Town. Primary official routes like Jl. Yos Sudarso, [near Sanggeng in front of the Bank Mandiri, Bank BRI and Bank Papua complex] as far as the three-way intersection on Jl. Merdeka & Jl. Gunung Salju [Makelew Fanindi complex] were blocked by mobs using wood, old tyres set on fire, tables, and tree branches, all thrown on the road. Various intersections of roads heading out to the residential areas of Fanindi beach [beside the Swissbel Hotel], Arkuki [beside the Bahagia store], Sanggeng market, and Jl. Serayu Sanggeng were blockaded by a populace brewing with anger.
While the atmosphere in Manokwari has been tense there has never been any trouble between groups in civil society or between the local community and the security forces. Several witnesses said that ‘people are very emotional, they are making these protests because of the shooting of Timo Ap’. The police secretively shot and killed Timo Ap, and then took his body to his house in Wirsi, Manokwari.
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![Demainus Waney [red circle] in the hands of authorities after demanding the crowd to break up using a loudhailer](http://westpapuamediaalerts.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/heboh_manokwari5.jpg?w=150&h=87)
- Demainus Waney [red circle] in the hands of authorities after demanding the crowd to break up using a loudhailer
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- Timo AP’s coffin is returned to the people by the Police
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- The atmosphere at Jl. Siliwang in front of the West Papuan Governor’s office: many street traders’ sites have been smashed and burned.
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![The victim Timo Ap has been bandaged around the chin after death [rigor mortis]](http://westpapuamediaalerts.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/foto0071.jpg?w=150&h=112)
- The victim Timo Ap has been bandaged around the chin after death [rigor mortis]
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- Mrs Nelestin, the victim’s aunt, opens the victim’s clothing to show his wound.(LP3PH)
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- Several news sources in Manokwari reported that the victim had been shot in the head, however it is clear there is no injury to his head.
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- A wound has been stitched in the stomach where the victim was shot
All Photos: LP3PH/West Papua Media
Chronology
A chronology of events has been put together as follows, from various civilian sources including the family of the victim Timotius Ap:
1) More than 3 days ago the victim Timotius Ap, grandson of the late Timotius Ap, [former area head of Wirsi complex in West Manokwari], returned from Java to Manokwari: in Java he had been staying with family and working as a Marine;
2) Timo Ap returned home to Manokwari with his wife Iwanggin;
3) Timo was rarely present at the Wirsi house, he was mostly elsewhere due to being on the DPO [Wanted List], related to various cases that the Police accused him of;
4) On Tuesday, 4 December 2012, as morning was turning to midday, Timo Ap was hanging out with his friends at Wirsi and wanting to eat areca nuts [?] but after eating them, his friends cannot account for his whereabouts;
5) By the evening of 4 December, at around 09.00 Papuan time [21.00?] Timo was received and treated at the Dr Azhari Hospital [Navy Hospital] Manokwari;
6) Around 10.00 [22.00?] Papuan time on 4 December, a friend of the family brought a message to Timo’s aunt Nelestin Ap, to ‘please come to the hospital to see Timo, whether he is still alive or already dead’. So then Timo’s aunt and other relatives hurried to the Navy Hospital but on the way they passed police and medical vehicles taking Timo’s corpse home to his grandmother’s house at Jl. Simponi Rindu, Wirsi, West Manokwari;
7) On arriving at the house, there was only the victim’s grandmother, in her 70’s, living alone. She had no idea that her grandson’s body was being brought to her house. ‘The employees bringing in the corpse said nothing at all to the grandmother’, and then those employees just left the coffin there and went off;
8) After several minutes the aunt and several of the victim’s loved ones arrived, or came back from the hospital and cried hysterically upon seeing the body wearing only underpants and a clean T-shirt that he had been dressed in. His friends said that he had no other clothes apart from the clean T-shirt and underpants he had been dressed in. At the hospital he had been wrapped up in bandages around his chin and neck as though he were injured, but there appeared to be no injury to his neck, chin or head in general. His only wound was discovered to be on his stomach near the centre, where a surgical incision to remove the projectile [bullet] had been stitched up.
9) By 11.30 the news had started to spread widely, that the victim Timo Ap had been shot dead by Police, and the local community began arriving to pay their respects and condolences.
