Tag: Free Papua Movement

SMH: Soldiers Stand Trial Over Papua Abuse

The Sydney Morning Herald
January 14, 2011

Soldiers Stand Trial Over Papua Abuse

by Toni O’Loughlin

JAKARTA: Three Indonesian soldiers who videoed a Papuan man’s
agony as they repeatedly poked a fiery stick at his genitals and
held a gun to his head have been charged with ignoring their
commander’s instructions.

Human rights activists say the video is clear evidence of human
rights abuse and that the three soldiers from Battalion 753
should face Indonesia’s Human Rights Tribunal.

But instead the soldiers are standing trial in a military court
where they have been merely charged with failing to follow
orders. Advertisement: Story continues below

The military prosecutor, Sumantri, said soldiers are supposed to
”interrogate people in a persuasive way”.

But when Second Sergeant Irwan Rizkianto, First Private Thamrin
Mahangiri and First Private Yopsen Agu ”tied up the victim’s
head into a plastic bag” then ”burn[ed] the victim’s pubic
hair”, they were disobeying orders, Mr Sumantri told the
military tribunal.

They were also disobeying orders when they recorded the attack
with a mobile phone, he said, even though one of the soldiers
claimed Sergeant Rizkianto told them they needed the
documentation to report back to their battalion commander.

While the soldiers confessed to the shocking attack, Mr Sumantri
said no assault charges were laid because ”there is no victim”.

”The victim didn’t report to us as a witness,” he said.

Reports from Papua have identified the man who was tortured as
Tunaliwor Kiwo but he has not been seen since the video was
taken last May.

Another man, Telangga Gire, also appeared in the video with a
knife placed at his throat but he is reportedly in hiding.

It is the second time in three months that video evidence of
soldiers torturing Papuans has surfaced, fuelling allegations
that the military systematically tortures members and supporters
of the Free Papua Movement.

However, Komnas HAM, Indonesia’s human rights commission,
reviewed the video and last week concluded there was no
”evidence that violence was carried out in a systematic way to
murder Papuans”.

As a result, Komnas decided not to set up an ad hoc team to
investigate these cases as gross human rights violations, the
commission said in a statement.

But Haris Azhar, the head of Kontras, an Indonesian human rights
advocacy group, said the soldiers who were now on trial were
being ”scapegoated”.

”The trial will not touch the higher ranks or commanders,” Mr
Haris said. ”We suspect that video recording is the [way they]
report their activities to the commanders.”

— with Karuni Rompies

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AWPA: West Papua 2010 Chronology of events

The Australia West Papua Association has produced a very useful chronology of all key events that occurred in West Papua in 2010.  The full document can be accessed here: West Papua 2010 Chronology of events,

The introduction is reprinted below:

Human rights situation in West Papua[1]

The human rights situation in West Papua continued to deteriorate in 2010. One incident in particular highlighted the worsening human rights situation and that was the shocking video footage of West Papuans being tortured by Indonesian soldiers. The video showed several men in military fatigues torturing two Papuans. The soldiers in the video threaten the two men with sharp weapons and pressed a burning bamboo stick against one of the men’s genitals. The torture of the men prompted a wave of international criticism with human rights organisations around the world condemning the actions  of the Indonesian military.  This incident was not an isolated incident and in further evidence of  human rights abuses another report  accused the police of burning down the village of Bigiragi in the Puncak Jaya district.  The report said that 16 Mobile Brigade officers had burned the village to the ground on October 11. The report said that at least 29 homes were destroyed in the incident leaving at least 150 people homeless

Military operations in Puncak Jaya

A number of  military operation took place in the Puncak Jaya region in 2010 and in fact security operations have been ongoing in the Puncak Jaya region for years . Security forces  conduct regular sweeps  (military operations) in the area to pursue members of the Free Papua Movement (OPM).  Many reports have pointed out the the security forces have great difficulty distinguishing  between what the term separatists  and the general public. These operations leave the local people traumatised and in fear for their lives.  In a report in Bintang Papua (29 June)  The local chief of police admitted that “the OPM  are all over the place including in the town of Mulia, mingling with the community. He said that because the features of the mountain people are almost the same as other people in the area, ‘it is making it very difficult for us to differentiate  between who is OPM and who is just an ordinary member of the community”. This statement raises great concerns that civilians are in danger of being targeted as members of the OPM. During these military operations villages have been destroyed as well as  gardens and livestock. In September  the House of Representatives (DPR) Law Commission deputy chairman, Tjatur Sapto Edy lamented the military operations in the Puncak Jaya Regency following a report by the  National Commission for Human Rights (Komnas HAM). Tjatur said there should be no more military operations and such approaches  are no longer suitable in a democracy. A report by Komnas HAM’s Papua chapter revealed 29 cases of rights abuses occurred in Puncak Jaya regency from 2004-2010, including the torture and rape of villagers in March 2010 by law enforcers.

