Reports have been received from human rights investigators detailing a torture incident that occurred in Serui on October 17, 2012, under the command of notorious Serui Police Chief Roycke Harry Langie.
Arrests occurred in Serui in the lead up to planned demonstrations commemorating the 1st anniversary of the 3rd Papuan People’s Congress, the brutal crackdown by Indonesian security forces on the event, and the establishment of the self-declared Federated Republic of West Papua.
Those now held as political prisoner in Serui now include:
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:
As a major crackdown by Indonesian security forces deepens against West Papuan civil resistance activists ahead of mass mobilisations across Papua, West Papua Media is examining Papuan nationalist motivations for resistance, revisiting a region that has been continuously wracked by security force violence connected to illegal gold mining and resource extraction.
The Paniai regency, which straddles the “neck” of the Papuan “bird of Paradise” landform, is the site of a new gold rush that has resulted in brutality against ordinary indigenous tribal and townspeople.
Intensifying acts of violence by Indonesian security forces has reportedly emptied towns in the Paniai district of West Papua, with civilians allegedly fleeing in their thousands to the jungle outside the Enarotoli region, according to human rights sources in Paniai.
Regular reports have been received over recent weeks from church human rights sources detailing a campaign of arbitrary brutality committed by soldiers from the notorious Nabire-based 753 Battalion of the Indonesian army (TNI) , together with Brimob paramilitary police, against indigenous people primarily from the Mee tribe. Random attacks on ordinary villagers, drunken altercations at gambling venues, and sporadic attempts by indigenous Mee people to claim any share of the vast sums of wealth flowing out of their lands, have all contributed to a sense of brutalization endured by the Mee people in recent months.
Engagements between forces of the Paniai command of the West Papuan National Liberation Army (Tentara Pembebasan Nasional) and both Brimob and 753 Btn troops have been used as justification for violence against civilians, and several incidents connected to TNI business activities across the regency have increased tensions.
Daily confirmed reporting from church human rights sources in the Paniai have detailed a litany of abuses by security forces, including, torture, unprovoked killings, shootings, and beatings over economic turf wars.
Torture over taxi turf
On October 1, a misunderstanding quickly escalated to a torture incident in Waghete, in the Deiyei district of Paniai, illustrating perfectly the mundane economic triggers of abuse carried out by security force members. A local district official Marion Dogopia, Head of Bouwobado District, Deiyai, was been driven in an official car (with yellow government plates) from Enarotoli to Waghete. In the car were Dogopia’s driver, and his Papuan Police officer bodyguard, Ones Pigome. The car turned into the Waghete bus terminal to pick up further family members, where a TNI Btn 753 soldier, moonlighting as a taxi driver, started an argument with the driver, according to a church human rights investigation seen by West Papua Media.
Across Indonesia, the TNI control the taxi and ojek (motorbike taxi) industry, which is used as both a good source of intelligence and a lucrative, effortless cash source for bored soldiers – who protect their turf ruthlessly. According to witnesses quoted in the human rights investigation, the soldier taxi driver – who was first in line at the taxi rank – angrily accused the official’s driver of being a taxi and picking up passengers at the bus station, a place where taxis are not allowed to operate. Despite the driver and Dogopia trying to calmly explain that the vehicle was a private vehicle and was not taking fares, the soldier refused to listen.
At this point, the municipal police officer Pigome, started to get angry at the soldier, and shouted and slapped the soldier, demanding he stand down. The soldier resisted and called out his colleagues from Battalion 753, who were loitering at an army post 50 metres away. According to witnesses, several dozen soldiers rushed over complete with their equipment and weapons, and pulled Ones Pigome out from his car. They severely beat the victim, kicked him, tore his clothes, and stomped him with their boots after he fell helplessly. As a result, Pigome sustained deep lacerations , contusions and swelling upon his head , face and body.
In a chilling reminder of the dangers faces to both journalists and witnesses to Indonesian state violence – and a sign of the fear that state abuse perpetrators in Papua have of being held to account by growing citizen media power – witnesses reported that several soldiers were standing guard while their colleagues were beating up Pigome, keeping watch after the voices of several 753 members could be heard saying “see who is taking photos or videos”. Witnesses reported that soldiers took their rifles up to low ready positions and intimidated citizens, so that nobody was allowed to take photos. The beating was reported to have lasted over an hour.