10) In the morning at about 06.00 [Papua time] various family members began blockading the route into Wirsi [Jl. Simponi Rindu]. Blockades then spread to various road junctions in Manokwari, while the local daily paper MEDIA PAPUA released in its Headline news that Timo Ap had been shot dead by the OPNAL [Professional Operations Team] of Polsek [Police sector] Manokwari town at Maripi beach, South Manokwari district at about 16.00 Papua time. This was due to his opposing the officers with an improvised pistol; he was killed with a shot to the head;
11) From around 07.00 to 09.00, Papua time, the community closed off the main roads of Mankwari such as Jl. Yos Sudarso, Jl. Merdeka, the route to Sanggeng settlement, Jl. Siliwangi, Jl. Soedjarwo Condronegoro [?], Jl. Gunung Salju [heading to Ambun];
12) At the same time, activities in Manokwari came to a complete standstill. The business centre, Hadi department store, Orchid Swalayan, the market, stalls and shops were closed en masse by their owners. Offices also shut their doors – the Manokwari Regency Government office of West Papua province, schools, banks: from early this morning until mid-morning as this report is written;
13) At 10.00 Papua time, large groups began violent action, smashing shops along the length of Jl. Yos Sudarso and Jl. Merdeka as far as Jl. Siliwangi. Tens of buildings along the road suffered quite serious damage, and many cars and motorbikes were wrecked by the mob;
14) Around 12.00, as the mob moved towards the town centre right in front of the West Papuan governor’s office, patrols of Brimob [mobile brigade], Dalmas Polres [area police] backed up with Indonesian Army forces were seen closing off the intersection that the crowd wanted to pass;
15) A local man, Demianus Waney held a megaphone in front of the security forces, asking the crowd to disperse and go home…. ‘I say go home’… said Demianus Waney….. but hearing those words, the crowd became more worked up. In the process of their demonstrations against Demianus Waney, a number of buildings, restaurants owned by transmigrants around the harbour and PT Pelni [national shipping line] became targets of their anger;
16) The police, Brimob and TNI [Indonesian army] started to rush forward but were stopped by an attempt at negotiation by a priest, who said he had been the victim’s priest [i.e. Timo Ap who had been shot and killed]. However at the same time Demianus Waney said that every avenue had been tried already, inviting the armed forces to action;
17) The security forces then moved forward to break up the crowd. The police, Brimob and soldiers using trucks, paddy-wagons and Barracuda vehicles moved rapidly to take over the main road that had been controlled by the mob;
18) Around 13.00, Papua time, the situation had become calm and back to normal.
Related articles
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- LP3BH-Manokwari calls for dialogue between Papua and Indonesia (westpapuamedia.info)
- Update on Manokwari police beating of journalist Oktovianus Pogau (westpapuamedia.info)
- Crackdown Across Papua: October 23 Knpb Demo Updates (westpapuamedia.info)
- Indonesia detains tourist in Papua (bigpondnews.com)
Indonesian government to act on Papuan political prisoners
Names of 23 Papuan political prisoners submitted to Komnas HAM
3 December 2001
Solidarity for Humanitarian and Human Rights Violations has submitted information regarding 23 political prisoners to Komnas HAM (the National Human Rights Commission).
Earlier, Komnas HAM planned to set up a team to resolve the cases of political detainees and convicted political prisoners in Papua. The spokesman for SKP Papua, Mathius Murib, said that information regarding the prisoners, including their arrest, the time they have spent in custody and their conditions in prison was submitted. He said that in many cases, there was no legal basis for their being charged for treason and that their imprisonment was in violation of their human rights
“We have supplied data relating to a number of prisoners being held in prisons in Papua. Detailing how many prisoners there are and for how many years they have been held. Altogether, we have submitted such information regarding 23 political prisoners. We greatly appreciate this support and the action.”
Earlier on, Komnas HAM planned to set up a team to resolve the cases of political detainees and convicted political prisoners in Papua. The purpose was to review the status of those being held in prison. This would include considering a reduction in the length of their sentences.
To read the article in Indonesian on the KBR68H website, click here.
Komnas HAM is seeking Clemency for Papuan Political Prisoners
4 December 2012
Komnas HAM, the National Human Rights Commission intends to struggle to ensure that all political detainees and convicted political prisoners in Papua are granted clemency or a reduction in sentence.
The chairman of Monitoring and Investigating Human Rights Violations, Natalius Pigai, said that Komnas HAM plans to set up a special team next January to identify the cases of political detainees and convicted political prisoners in Papua, together with the Ministry of Law and Human Rights.
“This special team will also be entrusted with the task of granting clemency or reduction of sentences for political detainees and convicted political prisoners in Papua. We will be undertaking this in collaboration with the Ministry of Law and Human Rights,” said Natalius.
He went on to say that this special team would do everything possible to improve the general environment and facilities in all the prisons in Papua. This will include ensuring that every tapol/napol receives whatever healthcare is required.
To read the article in Indonesian on the KBR68H website, click here.
Law and Human Rights Ministry to check status of around 20 Papuan political prisoners
4 December 2012
The Ministry of Law and Human Rights plans to check the status of around twenty political prisoners in Papua. This decision follows their intention to resolve the cases of political detainees and convicted political prisoners.
A spokesman of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, Martua Batubara, said that those who are serving sentences will be given remissions (a reduction of sentence) in accordance with the law.
As for the Komnas HAM, it can only make recommendations.