In September  an article in the the SMH alleged that Indonesia’s elite counter-terrorism unit, Detachment 88, brutalised a group of separatists, repeatedly beating them in detention. Australia helps fund Detachment 88.  The report also said the Australian Government had sent an official to the Indonesian province of Maluku to investigate the  claims but an Australian embassy official denied there was an investigation going on although an embassy officer had visited Maluku as part of a regular program of provincial visits.

Leaked Kopassus report

In November investigative journalist Alan Nairn released a secret report by a Kopassus task force which shows a list of West Papuans engaged in human rights work are a target of the Indonesian Special Force Group, Kopassus. The list includes members of civil society organisations, church groups , activists, students and  members of the MRP.  The report can be found on his blog at

http://www.allannairn.com/2010/11/breaking-news-secret-files-show.html

In December cables released by WikiLeaks in relation to West Papuan human rights confirmed what NGOs  have been telling their governments for years, that it is the Indonesian military that are one of the main problems in West Papua.

The cables revealed that US diplomats blame the government in Jakarta for unrest in West Papua due to neglect, corruption and human rights abuses.  That Indonesian military commanders have been accused of illegal logging operations and drug smuggling from West Papua into Papua New Guinea, and also that a lifting of the US ban on training with Kopassus was made a condition of Obama’s  visit to Jakarta.

Also in December the coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), a major Indonesian human rights group accused the National Police of being the state institution guilty of committing the highest number of acts of violence against the public in 2010.  In the Jakarta Post (7/12/10) , the Papua chapter of the National Commission for Human Rights (Komnas HAM) reported a 70 percent increase in the number of cases of violence in Papua, most of which were allegedly committed by security officers. The Jakarta-based Legal Aid Foundation  in another report said Indonesian law enforcers routinely torture suspects and convicts to extract confessions or obtain information. The groups report found beatings, intimidation and rape are so commonplace they are considered the norm. It also found that few victims believe they have the right to lodge complaints.

West Papua suffered from a number of natural disasters in 2010 including a 7.1magnitude earthquake  that occurred of the northern coast of Papua in June,  destroying a number of  villages with loss of life on Yapen island.  In October the town of Wasior was hit by flash  floods  causing severe damage leaving over 158 people dead, 145 persons missing and thousands left homeless. There was some debate if the cause of the floods was due to deforestation in the surrounding areas or was due to  unusually heavy rainfall

Political prisoners

It is difficult to known the exact number of political prisoners who are in jail in West Papua because of the difficulty of access and restrictions on the gathering of information in the territory. In Amnesty’s  International Report for  2010, it states

“At least 114 people were detained for peacefully expressing their views. The overwhelming majority were peaceful political activists who were sentenced to terms of imprisonment for raising prohibited pro independence flags in Maluku or Papua”.

And in an  extract from Human Rights Watch World Report for 2010, in relation to West Papua.  “Indonesian authorities have responded to a longstanding, low-level armed separatist insurgency in the provinces of Papua and West Papua with a strong troop presence and often harsh and disproportionate responses to non-violent dissent or criticism. Human Rights Watch has long expressed concerns over anti-separatist sweeps by the police, which often result in individuals who peacefully express support for independence being arrested and detained on charges of treason or rebellion (makar).

West Papua -one of our nearest neighbours

West Papua is one of our nearest neighbours and the West Papuan people face great challenges including  ongoing human rights abuses, the exploitation of their natural resources with little or no benefit to themselves, the danger of becoming a minority in their own land as the result of migrants arriving daily and a  HIV/AIDS epidemic.

