1) Military operations against indigenous village in Gearek District, Nduga Regency: One child killed, mother and sibling injured
14 January 2026 / 4 minutes of readingOn 12 December 2025, Indonesian military forces (TNI) conducted a large-scale air and ground military operation against indigenous settlements in Woneworasosa village,Gearek District,Nduga Regency, Papua Pegunungan Province. The operation involved at least six military helicopters, aerial gunfire, and the deployment of mortar-type explosive ordnance in and around civilian homes, gardens, and livestock areas. The attack resulted in the killing of a seven-year-old child, serious injury to an indigenous woman, widespread destruction of civilian property, and the forced displacement of at least 539 civilians.
An investigation by the Papuan Foundation for Justice, Human Integrity (YKKMP) found no evidence of armed confrontation or resistance at the time of the attack. The military operation took place in a populated civilian area and caused severe humanitarian consequences.
On 10 December 2025, residents of Gearek District reported the presence of three military helicopters conducting surveillance flights over indigenous settlements without prior notification, coordination, or explanation. This activity caused widespread fear among the villagers. On 11 December 2025, the military presence escalated. Three helicopters and several drones again flew over Woneworasosa Village. Witnesses reported that helicopters dropped explosive devices near homes to facilitate troop deployment, while additional aircraft fired live ammunition from the air. Mortars reportedly exploded next to civilian houses, prompting panic among residents.
The operation reached its peak on 12 December 2025 at around 05:30 am, when six helicopters attacked from multiple directions. Mortar-type explosives were dropped near homes and gardens, and helicopters fired sustained gunfire onto residential areas. Roofs were perforated by bullets, walls were riddled with impact marks, livestock were shot, and solar panels and household interiors were destroyed (see photos below, source: YKKMP). The attack was carried out without warning and without prior armed hostilities in the area.
As residents attempted to flee, Arestina Giban, a seven-year-old girl (see photo on top, source: YKKMP), was shot in the back of the head while being carried by her mother, Mrs Wina Kerebea, 35. The child died instantly. Mrs Kerebea was injured by shrapnel from a mortar explosion, which became lodged in her right thigh (see photos below, source: YKKMP). Despite sustained gunfire from the air, she attempted to recover her child’s body while shielding her other child, who was reportedly also grazed by a bullet. Mrs Kerebea and her other child survived the attack but had to leave Arestina’s body behind.
Following the attack, residents fled into forests and neighbouring districts, including Pasir Putih and areas of Asmat Regency. Many spent days without food, shelter, or medical care. Military operations reportedly continued until 13 December 2025 at around 10:00 am. Searches for the child’s body between 14 and 16 December 2025 were unsuccessful, raising serious concerns about the enforced disappearance or concealment of remains.
The documented events indicate serious violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law. The use of aerial bombardment, mortar explosives, and live ammunition in densely populated civilian areas constitutes a breach of the principle of distinction and the principle of proportionality, which prohibit attacks directed at civilians and civilian objects.
The destruction of homes, food sources, livestock, and essential infrastructure, as well as the contamination of gardens by explosive remnants, violated civilians’ rights to adequate housing, food, health, and livelihood. The forced displacement of more than 500 civilians without safety guarantees or humanitarian assistance constitutes arbitrary displacement and exposes vulnerable populations, including women and children, to further harm.
Mrs Wina Kerebea (left) and her seven-year-old daughter Arestina Giban (right)
Photos showing the destruction of the military operation in the Woneworasosa village between 11 and 13 December 2025
Period of incident: 11/12/2025 – 13/12/2025 Perpetrator: , Indonesian Military (TNI) Issues: indigenous peoples, security force violence, women and children
2) Intimidation against indigenous leader in connection with the planned construction of Indonesian military headquarters in Biak
14 January 2026 / 4 minutes of reading
Between 30 November and 9 December 2025, a series of intimidation and surveillance incidents were reportedly directed against Mr Apolos Sroyer, Chair of the Biak Customary Council and Chief of the Biak Tribe, in the Biak–Supiori Regency, Papua province. The acts are allegedly linked to his peaceful leadership of indigenous opposition to the planned construction of new military (TNI) headquarters. The actions by military officials may amount to violations of the rights of indigenous peoples, including intimidation and interference with legitimate customary leadership.