“We intend to check in the prisons as well as to check with the Ministry of Law and Human Rights to find out which prisoners are serving sentences and which are prisoners whose cases are still being processed. We don’t know which prisoners they are talking about (gap with question mark perhaps indicating something that is illegible) or whether it is true that Komnas HAM only has the authority to investigate and then make recommendations to the authorities in charge of the prisoners.”
Previously, Solidarity for Humanitarian and Human Rights Violations in Papua submitted information about 23 political prisoners to Komnas HAM. This was done to complete the information available to Komnas HAM, following a plan to set up a team to resolve the cases of political detainees and convicted political prisoners in Papua. The purpose is for there to be a review of the status of all those who are currently being held in detention. This would also include seeking a reduction in the sentences now being served by all those who are currently being held in prison in Papua.
To read the article in Indonesian on the KBR68H website, click here.
Related articles
- Police shooting of escaped political prisoner sparks Manokwari riots (westpapuamedia.info)
- Victor Yeimo and others arrested as police crackdown on December 1 protests in Jayapura (westpapuamedia.info)
- Indonesian special forces hunt West Papuan environmentalist (westpapuamedia.info)
- Activist tortured, disappeared in Serui amid round up of non-violent activists (westpapuamedia.info)
- LP3BH-Manokwari calls for dialogue between Papua and Indonesia (westpapuamedia.info)
Activist tortured, disappeared in Serui amid round up of non-violent activists
October 21, 2012
West Papua Media
- Edison Kendi
- Yanpiet Maniamboi
- Jon Niantian
- Jamal Omrik Manitori
On Wednesday evening after 6:00pm, activist Lodik Ayomi was captured by Police at Serui General hospital whilst visiting his ill father. Whilst Lodik’s father was lying in hospital bed, he watched helplessly with tears as his son was being hand-cuffed, hit with a rifle-butt on the head and dragged out of the hospital, according to human rights investigators.
Mr Ayomi, in his early 30′s, is a father with a child and a political activist. He is listed on the Daftar Pencarian Orang (DPO- Wanted List) by the Police in Serui, alongside with several other political activists who are now in hiding for their safety. Mr Ayomi was falsely accused by Serui police of an incident in May, which Police claimed to be an ‘attempt-to-shoot’ a police officer at Angkaisera Police station.
Lodik’s one kilometre journey from the hospital to the Police Prison left him with a fractured skull and swollen eyes, and one witness described that “he can’t even open his eyes”. He was also beaten upon his arrival at the Serui Prison, where a witness saw ten police officers in uniform “push him out of the police car and onto the ground violently with ongoing brutal acts of kicking, punching, and hitting with the butt of their rifle for several minutes.”
Another witness at the prison saw Ayomi couldn’t move whilst he was lying on the ground. “I thought he was dead, but thankfully, a new officer who just started his shift came for Lodik’s rescue and stop the other officers from hitting him,” said the witness. Mr Lodik sustained a fractured skull with three cracks on his head, according tohe witness, who has not been identified for his protection.
The witness saw a “blood-bath all over” and massive swelling on his face and body. He was then physically dragged into his cell and later at 8:15pm, the prison guards allowed four Indonesian intelligence officers, who blind-folded his head in a bag and tortured him.
Before he was dragged away, other inmates could hear him screaming loudly “help, help, help, Lord help me”, for several times. The inmates heard the interrogators yelled at him to ‘stand-up’ when he fell onto the concrete floor, and continuously kicked him until he was crying and Ayomi was begging for the police officers to “please don’t paralyze my legs, please don’t break my legs”.
After that another five officers came in and took him away into the interrogation room, where he continued to scream for ‘help’, according to witnesses at the prison. He was tortured and interrogated for over six hours, from 8:15pm until 2:00am. He was later put in a septic tank for 2 hours with head blind-folded and hand-cuffed. The other inmates saw him “like a disabled person”.
On Thursday morning, around 8am, he was taken away from the prison and until now, no one knows his whereabouts, including the other inmates. Grave concerns are held for his safety.
The witnesses who saw the police officers who beat him know the identities of the police officers names. Thee names of the police officers who conducted the beating are:
- Bripka. Jabal Nur
- Brigadir. Yusak Sawaki
- Briptu. Peres Yowen
- Briptu. Regen Jas
- Briptu. Berti
with West Papua Media
Related articles
- Indonesian special forces hunt West Papuan environmentalist (westpapuamedia.info)
- Breaking News: Police in Jayapura forcibly prevent commemoration of 3rd Papuan Congress brutality from going ahead, ban free speech (westpapuamedia.info)
- Demos commemorating FRWP 1st anniversary held across Papua (westpapuamedia.info)
- TAPOL Urgent Action: Fears for Papuan activists (westpapuamedia.info)
Indonesian special forces hunt West Papuan environmentalist
By Nick Chesterfield, with local sources
West Papua Media
October 20, 2012
SPECIAL INVESTIGATION
Indonesian Special Forces officers have redoubled their efforts to hunt down non-violent womens’ and environmental rights activist Fanny Kogoya, after a failed attempt to capture her and Papuan student activists from the West Papua National Committee at a university dormitory on Tuesday night.