Despite the very public nature of the beating and ill-discipline in torturing another member of the security forces, no sanction against the offending 753 soldiers was reported. This further example of impunity has contributed to the tension and feeling that the TNI is out to cause indiscriminate violence to Papuans, as collective punishment for the temerity of any challenge to Jakarta’s colonial plunder.
Military contacts increase
Indonesian army officers from 753 have also recently been implicated in several other incidents.
On Thursday October 11, a joint Indonesian army and Brimob patrol sent to secure logistics from the TPN for local elections, was moving in a speedboat up the Kebo River from Enarotoli. According to reports, the army was using a civilian speedboat on Waneuwo Creek, Agadide District, and a TPN patrol saw this and opened fire on the boat, allegedly with a rocket propelled grenade according to MetroTV, though no evidence was provided for this claim. In the firefight, the boat carrying food and logistical supplies for the TNI was sunk, and two TNI soldiers sustained gunshot wounds in their hands and feet.
The military conducted reprisals immediately by opening fire indiscriminately on civilian fishing boats tied up at the Aikai fishing hamlet in Enarotoli. Civilians were then rounded up at gunpoint in the suburb of Bobaigo in Enarotoli, arrested without charge or justification – all are still being held at different police posts for interrogation. West Papua Media has been unable to ascertain the identities of those arrested.
Prior to the latest wave of violence, throughout August a series on attacks on military posts, local officials, ordinary people and transmigrant workers were widely blamed on the ubiquitous “unknown persons” (OTK) killed 5 people, and critically injured another 6. These OTK attacks, now wryly interpreted by Papuans to mean “Specially Trained Persons” (Orang Terlatih Khusus), were used as justification by security forces to conduct widespread reprisals against Papuan civilians. As is the usual case, police have been in no hurry to identify the perpetrators with evidence, or do anything other than cooperate in extra-judicial operations, according to independent sources in Enarotoli.
In August, the reprisal by security forces forced a closure of the town of Enarotali, with schools, public transport and food supplies paralysed. All health services in the District General Hospitals across Paniai were not running, as nurses, medical staff and patients were forcibly discharged by the security forces. Civilians were unable to engage in farming, causing crops and food supplies to suffer, and were unable to gather firewood in the forest or fishing in the lake. According to testimonies, the atmosphere was constantly coloured by the sounds of gunfire. This situation was experienced by people in the city Enarotali, Madi (Paniai regency capital) and surrounding areas in Paniai.
After a period of relative calm in September, this situation is again being repeated through the behaviour of 753 Battalion and the members of Brimob, who are intricately entangled in the illegal gold mining trade. West Papua Media reported in December 2011 on the ruthless Operation Matoa which was launched across the region to destroy the TPN forces of Jhon Yogi – resulting in the displacement of over 14,000 people, almost 150 villages burnt down and the failure of basic services for almost a year.
Violence over illegal gold control
Brimob paramilitary police, who were stationed in the Degeuwo and Derero River alluvial gold diggings, were providing a lucrative protection racket for the Australian-owned West Wits Mining and other foreign small scale mining companies, which was detailed in an original investigation by West Papua Media. During Operation Matoa, helicopters leased by West Wits were allegedly provided to Indonesian security forces, who used them to strafe and napalm villages in the TPN stronghold of Eduda. Then, as now, creating conflict to be suppressed is a powerful economic motivator for Brimob and 753 troops, who would otherwise be without “legitimate” reason to be around the gold diggings, and all the opportunities for profit that entails. Brimob troops are contracted in lucrative business interests across the alluvial gold mining sector as they provide security for diggings, and also provide site security for several joint operations
The TPN forces of Jhon Yogi have long been suspected by observers as entangled in a mutually beneficial relationship of violence with both Brimob police and 753 Btn, as they both vie for control of artisanal alluvial gold mining operations across the rich rivers and streams that lead into Lake Paniai.
One observer of the Paniai struggle spoken to by West Papua Media today questioned if the perpetrators of ongoing repression were “simply bored 19 year olds with guns, Mafioso soldiers protecting their turf, or entangled business relationships between all actors in a classic horizontal resource based conflict.