Mr Apolos Sroyer is a long-standing indigenous leader and a founder of the Papuan Customary Council (2001). He is the Chief of the Biak Tribe for the 2017–2029 period. He has led non-violent efforts to protect customary lands, resolve land and social disputes through customary justice, and prevent state encroachment on indigenous territories without consent.
Between 2018 and 2024, the Indonesian Government advanced plans to construct military headquarters and battalion facilities within the customary territory of Biak–Supiori Regency. Indigenous communities consistently rejected these plans, citing threats to their living space, cultural survival, and security, and the absence of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC). Human rights observers expressed concerns that the formation of three new Indonesian Military battalions in Biak, Supiori, and Waropen has the potential to create human rights violations.
Escalation and military deployment
In November–December 2025, approximately 1,200–1,750 TNI personnel were reportedly deployed to Biak–Supiori Regency, occupying schools and public facilities. This large-scale military presence revived collective trauma linked to the past Military Operations Zone (DOM) period and intensified fear among indigenous communities. The three battalions are Territorial Development Battalion units, which are prepared to implement food security projects, and conduct infrastructure development.
On 5 December 2025, a customary meeting was held in the Ababiadi Village Office, South Supiori District, attended by the Biak Customary Council and representatives of 13 clans. The meeting formally declared rejection of the planned construction of military headquarters on their customary land, reaffirming that the project violated FPIC and endangered the survival of the Biak indigenous people. Despite this, the local district military commander reportedly announced plans to proceed with eviction on 9 December 2025.
Following the customary rejection, Mr Apolos Sroyer repeatedly became the target of intimidation. On 30 November 2025, unidentified officials visited his home without prior notice, followed the same night by drone surveillance reportedly conducted for several hours. On 9 December 2025, intelligence vehicles allegedly followed Mr Sroyer while he was in Jayapura. Meanwhile, TNI members reportedly attempted to create division between indigenous clans and coerce the community into accepting the military project. These actions created a credible climate of fear, raising concerns about possible physical harm, constant surveillance, and the risk of criminalisation of a legitimate indigenous leader.
Impact on indigenous communities
The planned military construction and associated intimidation have had severe impacts on the affected indigenous communities in Biak, including the threatened seizure of customary land and restriction of access to land, sea, and gardens, deepening collective trauma, and the risk of cultural destruction. Community members emphasise that the land concerned is not empty land, but integral to their identity, livelihood, and spiritual life.
Biak indigenous leaders and customary authorities have publicly stated that they reject the presence of military bases on indigenous territories. Customary rights cannot be relinquished without collective customary deliberation.
Customary meeting in the Ababiadi Village, South Supiori District, attended by the Biak Customary Council and representatives of 13 clans on 5 December 2025
Period of incident: 30/11/2025 – 09/12/2025 Perpetrator: , Indonesian Military (TNI) Issues: business, human rights and FPIC, human rights defenders, indigenous peoples
Wamena, Highland Papua (ANTARA) - Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka visited the Potikelek Traditional Market in Wamena, Jayawijaya District, to ensure the economy of the indigenous Papuan community in the area is running smoothly.
“During his visit to Potikelek Market, the Vice President wants to ensure that the local economy, especially that of indigenous women, is running well and optimally to support their livelihoods,” Chairman of the Executive Committee for the Acceleration of Special Autonomy Development in Papua (KEPPOKP) Veliv V. Wanggai said here on Wednesday.
He added that the local economy in Papua, especially in the Highland Papua region, is a major focus of the administration led by President Prabowo Subianto and Vice President and Gibran Rakabuming Raka.
“The acceleration of economy in Papua, particularly in the Highland Papua, is a major benchmark in the quick-win programs during the President-Vice President’s five-year leadership,” he said.
He explained that VP Gibran's visit to Wamena Public High School 1 was also aimed at ensuring the national flagship program, Free Nutritious Meals (MBG), can run effectively in the area.