Fanny Kogoya was also elected the head of the Papua desk for the Indonesian branch of Friends of the Earth (WAHLI) on June 13, the day before her close friend Mako Tabuni, former KNPB leader,was extrajudicially executed by Detachment 88 troops in Jayapura.
Kogoya, also a women’s rights defender from the grassroots Papuan women’s network TIKI, has been been placed on a Papua wide wanted persons list (Daftar Pencarian Orang or DPO) by the Australian-trained and funded Detachment 88 anti-terror investigators. This is despite Kogoya having resigned from pro-independence activities, according to established credible sources in Jayapura. Kogoya is also accused by police of having knowledge of the whereabouts of activists from the pro-independence civil resistance group, West Papua National Committee (KNPB).
KNPB activists are in hiding after being ruthlessly hunted by security forces, in order to break the back of the civil resistance movement against Indonesian brutality in occupied West Papua. This harassment campaign has gained significant pace ahead of planned Papua-wide mobilisations against Indonesian colonial violence on October 23 – rallies widely expected to be subject to major Indonesian state violence.
The latest crackdown has seen brutal intelligence gathering techniques employed by security forces, including officers identified by witnesses as being from Detachment 88, arbitrarily targeting for beatings, kidnappings, arrests and torture on students and civilians from the highland tribes of Yakuhimo and Dani people – seen by many observers as the backbone of the KNPB effort to use civil power to defeat Indonesian state violence.
Confirmed reports from human rights activists in Jayapura have described heavily armed plain clothes officers – believed by witnesses to be members of either Kopassus or Detachment 88 – violently threatening highland students and civilians in a bid to hunt down members and associates of the KNPB.
Raids on student accommodation around Abepura and Jayapura have intensified ahead of a planned mass mobilisation across Papua on October 23rd by KNPB, which is calling for an end to these illustrated acts of Indonesian state violence – a move seen as makar (subversion) by the new Papua Police chief Tito Karnavian , the former head of the Australian- funded Detachment 88.
Attempts to contact Karnavian or his Papua Police spokespeople for comment for this article have been so far rebuffed and unsuccessful.
Additionally, witnesses and survivors have described a chronology of what is being described as a “fishing operation” by Indonesian intelligence officers. Attempts to capture Fanny Kogoya had been ongoing for several days, with police Avanzas permanently stationed outside houses and haunts of both Kogoya and her extended family and friends.
According to a detailed and disturbing testimony provided by Yakuhimo man and citizen media worker Simson Yohame to independent human rights monitors in Jayapura, the officers have heavily monitored highland students in the greater Jayapura area in a bid to isolate KNPB activists from their base.
Yohame, a friend of Kogoya, was himself kidnapped and tortured by suspected Detachment 88 officers on October 9 after accidentally leaving his motorbike helmet at a Javanese restaurant in Waena, near Abepura. He had been tailed for several days by intelligence officers, who suspected his friendship with Fanny would lead them to their quarry.
Upon leaving the restaurant, he was set upon by plain clothes police intelligence agents, whom he believed to be Detachment 88 officers. They bundled him in to the back of a black police Avanza car, whilst soldiers who were stationed outside the Yakuhimo regencies student dormitory at Waena stood guard. An intelligence officer from Makassar hit him repeatedly with a butt of a pistol, and other officers punched him systematically in the chest using a silat (traditional Javanese martial arts favoured by Kopassus) technique that can easily cause cardiac arrest.
He described being taken in a six car high speed convoy, initially to the back of an unknown facility close to the Jayapura police headquarters, before being subjected to psychological torture on a drive around the greater Jayapura area, and was hypnotized to disorientation. Yohame described the brutal interrogations where he was threatened with knives, swords and cocked and loaded firearms by Detachment 88, according to his testimony. Interrogators also subjected him to psyops by playing loud torture music and sound on headphones they held on his head, while they were sticking knives and pistols into his body.
Giving fascinating if chilling insight, Yohame has detailed the processes that Intel attempted to use to turn him to spy on his friend Fanny. He refused eventually, but not before documenting the techniques utilized.
After the torture, the Detachment 88 officers allegedly moved onto “Stage 3” as Yohame described it, a combination of the classic good cop / bad cop routine. “They (intel) began to ask me the core question: ‘Do you know Fanny Kogoya? This picture is FK, FK stay close to you. You do not deny it. If you deny we will kill you.’”
“I asked why are you looking for FK? Intel said to me that ‘because the cases of murder that Mako Tabuni was doing involved FK. FK participated in designing all events Mako and comrades were doing’. Yohame reported the police as saying.
