Day: May 30, 2013

Karma: ‘We reject the term ‘narapidana politik’

by Oktovianus Pogau at Suara Papua, with additional reporting from West Papua Media
 
27 May 2013

PAPUA, Jayapura:  Filep Karma, who is a political prisoner being held in the Abepura Prison, refuses to accept the use of the term ‘Narapidana  Politik‘  or ‘Napol’ (convicted political prisoner) which is used for him and about forty of his colleagues who are being detained in various prisons in the Land of Papua.

https://i0.wp.com/suarapapua.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/karma.jpeg
Filep Karma, Prisoner of Conscience and Political Prisoner, not Convict. (Photo: SuaraPapua)
‘We feel more comfortable with the term ‘Tahanan Politik‘ – tapol – or political prisoner. Using the term ‘napol’ suggests that we committed acts of violence for which we were imprisoned.’

He went on to say that the vast majority of political prisoners were being held because of their political beliefs and not because they had committed any acts of violence or other crimes.

Several separate SMS messages were received by West Papua Media from various Tapols including Karma at Abepura prison, that read:

“We here have all jointly agreed that we want to change the term of Tapol-Napol used for us to instead TAHANAN POLITIK PAPUA MERDEKA (Political Prisoners Papua Liberation)”  (Emphasis from original Bahasa Indonesia message maintained).

Earlier, there were reports in the media  under the heading: ‘Papuan Political Prisoners reject Amnesty from the Indonesian Government, according to which around 25 political prisoners now being detained in Abepura Prison declared that the reject either ‘clemency’ or ‘amnesty’ which has been offered to them by the Indonesian government, via the intermediary of the Department for Law and Human Rights.

‘All we want and demand is for the Papuan people to be freed from being colonised by the colonial Indonesian government,’ he said in a statement issued by the tapols which was sent to the media.

[Simultaneous Translations by TAPOL and West Papua Media]

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Yahukimo Police Shoot Student – Victim In Serious Condition

via KNPBNews.com

(note: WPM has independently verified this through separate sources, however this is an analysis Op-Ed rather than a straight news item)

May 21, 2013 (apologies for translation delay)

Yahukimo Police have shot a student, whilst he was with friends at the Blue Creek at Yahukimo following their school graduation. The incident occurred on Sunday 19 May 2013 at 04.00 (West Papuan time) when Yahukimo Police were using a Police Patrol vehicle went to the above location.

At the moment the Police arrived they came upon a group of students at the location. A group of five students had been drinking alcohol. The police without questioning the students fired warning shots in the direction of the students. The students fled afraid of the police gunfire. Four of them succeeded in fleeing but the fifth named Carles Suhuniap was hit in the right shoulder by further police gunfire whilst trying to flee. Wounded, he was arrested by the police who became smeared with his blood.

The victim was later evacuated to Jayapura where he is at this time being treated at the Dian Harapan Hospital in Jayapura. Of those students that successfully fled three have been named as Deni Asso, Andre Kiban and Gelgi Giban.

Media sources reported that the students after drinking alcohol at the time of the shooting incident, had not being doing anything untoward or acting negatively towards anyone in particular or causing any harm or threat to anyones’ property. They merely had an intention of going home. The police had no cause to shoot.

This incident was a human rights violation. The Police wanted an excuse to kill (dengan dalih menewaskan) the victim but rather he was not killed but left seriously wounded.

It is not just this incident as killing of community members in Yahukimo is happening regularly via para-military agents that are assigned to the hospitals in Yahukimo as sisters, medical aides and doctors. There have been many experiences of people entering the hospitals in Yahukimo as patients not in any critical or particularly serious condition, only to rather than get better and be released to instead come out as dead bodies. This has been happening and continues to happen in Yahukimo.

This is the problem in Yahukimo at this time. The regional government does not appear to be serious about addressing the problem. Covert killings are happening in Yahukimo and this is the mission of the State to kill the Papuan community throughout Papua. The situation is similar to that news reported by Bintang Papua last year with the news regarding 15 people from Paniai who were killed whilst drunk. These things are happening as part of a mission of the Republic of Indonesia in Papua.

 

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