The Australian Government has  always been concerned about instability in the region to our north but as events in 2010 have shown, it is the Indonesian military which  are causing the instability in West Papua. The recent reports of the torture of West Papuans by the Indonesian security forces and the information from the WikiLeaks cables about US concerns at the activities of the TNI in relation to West Papua, aptly show this.

Recommendations.

The Australian West Papua Association  (Sydney)

urges the Australian Government to re- think its policy of ties with the  Indonesian military until such time that Indonesian military  personnel involved in past human rights abuses are brought to justice and the culture of the Indonesian military becomes of an  acceptable standard to both the Australian people and Australian military. In the short term we urge the Government to put a moratorium on the training, funding and any ties between  the Australian military,  Detachment 88 and the special forces unit Kopassus, until a full inquiry is held into the activities of these units in relation to human rights abuses in the archipelago.

urges the Australian Government to sent a fact finding mission to West Papua to not only investigate the human rights situation in the territory but to see how Australia can  help the West Papuan people in capacity building in the fields of health  and education. We thank the Australian Government for the funding it has already given to aid  projects in West Papua but urge more aid-funding to support health programs and medical organizations (local and international) working on the ground in West Papua and in the long term to support the training of the West Papuan people themselves as health professionals.

There are a number of Indigenous  human rights NGOs in West Papua and the Australian Government can  strengthen  the  human rights situation in West Papua by supporting these organisations  with financial aid,  capacity building and education.

We recommended that human rights defenders working in human rights organisations in West Papua be funded to attend human rights courses in Australia and the region.. There are a number of programs in Australia which can  advance human rights and empower civil society in West Papua through education, training and capacity building. These programs are suitable for individual human rights defenders and community advocates.

We also call on the Australian Government to urge the Indonesian President to release all West Papuan political prisoners as a sign of good faith to the West Papuan people.

The problems in West Papua won’t be solved by Jakarta  deploying more troops to the region or conducting more military operations. What the West Papuans are asking for is dialogue between Jakarta  and West Papuan representatives.  AWPA calls on the Australian Government to urge the Indonesian Government to dialogue with representatives of the West Papuan people to solve the issues of concern held by the West Papuan people.

[1] AWPA (Sydney) uses the name “West Papua” to refer to the whole of the western half of the Island of New Guinea. However, “West Papua” at this time is divided into two provinces, Papua and West Papua.

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9 people arrested for displaying West Papua flag face lengthy prison sentences

Article from AFP

Nine people have been arrested after displaying the West Papua flag in Indonesia’s remote Papua province.

Eight men and a woman unfurled the banned “Morning Star” flag on Saturday in a village in Jayawijaya district, local police chief I Gede Sumerta Jaya said.

“We arrested nine people and they’re being investigated. They had raised the Morning Star flag. We found the flag and a wooden pole,” he told AFP.

“They’re likely to be named suspects on charges of plotting against the state,” he added.

Anyone convicted of displaying separatist symbols faces possible life sentence in Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago with a history of secessionist rebellions.

Indonesia won sovereignty over Papua, a former Dutch colony on the western half of New Guinea island, in 1969 after a vote among a select group of Papuans widely seen as a sham.

Many Papuans accuse Indonesia’s military of violating human rights in the province and complain that the bulk of earnings from its rich natural resources flow to Jakarta.

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On a mission to expose abuses in West Papua

By Teoh El Sen

FMT INTERVIEW PETALING JAYA: Hunted by the military, human rights activist and documentary filmmaker Wensi Fatubun left his home in West Papua, Indonesia, and continued his fight abroad.

“I received an SMS threatening me to back off from my investigations or I’ll face death. I then found out that the Indonesian military was tracking me. I had to throw away my phone. Just five days after I left and reached Bangkok, my friend, a journalist, was dead,” said Wensi, 29, who spoke to FMT in an interview here recently.

The naked body of Wensi’s journalist friend, Ardiansyah Matra’is, was found in a river. Police there had claimed the death was suicide.

Wensi, who had worked closely with Ardiansyah investigating illegal logging and corruption, said he was sure his former colleague did not kill himself.

“I believe his death had something to do with the investigative work he has been doing, especially on the Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate (MIFEE). Before he died, a few journalists, including me received the same threatening SMS,” Wensi said, adding that such violence was not uncommon in Papua.