The police continued: ‘FK loves the money Mako and his friends had over the years. FK is the girlfriend of Danny Wenda. Wenda is now the number 1 Papua Police DPO’,” the interrogators said.
The interrogators then changed tactics, offering a payment. “In addition, if you (SY) can inform on where FK is, we will pay you (SY) Rp 10 million for initial operations,”. They demanded the locations of Danny Wenda, the Chairman of KNPB, Victor Yeimo, Tinus Yohame, Buktar Tabuni, Victor Yeimo, Assa Asso, and also fellow Yakuhimo clansmen allegedly involved in KNPB, alternatively offering payment, and threatening to kill him if he denied knowledge of their whereabouts. Yohame was then trained in demonstration and civil resistance disruption and sabotage techniques, and fieldwork techniques employed by intelligence informants.
Yohame described how his tasking had traumatised him greatly, and he refused internally to carry out the actions. After his release having agreed to be an Indonesian agent, he was secretly informing Fanny Kogoya about the massive operation in effect to capture her and warning her to move outside the town to avoid arrest or disappearance.
Fanny Kogoya, who like other civil society activists on the DPO list is constantly moving from house to house, has so far eluded capture due to the diligence of the now underground non-violent independence movement in Papua.
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For the whole night of October 12, a Cenderawasih University (UNCEN) dormitory in Waena was under siege by a large group of plain clothes armed and masked security forces, who surrounded the dormitories. During the night, the police overran the dormitories in their search for Fanny Kogoya, according to witnesses.
Three students who living at the UNCEN hostel – UL (32), IK (36), and PK (22) – said they had been beaten and terrorized by the police. “Police pry the door and entered. They say ‘we find the DPO who live here,’” the students explained in the human rights report. “They say the name of FK and Danny Wenda (DW).”
The Yakuhimo students at the dormitory were angered by the event, but held a peace blockade outside the gates of the Uncen campus in Waena, independent sources at the campus told West Papua Media. No reports were received of any forced dispersal, however tension is high and all West Papuan students are in fear that that they could be arrested or disappeared at any moment, according to human rights sources.
Yakuhimo students and supporters blockade outside Uncen Waena after the Detachment 88 raids, October 12 (West Papua Media)
These actions came after a campaign of arrests from late September of at least eight people in the highland town of Wamena after police targeted homes and offices of KNPB members, accusing them of involvement in bombings and terrorism, despite KNPB being committed to non-violent civil resistance tactics.
In a statement, UK based human rights group Tapol said that “The targeting of KNPB activists appears to have intensified after the killing of the KNPB leader Mako Tabuni, on 14 June 2012. Officers of Indonesia’s counter-terrorism unit, Special Detachment 88 (Densus 88), funded and trained by Australia, the US and the UK, are thought to have been involved in the killing of Mako Tabuni and the arrest of the KNPB members in Wamena.”
Tapol has called for Indonesian authorities to “end the campaign of terror, intimidation and violence against human rights defenders and political activists, particularly members of KNPB,” and to guarantee the safety of Fanny Kogoya, Viktor Yeimo, and others who have been targeted.
Tapol has also called on Jakarta to “end the deployment of Densus 88 to Papua, investigate all allegations of human rights violations by Densus 88 officers and other security forces personnel and bring those responsible to justice.”
Whilst tension remains high during the crackdown, KNPB activists have also warned their members not to be taken in by SMS messages that are being spread by intelligence personnel attempting to incite violence and horizontal conflict. Activists have circulated a list of mobile numbers that are responsible, and are urging all recipients to document any numbers that continue to spread these messages.
Many people have reported to West Papua Media of an upsurge in Special Forces activity, even around those who are not active on Papuan independence issues. There has been a significant increase on the presence of intelligence officers on the street. Selfius Bobii, the former Front Pepera leader serving out a three sentence at Abepura prison on a treason conviction for his role in the 3rd Papuan People’s Congress of October 2011, still maintains close and effective communications with a network of activists throughout Papua.
In an SMS sent to West Papua Media, Bobii described how the TNI “have stooped to making themselves out to be civilians, to carry out undercover operations in order muffle the independence aspirations.”
“Some are posing as Bakso (Beef offal noodles) Sellers on roadsides, some are posing as motorbike repair people and so on,” Bobii said.
Bobii described the following factual account: On 11 Oct at 2303 hours in Nabire, Yance Agapa was heading home and was given a lift by an ojek (motorbike taxi) rider to the front of the Indonesian Air Force Quarters in front of the ‘Glory’ internet cafe. When they arrived at Malompo he gave the driver Rp20000 (approx. AUD$2) who hurriedly put it into the pocket of the black jacket he was wearing. Then a pistol fell out of his jacket. Yance startled in fright to which the driver responded “Brother don’t be frightened because I’m from Ambon but my mother is from Sentani. I’ll tell you straight, I’m a member of DENSUS 88 sent from Central to get the government program happening. So let our people from the community know to be careful using hire motorbikes. “
West Papua Media has independently verified this account.
