Tag: torture

British taxpayers money used to sponsor degree course attended by members of TNI

A letter sent from the UK Foreign Office to human rights group Tapol has revealed that British taxpayers money is being used to sponsor a Master’s degree course in Defence and Security Management, attended by members of the TNI. This revelation comes hot on the heels of footage showing TNI members attacking villagers in West Papua, amid reports of widespread abuse by them in the province.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office
South East Asia Pacific Team
King Charles Street London SW1A 2AH
1 November 2010
Dear Mrs Budiardjo,
Thank you for your letter of 19 October to the Foreign Secretary about Papua. We are aware of the incident referred to in your letter and have seen some excerpts of the video footage.

We immediately raised our concerns about this case with the Indonesian authorities, in London with Ambassador Thamrin and in Jakarta with the President’s Foreign Policy Adviser. We have expressed our hope that there would be a full and transparent investigation into the incident and that those responsible would be held accountable.
We have encouraged the Indonesian Government to respond constructively to allegations of human rights abuses, and welcome the Indonesian military’s admission of wrongdoing in this case. We hope that details of the investigation will be made available to the international community.
We continue to stress to the Government of Indonesia that if there is credible evidence of wrongdoing, it should be investigated and those responsible brought to justice.
We believe that the best way to encourage further progress within the Indonesian armed forces is through constructive engagement and the delivery of appropriate training. This has included regular Indonesian placements on MOD flagship courses (e.g. Royal College of Defence Studies, Advanced Command and Staff College), regional training focused on Peace Support Operations and maritime/border security, including an annual Exclusive Economic Zone monitoring course, ship visits and senior level engagement.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) sponsors a Master’s degree course in Defence and Security Management, delivered by Cranfield University, at the Defence University in Jakarta. This course has been very successful over the last 4 years and many of the students are from members of the TNI. The MoD also supports development of the TNI in human rights by offering training in the Law of Armed Conflict.
Yours sincerely
N Atmore
Indonesia Desk Sout East Asia Pacific Group

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Elderly Papuan man tells of his ordeal being tortured by Indonesian military

Report from CNN

A torture victim from West Papua has spoken publicly for the first time about his ordeal being tortured by members of the Indonesian military.

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West Papua torture victim speaks out

Report by Al Jazeera
Three Indonesian soldiers have appeared before a military tribunal in eastern Papua province to face charges over the alleged torture of Papuan civilians, which was captured on video.

Friday’s trial comes days ahead of a visit by Barack Obama, the US president, who seeks to resume ties with Indonesia.

The footage, posted online by human rights activists, showed soldiers applying a burning stick to the genitals of one of the unarmed men and threatening another with a knife.

The three defendants are from an infantry unit based in the city of Nabire in Papua province. Two other soldiers were called to appear as witnesses.

The graphic video drew international attention to allegations of widespread torture and abuse of activists and civilians in restive Indonesian regions such as Papua and the Maluku islands.

Victim speaks out

Al Jazeera has obtained a secretly filmed interview with Tunaliwor Kiwo, one of the torture victims who now lives in hiding in one of the most isolated areas in Papua.

Kiwo was burned with hot wires and cigarettes, repeatedly suffocated with a plastic bag and had a concoction of chili and salt rubbed into his open wounds.

“I kept screaming. But they didn’t care of the pain I suffered,” he was quoted as saying in the interview.

“The TNI (military) put gasoline and lit a fire and I was in the middle with the branches,” he said.

“I couldn’t move, the flames were approaching me, trying to burn my body and my legs and hands were still tied up. I was continuously hysterical, in pain.”

The incident occurred earlier this year in an area of Papua where Indonesian troops frequently clash with poorly armed separatist rebels from the indigenous Melanesian majority.

Rights groups including Amnesty International have called on Indonesia to punish the culprits and end an entrenched culture of impunity in the country’s security forces.

“From the beginning we have been demanding an independent investigation,” Marcus Haluk, a Papuan student leader, told Al Jazeera.

“The military can’t investigate a soldier. It would be like a thief investigating a thief,” he said.

Mending ties

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the Indonesian president, said on Monday there was “no immunity” for members of the country’s armed forces, ahead of talks in Jakarta with Julia Gillard, the visiting Australian prime minister.