On October 12, another armed contact occurred between Yogi’s TPN troops and another joint Brimob/753 patrol on a road near Tanjung Toyaimoti, Agadide District, according to TPN sources. Citizen media sources reported that Jhon Yogi’s TPN unit was ambushed by the Brimob while Yogi’s men were on their way from Pasir Putih District to Komopa. The sources claim that TPN were startled by gunshots near the village and returned fire in a shootout for several minutes. Two TPN members were shot, one (Dabeebii Gobai, 26 years old) critically, and died the next day.
It is unclear how or why the vastly outgunned TPN unit was able, or allowed, to escape by Brimob officers, despite having several mobile units on call. The failure to capture Yogi has raised significant questions as to desire of Brimob to capture him.
A senior church source in Paniai questioned the conditions behind the conflict and the commitment for actors in the conflict to actually seek peace. According to the source, this situation has created a psychological trauma where “Paniai people are still living in the same uncertain circumstances (as when) the area was considered to be a military operations area (DOM) until 2002. … We predict that such incidents are likely to continue to occur because both parties have still not demonstrated an attitude to restrict their areas of movement nor invite each other to prioritise persuasive (unarmed dialogue-based) approaches. It is often difficult to accept such offers.”
He continued, “All parties in Paniai remain indifferent to these problems occurring, even though the victims are often civilians. Maybe it’s because violence is considered normal in Paniai?”
Prime Minister Peter O’Neill
PO Box 472
Port Moresby, NCD 121
Papua New Guinea
5 October 2012
Dear Prime Minister,
Excellency, I am writing from Abepura Prison in Jayapura on the other side of the border, to wish you well during your term as Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea.
I am writing also to thank you for your demonstration of Melanesian leadership last
week in speaking out about human rights violations in West Papua.
We West Papuans have been intimidated, tortured, raped, killed and incarcerated for
decades, since 1962 to be precise, and our suffering has been ignored by the world,
last week, committing to some responsibility for your brothers and sisters in West
Papua, filled our hearts and we hope will relieve us somewhat of our burden.
Excellency, security for all my people has been so much worse since our congress in October 2011, and safety levels are now so low that I feel obliged to ask you, if not beg you, to initiate a United Nations’ fact-finding mission as soon as possible.
As you would know, West Papua was a colony of the Netherlands for sixty-four
years, but was transferred to Indonesia in 1962 by way of a duplicitous treaty
engineered by Australia and the United States. (The New York Agreement was in
fact a Cold War transaction that rode over the intentions of the South Pacific
Commission to develop our independence program). As a consequence of Indonesian
governance, which has been deplorable across all measurable sectors, we Melanesian
West Papuans now constitute 48.73% of the population, down from 96.09% fifty year
ago, with more than half-a-million (546,126) missing.
Excellency, during the 3rd Papuan Congress in October 2011, five thousand registered participants mandated the Federated Republic of West Papua to deliver independence, and as part of our liberation win back the western border of Melanesia.
I believe Papua New Guinea under your leadership is in a strong position to help
deliver the political change we need if we are to survive. Your voice, as kin and as
neighbour, will be listened to in the Melanesian Spearhead Group, in the Pacific
Islands Forum, the Africa Caribbean Pacific Committee, and also the United Nations.
I sincerely hope Prime Minister that you are willing to take some responsibility for
ending this occupation so that we in West Papua can take our rightful position
alongside the other Melanesia nation-states.
Yours sincerely,
Forkorus Yaboisembut, SPd
President, Federated Republic of West Papua
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.
—
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.
Commemorating the 1st Anniversary of the Federated Republic of West Papua, remembering the crackdown.
October 20, 2012
by West Papua Media Editorial Team
As commemorations marking the Third Papuan People’s Congress were forcibly broken up by heavy handed security forces in Jayapura, the celebrations in Wamena, Merauke, Fakfak, Sorong, Timika and Serui were cheerfully welcomed with a thanksgiving service.
The commemorations were to mark the 1st anniversary of the founding of the Federated Republic of West Papua, which was declared as an independent state at the culmination of the Third Papuan Peoples’ Congress on October 19, 2011. On that day, moments later, Indonesian police attacked the ceremony, killing up to 7 participants, beating scores more, and arresting and torturing hundreds. The leaders of the FRWP, Forkorus Yaboisembut and Edison Waromi, together with Dominikus Sorabut, Agus Kraar and Selpius Bobii, remain political prisoners a year later, convicted of treason against the Indonesian occupiers in a farcical trial.