KNPB activists, most living underground currently, have expressed significant fears for their safety and survival from the crackdown. Yohame begged in his testimony, “the condition of our current times is so dire, (we need) all my friends and the international support groups to be able to monitor our current situation. Virtually all KNPB activists are threatened at this time. “
It is unclear whether these intensified crackdown tactics will work on those close to DPO suspects to give up not just Fanny Kogoya, but other non-violent activists who are simply attempting to raise their universal human rights of self-determination and freedom of expression.
Certainly these hunting parties have confirmed one thing: that Australian trained counter-terrorism troops are without any doubt being used to suppress peaceful political activity, outside their legal mandate of counter-terrorism. This should be deeply concerning for Australia in its quest for advocating internationally the Rule of Law – and at the moment that it has just taken up a position on the UN Security Council it might prove to be an inconvenient turning of a blind eye.
West Papua Media.
Related articles
- TAPOL Urgent Action: Fears for Papuan activists (westpapuamedia.info)
- Densus 88 sweeps force hundreds to flee from Baliem Valley villages (westpapuamedia.info)
- 7.30 Report (ABC): West Papua arrests highlight Australian Detachment 88 links (westpapuamedia.info)
- Police torture students after brutal attack on Abepura university dormitory (westpapuamedia.info)
- TPN denies involvement in “unknown persons” terror plot in Wamena (westpapuamedia.info)
- Breaking News: Police in Jayapura forcibly prevent commemoration of 3rd Papuan Congress brutality from going ahead, ban free speech (westpapuamedia.info)
- Reports of violent crackdown in West Papua on People’s Congress anniversary (pacific.scoop.co.nz)
- Indonesian security forces engineering conditions to justify eliminating Papuan free expression (climate-connections.org)
- KNPB ask police to prove what charges were against Mako Tabuni (westpapuamedia.info)
- AHRC: Police arbitrarily arrested five Papuan activists and copy documents related to their political activities (westpapuamedia.info)
Greens condemn mixed messages on West Papua
Media Release
PRESS RELEASE – AUSTRALIAN GREENS
September 7, 2012
The Australian Greens have today questioned the mixed messages the Australian Government is sending Indonesia about human rights in West Papua.
“The Australian Government needs to take a consistent stance in defence of human rights in our region, not just pay them lip service,” said Australian Greens Leader and Foreign Affairs spokesperson, Senator Christine Milne.
“Why is Stephen Smith signing a new ‘Defence Co-operation Agreement’ with Indonesia this week, when just last week Bob Carr was calling for an inquiry into the alleged involvement of the Indonesian military in the assassination of an indigenous West Papuan leader?”
The Australian Greens spokesperson for West Papua, Senator Richard Di Natale, questioned how Stephen Smith could have ‘no concerns’ about West Papua.
“The human rights abuses in West Papua were exposed on ABC’s 7:30 Program just last week. For Minister Smith to say that he has no concerns regarding West Papua is a clear case of wilful ignorance,” said Senator Di Natale.
“How can Australia turn a blind eye to the allegations that troops we have funded and trained are carrying out human rights abuses against the indigenous peoples of West Papua?
“Australia should require assurances that our military support will not lead to further violations of human rights. And we must call for West Papua to be opened up to foreign journalists and human rights monitors so that we can hold those assurances to account.
“The lives and human rights of our West Papuan neighbours should be a priority in our dealings with Indonesia. And it should certainly warrant a lot more attention and respect from Australia’s Foreign and Defence Ministers than just a discussion ‘in passing’.”
Media contact: Andrew Blyberg 0457 901 600
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WEST PAPUA: ABC report raises questions for region’s leaders
by Alex Perrottet / Pacific Media Watch
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Item: 8075
AUCKLAND (Pacific Media Watch): Fresh allegations of human rights violations in West Papua implicating Australia on ABC’s 7:30 Report series this week have opened up multiple questions for leaders at the Pacific Islands Forum on Rarotonga.
As new reports have emerged from West Papua Media Alerts of new violence at a school dormitory in Abepura, the 7:30 Report series – screened on Monday and Tuesday nights – shone new lights on the ongoing accusation that the Australian government is responsible for the training and financing of the anti-terrorist group Detachment 88, or Densus 88, as it is known in Indonesia.
The group was originally trained to combat terrorism in Indonesia following the deadly bombing in Bali in October 2002, which claimed 88 Australian lives.
But in recent months media reports have spread, mainly from West Papua Media Alerts, that the anti-terrorist group was being deployed in the provinces of Papua and West Papua, supressing insurgents as well as peaceful demonstrators.
Presence confirmed
The ABC interviewed Constant Karma, who is the secretary of the province of Papua. He said: “I don’t really know about West Papua but in the Papuan Police (Polda Papua) there [is] also Detachment 88 on duty.”