Wensi is on a roadtrip in Malaysia to spread awareness about the critical situation in Papua, and he would be travelling to the Philippines next to seek further support.

For almost 50 years since it was absorbed into Indonesia in 1963, West Papua, also called Irian Jaya (on the west side of the New Guinea island), has struggled for independence.

It has suffered various human rights violations mostly carried out by Indonesian security forces – intimidation, torture and brutal killing of villagers, activists and journalists; with human rights groups estimating tens of thousands of natives killed.

Worst poverty

The military is also alleged to be involved in illegal operations such as logging, prostitution and trading in endangered species to make a profit. Human Rights Watch claim Papua has the worst poverty in Indonesia, and the biggest HIV problem in the country.

Foreign media and NGOs are banned from going to West Papua.

Wensi said Ardiansyah’s death was tragic but it also strengthened his resolve to continue his simple yet difficult mission: to spread word about the abuses in Papua to other countries, and get help and support.

“I am not afraid. If I stayed in Papua, I could have been killed so I must continue this fight,” said Wensi, who worked as an investigator with a church-based organisation as well as assisted Human Rights Watch’s investigations into the human rights situation. He also trained young people to make documentaries.

Recently in October, the video of two Papuans tortured by soldiers shocked the world. The video depicted farmers Anggen Pugu Kiwo and Telengga Gire being violently interrogated by the military, who also burnt one of the men’s genitals. However, five men who were involved in a separate incident were charged.

Wensi said that such military oppression and torture happened to Papuans “every single day”.

“Before I became an activist, three of my friends were also tortured and interrogated by army personnel who wanted to know if there were part of a he separatist movement. One of them died this year,” said Wensi, who also trains young people to make documentaries.

He said that in West Papua, to be a journalist, activist or someone who fights for human rights means that you were a “separatist”.

“I am often called a separatist, an enemy,” said Wensi.

“Just last week, secret documents exposed by US freelance journalist Allan Nairn showed that US-backed Kopassus engaged in ‘murder and abduction’ and defined civilian dissidents as the ‘enemies’ in the province of Papua,” said Wensi.

Kopassus or Special Force Command is an Indonesian army special group that conducts missions for the government such as counter-terrorism and intelligence gathering.

Last July, the US government lifted a decade-long ban on US training and military assistance to Kopassus, which is considered a US ally in the fight against terrorism.

Asked how can Malaysians help Papua, Wensi said: “In any way you can. But mostly show solidarity with us whenever you read of news of military torture in my province. If in the past, Malaysia had joined Indonesia, it would now be suffereing the same fate as Papua.”

Below are exceprts of the interview:

Why did you choose to be an activist and not migrate to Papua New Guinea?

I chose to be an activist and filmmaker because I felt the need to be with the people and fight from the perspective of the people. I wanted to make documentaries as seen through the eyes of oppressed. I grew up in a village in Yodom and I saw with my own eyes a company, PT Korindo Group, take away the people’s land. As a result, the people have no place to hunt and farm. And after awhile the company leaves, but the people suffer because the richness of the land is all but gone.

Was there a specific incident that spurred your activism?

Well I saw my neighbours, my friends and my friends’ families arrested by militants. They were called Free Papua Movement (OPM). They were called separatists when in fact they were the intellectuals, the progressives. In 2005, three of my former school mates were tortured by army personnel, who claimed they were OPM members. They wanted to know “where my friends kept their weapons”. They poked a cigarrette butt into the eyes of one of them, who became blind. Another ran away and never came back. The third suffered a broken jaw and injuries to his backbone. For five years he could not walk or sit like a normal person. He died in July this year.

Why do you keep continuing this (fight) despite the dangers?

I feel that there are not many like us. Some of the activists and journalists in Wes Papua are siding with the government and the people there do not have a good idea of what is going on. The Human Rights Commission has written about these cases but there are no solutions. For example, in one incident, the people of one village had clashed with another but it was labelled as a ‘tribal war’ and gave a wrong impression that the natives are still primitive. A lot of people out there are not aware of the situation.

Were there incidents you could not forget?