In Manokwari, more than one thousand participants braved heavy intimidation by security forces to walk four kilometres from the Sports Centre (GOR) in Sanggeng to Elim Church in Kwawi. The marchers vibrantly enchanted gospel tunes and traditional West Papuan songs of liberation that has been deeply rooted in the long struggle for freedom.
Participants gathered around 8:30am to 9:30am at two different meeting points. The first group gathers at the Sports Centre (GOR) in Sanggeng and later walk to the second meeting point at the banyan tree in front of the University of Papua (UNIPA). At around 9:30am, the security forces told the organisers to have a normal service without a march but were unable to stop the demands from the participants, and eventually the march proceeds at around 10:00am West Papua local time.
Police across Papua had banned the display of Papuan symbols and attributes for the independence struggle, but were left scratching their heads when Papuans in Manokwari came attired in entire Morning Star flags as pieces of clothing.
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Dr. Frans Kapisa, appointed Minister of Defence under the Federated Republic of West Papua, called for Jakarta to recognise the rights of Papuans that “from now and onwards, we (West Papuans) will demand, and demand, and demand the Indonesian government to immediately return our political rights,” said Mr Kapisa. “I want to underline that to determine the future of Papuans, it must be from Papuans themselves, not from outsiders or foreign governments” stated Mr Kapisa during his speech to the audience.
Speaking in front of journalists, Mr Kapisa further outlined, “once again I plead to Indonesian government to recognise and address this (West Papua issue) in a proper way so that in the future we will work together as a good neighbour and both Indonesia and West Papua can serve each others interest,” exclaim Mr Kapisa.
The peaceful march attracted hundreds of bystanders who eventually joined the march, and security forces were on-site with two Dalmas public order riot units, two Police trucks, two Brimob paramilitary units and two pick-up vehicles.
Despite the security presence, Markus Yenu, Sius Ayemi, Siwa Tigtigweria, Erik Kayoi, Afred Auparay, Gustaf Wanma, Otto Rumasep, Eliezer Zet Wambrauw, Obet Elimelech Kaiwai, Erik Fimbay, Ham Yesham, Mark Umpes, Ariel Werimon, Hengki Saiba were all able to deliver their speeches.
Meanwhile in Jayapura, as the prayer service was interrupted by the Police use of force, organising committee members who brought the food to the event were prohibited to go to Theys Eluay’s graveside. Instead, the Police seized the food from the mama-mama (Papuan Mothers) who are part of the organising committee, and threw it away into the nearby bushes, telling the mama-mama that they can not even go to meet the other participants.
The mothers were so disappointed in the Police behaviour. One mother, who does not want to be identified, described the Police behaviour as “inhumane” and “no respect” to the indigenous people of the land.
Meanwhile, at the time of writing the article, SMS messages came through to West Papua Media that four people were “snatch” arrested by Kapolres in Jayapura at around 10:30am during the confusion of the forcible break-up of the rally. West Papua Media stingers reported that a verbal confrontation between the organising committee and the Police force intensified and led to Charles Demetouw (75) and Marcel Kalakmabin (23) being dragged away forcefully by Police and immediately thrown into the police vehicle.
The two further arrestees were unable to be identified due to the sudden approach of Police who dragged them from behind and quickly taken away to the police vehicle. No further updates as to the status and condition of the four men, but local stringers believe the four were taken to Jayapura prison. Credible fears have been express that the four may be subjected to possible torture throughout the night.
The event finished with a closing prayer by Pastor Ketty Yabansabra. As people dispersed peacefully, Pastor Ketty Yabansabra was followed by four men whom the organisers were certain to be intelligence officers. The four guys get onto their motorbikes and followed her home at around 3:oopm. She went into hiding for few hours and later carefully went home to her family.
Local journalists for other media outlets were prevented from carrying out their duties by police, who stopped them from attending the day’s event in Jayapura, according to West Papua Media’s undercover trained stringers who eluded police monitoring.
westpapuamedia
Videos of events in Manokwari (sorry no subtitles or transcriptions yet. Volunteer?)
West Papua Media Alerts 