Apart from the reports from within West Papua by reporters Hayden Cooper and Lisa Main, ABC presenter Leigh Sales put questions to Australia’s Foreign Minister Bob Carr, who confirmed the Australian government had raised its concerns with human rights abuses in the two West Papuan regional provinces as recently as earlier this month.
Senator Carr said the Australian training included training in respecting human rights, but the ABC reports featured a number of eye-witnesses to violence in West Papua at the hands of police as well as Detachment 88 troops, including in the recent killing of independence leader Mako Tabuni.
Senator Carr told the ABC: “We train Indonesians in counter-terrorism. We do that because it’s in Australia’s interest. We do it because we want the Indonesians to have a strong, a formidable, anti-terrorist capacity. It is absolutely in Australia’s interests that we have this relationship.
“But we don’t train them in counter-insurgency – it’s counter-terrorism.”
‘No distinction’
However, the ABC also sought comment from the Australian Federal Police, which made this admission in their responses:
“Detachment 88 is a specialist counter terrorism unit within the Indonesian National Police, however it should be noted that Indonesian law does not differentiate between terrorism, separatism and insurgency.”
In response to the reports, political parties and human rights groups have released statements urging leaders at the Pacific Islands Forum to take notice.
The West Papua National Coalition for Liberation, based in Vanuatu, said the violence was nothing new.
“Violence has always been Indonesia’s policy regarding the land of Papua over the past 49 years. Being an occupying power, violence is their only means of enforcing their authority in the Papuan society,” said spokespersons Rex Rumakiek, Dr John Ondowame and Andy Ayamiseba.
“For almost half a century since Indonesia annexed West Papua, our people have been subjected to terror and trauma.”
Political reaction
The Democratic Labor Party in Australia said the situation was “genocide happening on our doorstep”.
Senator John Madigan and Democratic Labor Party federal secretary Mark Farrell said: “Indonesia is not being transparent with the Australian people or the Australian government.
“It is difficult to understand how the government of a democratic country like Australia can ignore the oppressive behaviour of a neighbouring country.”
The Green Party of Australia also voiced their concern, with Senator Richard Di Natale drawing comparisons with East Timor.
“Australians are now becoming more aware of these atrocities being committed on their doorstep,” he said.
“They know what happened in East Timor under Indonesian rule and they know that we, as a nation, cannot sit idly by while it occurs again in West Papua.”
Joe Collins of the Australian West Papua Association said the PIF should take up the Indonesian government’s offer to encourage research and balanced journalism by sending a fact-finding mission from the Forum.
He also encouraged Pacific leaders to raise the matter with Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
“The Leaders’ retreat is supposed to provide an opportunity for private and frank discussions at the highest level and we hope that the PIF leaders will question Julia Gillard on Australia’s involvement in the training of Detachment 88 which is accused of targeting West Papuan activists,” he said.
“We also hope that concern for the situation in West Papua will be mentioned in the official Forum communiqué”.
The Democratic Labor Party statement also argued for observers to visit.
“If Indonesia is seriously expecting us to believe it is not engaged in the oppression of the West Papuan people then they must allow human rights observers and international journalists in to the country.”
The West Papua National Coalition for Liberation is pushing for more, calling on the Melanesian Spearhead Group, the PIF, as well as the US, the UK, the European Union and others “to sponsor a resolution at the UNGA(United Nations General Assembly) to re-inscribe West Papua on the UN List for Decolonisation.
“We also call on MSG and PIF to admit the West Papuan Independence Movement as an observer of these bodies as a sure way of encouraging peaceful solution to the conflict.”
One confirmed dead
The violence in Abepura yesterday was confirmed by West Papua Media Alerts, who reported one student being killed, and others badly wounded.
The news agency said the violence was carried out at the Liborang Asrama (dormitory) by a joint force of Army (TNI) and Police.
“The students were allegedly targeted because they come from the same tribal group as many members of the West Papua National Committee (KNPB), who have been consistently engaging in peaceful civil resistance in protest at the increasing terror tactics of the Indonesian security forces, which has escalated significantly since May 2012.”
West Papua Media Alerts confirmed today that 35 people had been arrested and 11 remained in custody after being subjected to beatings and torture.
The Indonesian embassy in Canberra, in response to questions from the ABC said the government was taking action.
The statement said the loss of life “is regrettable and is receiving attention from the Indonesian people, the media, and the President of the Republic of Indonesia himself”.
“The Indonesian government has taken steps to restore law-enforcement in the Papuan provinces.”
Just how it is doing that is the focus of the media attention that West Papua is receiving, and as in previous years, the Pacific Islands Forum is so far remaining silent on the issue.