The worst was when I interviewed a girl who was only 17 when she was raped by a soldier and she later carried his child. It was hard for me because she was so young. She dropped out of school later. Now she is waiting for justice but no one is doing anything. I could only tell her to wait and be patient. I know that the Indonesian police and military do not care, they are not doing anything. But she is still waiting. She was given two million rupiah for her pain and loss. That’s all. She kept crying when she was talking to me and all the while holding her ‘daughter’. I was very angry and sad and I felt like punching an Indonesian soldier.

What are some of the problems in Papua you would like to highlight?

A persistent problem which involves the military and the government is land grab. The big companies will come in and take away the land of the Orang Asli. One such mega project is the Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate (MIFEE). This is a 1.6-million-hectare integrated food-production zone where companies are supposed to grow, process and package their products. It has 32 foreign investors coming in to develop 32 districts in Merauke, southeast of Papua.

What they are doing do not benefit the Papuans at all. The people there don’t like this because this would mean the demolition of their buildings and their holy sites. The people have written many times to the president and held demonstrations but to no avail. The Indonesian government does not care. The leader of one group formed to oppose this project was arrested. Anybody who disagrees will be targeted. The authorities also intimidated me because of my opposition against the MIFEE project.

How were you intimidated?

I was told that the regent of Merauke Jhon Gluba Gebze had instructed his men to target me. I also received an SMS saying that I would be killed if I continued to oppose the MIFEE project. This was one of the reasons I left West Papua for Thailand. I was told by reliable sources that they had formed a five-men team to hunt me down.

What are the other issues in Papua?

So many. There are so many problems there. First and foremost, the military there is working together with large companies to exploit the land of the Orang Asli, the Papuans. If you come to West Papua,the moment you step off the plane, you would see the military. In every village, there would be 17 to 20 army personnel… this is not good.

Recently, there was a Youtube video depicting the torture of Papuans by military men. Does this happened often?

These things – beating and kicking villagers – happened every single day.

You mentioned that you interviewed victims raped by army men. How bad is that?

It’s not that good. Our interviews were conducted in the Budul village from 2006 to 2010. We managed to find that there were some 54 cases there and interviewed the women from 19 years of age.

You mentioned that prostitution and HIV are a big problem too?

Yes, I believe that in the whole of Indonesia, Papua is number one in prostitution. What is worst is that the police and the military are the pimps; they are the ones who facilitate prostitution. Prostitutes from Jawa, Surabaya, Sulawesi, and Manadao come to Papua and many are also infected with HIV.

In one case, I visited one of the villages in Assue. A prostitute told me that she knew she had HIV but everyday she had sex with 10 Papua men. And in the same area, there was a nurse who admitted to me that she had used a single needle for the whole village… and the result was disastrous. In less than a week, from three people who are HIV positive, our tests found 35 more had been infected.

The problem is that the people of Papua don’t know anything about HIV/AIDS. This is because they lack education. It’s a sad truth: we have health facilities in almost all Orang Asli villages but zero doctors. Papuans are just waiting for help. So in the meantime they used their own primitive methods to cure themselves.

What other cases or examples can you tell us of the human rights abuses in Papua?

There are so many. Okay, in one fishing village, three people were shot dead, and some villages were burnt because the local fishermen were against companies coming in with their large boats to fish in their area. Nine policemen were charged in court but were released because the excuse given was that they were shooting at separatists. There was also a border incident. The military erected some buildings at the border between West Papua and Papua New Guinea. But the people who opposed it were beaten and the women raped. The military also forced youngsters, aged between 16 and 20, to sell items to the people in Papua New Guinea. If the things are not sold, they would be tortured. I know of six teenagers who hid in Papua New Guinea because they were afraid to return. I interviewed one of them.

You said the military there is so cruel. Why?

I think the army is behaving like this because it is taking orders from its political masters. Besides, it does not like the Orang Asli. I once sneaked into a military meeting and saw the army slideshows. Based on these, I know that the military thinks that Papuans have no nationalistic feelings and must be beaten so that they love Indonesia.

Why are foreign journalists and NGOs not allowed in West Papua?

Foreign journalists and NGOs are not allowed inside because I believe the government does not want the world to know the true situation there. It does not want people to know how bad the situation was after the annexation of West Papua into Indonesia.

What is your hope?

My hope is that Southeast Asia will know about the situation in Papua. Help us. Show solidarity. If there is military torture, we can protest together. I must continue writing and producing more films so that more people can understand the situation in Papua.

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