Marty Natalegawa, the Indonesian foreign minister, told Al Jazeera that Indonesia has put the soldiers on trial “not because some government is knocking on our door, or because someone is telling us what to do”.

“We have taken the lead [in the investigation],” he said.

Al Jazeera’s Step Vaessen, reporting from Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, said that the testimony of the soldiers will further embarrass the Indonesian government.

Al Jazeera’s Step Vaessen reporting on the torture of Papuan civilians

“It is just a few days ahead of president Obama’s visit. Never before [has] a military trial [been] held this fast,” she said.

Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, met Yudhoyono in Jakarta in July and announced the US would lift a 12-year suspension of contacts with the Indonesian special forces as a result of “recent actions… to address human rights issues”.

Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, reportedly refused to comment on the specific torture allegations during a brief visit on Wednesday to Papua New Guinea, the independent eastern half of New Guinea island.

Indonesia incorporated the resource-rich but desperately poor western half of New Guinea in the 1960s after a UN-backed tribal vote, which separatists condemn as a sham.

Few Indonesian military officers have faced justice for rights abuses dating back decades, including alleged crimes against humanity in East Timor and the killing of thousands of political activists during the Suharto dictatorship.

Papua and the Malukus have underground separatist movements, which Indonesia regards as threats to its territorial unity.

Activists are regularly given lengthy jail terms for crimes such as possessing outlawed rebel flags.

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Papuan tells of torture by Indonesian soldiers

Tom Allard
Sydney Morning Herald

"I screamed on and on" ... Tunaliwor Kiwo.“I screamed on and on” … Tunaliwor Kiwo.   

A PAPUAN man depicted in a video being burnt, suffocated and hit by Indonesian troops says he was tortured for two days, according to his testimony recorded and translated by Papuan activists.

Tunaliwor Kiwo was shown in agony as the soldiers burnt his penis in the video, which was filmed in May and revealed exclusively in the Herald last month. It prompted a horrified response in Indonesia and around the world, and led to the rapid arrest of five Indonesian soldiers, who face a military tribunal today.

But in the new testimony Mr Kiwo, filmed two weeks ago, said the abuse was far worse than depicted in the first video.

He spoke of being repeatedly beaten and suffocated, of his head being crashed into a wall and of being burnt with cigarettes during the first day of torture, which followed his arrest as he travelled by motorcycle with his friend Telangga Gire on the road from Tingginambut to Mulia, the capital of Puncak Jaya regency, a hotbed of separatist activity.

An image from the video of Tunaliwor Kiwo being tortured by Indonesian soldiers.An image from the video of Tunaliwor Kiwo being tortured by Indonesian soldiers. 

”The next tortures were heating up a piece of iron or wire and it was put at my thighs and I screamed on and on,” he said in the video, conducted in the Lani dialect of Puncak Jaya and translated by Papuan activists. ”It got heated up again and put again on my left and right belly. I kept screaming. But they didn’t care of the pain I suffered. [The interrogators] tortured me incredibly since 9am to night to morning.”

That night, he was doused in freezing water.

The next day was even worse, according to Mr Kiwo, a 50-year-old farmer. Early that day, the soldiers threatened to burn him alive.

”The TNI [Indonesian military] put gasoline and light a fire and I was in the middle with the branches,” Mr Kiwo said. ”I couldn’t move, the flames were approaching me, trying to burn my body and my legs and hands were still tied up. I was continuously hysterical, in pain.”

At this point, Mr Kiwo said he was ”surrendering, ready to die”.

Then he says he was cut all over his body and face with a razor. The soldiers prepared a liquid concoction of chilli, shallots, onions, detergent and salt ”all smashed and mixed with water”.

The mixture was spread over his open wounds.

”I screamed loudly due to the pain but, in fact, it encouraged them to be more brutal and [they] kept showering me. They turned my body back and forth. The parts that were not showered [at first] were showered with chillies until the chillies was finished.”

Mr Kiwo was certain he would be executed. The soldiers repeatedly accused him of being a Papuan separatist fighter and demanded he reveal the location of a weapons cache. On the third day, he said, he escaped.

Mr Kiwo is living in hiding, as is Mr Gire. The filmed testimony was obtained amid great secrecy by Markus Haluk, from the Papuan Customary Council, which oversaw the translation from Lani to Indonesian. The translation could not be independently verified by the Herald.