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Police torture students after brutal attack on Abepura university dormitory
Scores beaten, arrested, tortured and injured in major raid by Indonesian Police, Army and allegedly Australian Funded counterterror unit Detachment 88 on Yakuhimo Dormitory at Cenderawasih University, Abepura.
by West Papua Media
August 28, 2012
URGENT CORRECTION: Despite robust processes of cross-checking, armed attacks by security forces on civilians sometimes creates confusion on casualty figures. NEW information has come to hand in the clear light of day, and two confirming witnesses have retracted their confirmation early Wednesday morning. Only 1 person, Yalli Walilo, is confirmed dead, and he died after being set upon by a group of men believed to be transmigrants or plain clothes intelligence. The other two victims were part of the group that received significant torture at the hands of police, but it is now NOT independently confirmed if these people are dead or severely injured. More info as it becomes available. West Papua Media apologises for the distribution of erroneous information.
(Jayapura) Brutal scenes occurred at a highland students dormitory in Abepura early on Sunday night (26 August) as a massive assault was carried out on students from the Liborang Asrama (dormitory) by a joint force of Army (TNI) and Police.
The students were allegedly targeted because they come from the same tribal group as many members of the West Papua National Committee (KNPB), who have been consistently engaging in peaceful civil resistance in protest at the increasing terror tactics of the Indonesian security forces, which has escalated significantly since May 2012..
1 person been independently confirmed by West Papua Media sources as killed, and at least two are believed but not confirmed to have died from torture wounds inflicted in custody by police, according to human rights sources. 35 people were arrested, and 11 people remain in custody at time of writing undergoing significant and brutal beatings, and acts of torture.
Independent human rights sources have alleged that the torture has been carried out by members of Detachment 88, the counter-terror unit funded, armed and trained by the Australian Government, however West Papua Media has not been able to verify this, although D88 has been present at every other dormitory raid this year.
According to credible witnesses the trouble began when a man named Yalli Walilo (26) was calling a friend in front of a shop and the Indonesian transmigrant owner of the shop came and angry him. Walilo replied to the colonist “what is my problem, i just want to buy (a) cigarette”. He then sought refuge at the house of Ms. Nehemia Mabel, a member of the Majelis Rakyat Papua (Papuan People’s Assembly), 5 metres from the shop. Walilo then tried to go home, when he was brutally set upon by a group of Indonesian transmigrants with one killing him, and more people again came to kick him until he was dead.
The exact circumstances of how police came to be involved is still unclear, but after Walilio’s killing, the Kepala Desa (neighbourhood chief) came and took his body to the Limborang dormitory. Police were alerted by the Kepala Desa amid confusing allegations surround the death of an elderly man who died from a heart attack. It is unconfirmed if these deaths were related.
At around 10 pm, Some of Walilo’s friends at the dormitory went to investigate the commotions at the shop, but were ambushed by the large group of transmigrants outside the shop. The students retreated to their dormitory, known also as the Yakuhimo Asrama as large numbers of Yakuhimo highland students live there.
One hour later, Police and many troops arrived en masse at the dorm and attacked boarders without negotiations, and also severely beat of minors. Independent witnesses have claimed that men in masks were also present.
Victor Yeimo, KNPB Chairman, told West Papua Media that many students in Asrama Liborang had “already been killed, intimidated and terrorised under Indonesian police troops yesterday (27/08). This morning, I have been in the place and I found how Indonesian police kill and intimidate them. I was there while some of them arrived from Papua Police in Jayapura and we have interview some victims and the chief (spokesperson) of the Students”.
According to Yeimo many police and troops began attacking the Asrama Liborang with tear gas and water cannon (fire hoses?) inside at 11.00 PM on Sunday night. Police stormed the building and smashed up facilities inside and arrested, and tormented the students, according to both Yeimo and other independent witnesses.
Yeimo alleged that the “Police talked to them and relate them (make threats to them) about the killing of Mako Tabuni (on June 14) . Police blamed them as being friends of Mako Tabuni.”
On Tuesday evening, Australian ABC television program “7.30 Report” aired an investigation into Mako Tabuni’s killing by Detachment 88, and the intensifying repression of peaceful political free expression by West Papuan activists seek an end to violence and impunity, and a referendum on the disputed territory’s future. The Australian Foreign Minister, Bob Carr, has conceded Detachment 88 is being used on non-violent activists, and has claimed it is acting outside its mandate.
The victims names (at time of writing) are confirmed as:
1. Alex Sambom (Fractured Skull by police. Strangled around neck with metal chains. and repeatedly electrocuted in custody, in critical condition)
2. Usman Ambolon ( Killed after beatings in the head with lacerations and severe contusion)
3. Petru Lintamon ( Police kicked his eyes and head, shot dead with gun)
4. Yaton Lintamon ( Police beat him to death with rubber mallet)
5. Septinus Kabak (Fingernails removed with pliers at the police office)
6. Orgenes Kabak (Beaten severely in stomach, internal injuriess)
7. Awan Kabak (Police stabbed him with bayonets in the leg and thigh)
8. Other Victims to still be identified
More photos, video and information as it becomes processed/translated and available.
westpapuamedia
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