Indonesia’s President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, has condemned the action depicted in the first video, and promised a transparent investigation.

But the head of Indonesia’s military, Admiral Agus Suhartono, has played down the seriousness of the offences.

The US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, during a brief visit to Papua New Guinea, would not comment on the incident but said any continuing human rights violations should be investigated and perpetrators held accountable.

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Bintang Papua: Komnas HAM confirms torture video and denies any manipulation



Bintang Papua, 2010 21 October 2010

Komnas HAM confirms torture video – nothing to do with manipulation

Jayapura:  Although the military commander of the Cenderawasih military command will be conducting an investigation into the use of violence against Papuans by members of the TNI – Indonesian armed forces – as seen on a video that is widely circulating on the internet, the National Human Rights Commission Papuan branch has confirmed that members of the TNI did indeed torture a citizen. The reports have nothing to do with manipulation.

Mathius Murib SH, deputy chairman of Komnas HAM Papua , who is himself from Puncak Jaya, told journalists on  Thursday that the events shown on the video occurred on 17 March, 2010 at 3pm in Kelome, district of Tingginambut, and the victim was Rev. Kindeman Gira who was shot dead by a member of the TNI.

‘The victim was a God-fearing man and a member of the congregation of the GIDI Church in Turagi, Tingginambut. Although other sources have said that the incident occurred in April 2010, Komnas HAM sticks by its findings based on an investigation at the location of the crime.

One of the victims of the violence which lasted for six minutes and which was  photographed was able to escape with his life, but his physical condition was very bad and he is badly traumatised, making it impossible for him to give an account of what happened.

Military operations should stop
Komnas HAM has meanwhile called on the military commander of Cenderawaih military command and the chief of police in Papua to halt all operations in the area and not to increase the number of troops there which can only lead to yet more trauma and more victims among the civilian population in Puncak Jaya.

The circulation of the video showing the violence has led to strong condemnation from a variety of sources. Murib said that acts of violence have been occurring in Puncak Jaya  for a long time, ever since 2004 and up until 2010, but such an approach has not resulting in ending the conflict  and has only made things worse.

The security forces and those in charge of law enforcement were urged to behave in a more professional way and act in accordance with Human Rights Principles and Standards in everything that they do in Puncak Jaya and everywhere else in Papua.

Those civilian groups who bear arms in any parts of Papua  should immediately halt their actions and engage in consolidation to restore the situation in Puncak Jaya to normal.

Murib said that from 17 August 2004 until 2010, 50 deaths of civilians and members of the security forces have been reported.

Komnas HAM has also asked the governor of the province to make it possible for the church to enter into negotiations with their followers in the region to behave in a spirit of love and friendship and eschew all methods of violence.

The chairman of Front Pepera, Selpius Bobii said that a number of bloody incidents had occurred right across Papua and West  Papua, giving clear evidence that the Indonesian state is committing acts of violence as is revealed in the two videos lasting one minute and ten minutes. He said that the army and the police should stop denying the use of violence against the civilian population in the central highlands. ‘There is authentic evidence and it cannot be denied by the security forces, saying that the situation is under control. The commander should also admit that this is being perpetrated by his subordinates and should not try to deny things.’

He said the military commander and chief of police must take responsibility* *for all the human rights violations occurring in Papua and West  Papua and stop telling lies about the s ituation in Papua being normal. He also called upon the Indonesian people  to open themselves to talks  with the Papuan people to find a solution to all the problems occurring i the Land of  Papua.

The number of victims since 2004:

2004: seven people died and four were seriously wounded.
2005 five  people were seriously wounded.
2006 two people died.
2007 one person died.
2009 five people died and eight were wounded.
2010 four people were taken hostage, five people were wounded and four people died.
In 2004, five hartop vehicles were destroyed by fire and one police patrol vehicle was shot at.
In 2007. a rifle was seized.
In 2009 six weapons were seized, as well as 29 bullets, two ammunition magazines taken, one S-Trada Troton was shot at, two TNI command posts were destroyed as well as a steel bridge, while two primary school buildings and one lower secondary school – SMP – were burned down.

In 2010, a sircraft was shot at and there was an attack on a TNI command post.

Source: Komnas HA Papua report.

Translated in full by TAPOL

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