“On the second day of his visit, apart from going to Potikelek Market, the Vice President also visited Wamena State High School 1 to ensure that the students, who represent the golden generation of Highland Papua, receive the MBG program properly,” he said.
He added that the MBG is a flagship government program which must be successfully implemented across all educational institutions in Indonesia.
“The VP certainly hopes that this visit will bring positive change, particularly in accelerating development in the Highland Papua, so that the welfare of the people across eight districts can be realized,” he said.
4) Concerns expressed over formation new development battalions in Papua
Jubi Papua – January 9, 2026
Larius Kogoya, Jayapura, Jubi – Reinhart Kmur, a legal aid officer from the Papua Legal Aid Foundation, (LBH Papua), says that the formation of three new Indonesian Military (TNI) battalions in three regencies in Papua has the potential to create human rights violations.
He said that this concern arose because so far the policy pattern for resolving conflict in the Land of Papua has always prioritised a security approach.
According to Reinhart Kmur, based on information gathered by the Papua LBH, the TNI has officially formed three new battalions in three regencies in Papua, namely in the regencies of Biak Numfor, Supiori and Waropen.
He said that the three battalions are new Territorial Development Battalion (TP) units which are prepared to carry out tasks in Papua supporting food security, infrastructure development, public health and economic empowerment to improve welfare and security in Papua.
"(The presence of) the three battalions has the potential to create violence and perpetuate the practice of human rights violations in Papua, because the amount of violence (which is committed by security forces) in Papua is always directly proportional to the implementation of security and armed approaches through military operations", said Kmur in a short message sent to Jubi in Jayapura, Papua, on Thursday January 8.
Kmur said that by using the authority as regulated in Article 100 of Law Number 39/1999 on Human Rights, he strongly criticised the addition of three new battalions in Papua Province.
"Additional military soldiers in Papua will only have implications for human rights violations and will add to the long list of human rights violations", he said.
Kmur said that the formation of the battalion would make people afraid of the presence of TNI personnel because the presence of a new battalion will of course be accompanied by the mobilisation of military soldiers.
"[This situation] is very dangerous in the midst of problems with the TNI institution, namely regarding professionalism and incidents of human rights violations", he said.
He said that the formation of new battalions on the pretext of supporting food security programs, infrastructure development, economic empowerment and other issues clearly violates the main duties and functions of the TNI in accordance with statutory regulations.
Earlier, the Kankain Karkara Byak Cultural Institute (KKB) together with tribal chiefs (Mananwir Bar Wamurem, Manfasfas Bar Wamurem and Manfun Kawsa Byak) stated that they reject the placement of TNI soldiers from the TP 858, TP 859 and TP 860 infantry (Yonif) battalions in the Byak traditional territory, Biak Numfor regency and Supiori regency, Papua.
This statement was conveyed to Jubi on Tuesday January 6 via telephone by the Kankain Karkara KKB and tribal chiefs who claim to represent the entire Byak traditional community through Byak Tribal Traditional Council chairperson Apollos Sroyer.
Sroyer said that the deployment of personnel from the TP 858, TP 859 and TP 860 infantry battalions in Biak Numfor, Supiori regency, began on November 29-30, 2025. Military personnel arrived in Biak using ships belonging to the Indonesian Navy (TNI AL).
"This shocked communities with the presence of the TNI battalion personnel. The approximate number of personnel from the three battalions deployed in Biak was 1,700", said Sroyer.
According to Sroyer, the TNI personnel are stationed at two different points. The TP 858 battalion is stationed in the Wamure or the East Biak traditional region and the TP 859 and TP 860 battalions are stationed in Supiori regency.
"(The) presence of (TNI) personnel is very worrying, and really disrupts the activities of indigenous communities in Biak Numfor and Supiori regencies, which are Byak traditional territories", he said.
He said that in general the public did not know that military personnel would be deployed at these locations. Only certain members of the public held limited meetings and closed meetings with the TNI, then released hundreds of thousands to hectares of land for the construction of TNI posts or headquarters.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Pembentukan Tiga Batalyon Di Papua Dinilai Berpotensi Menciptakan Pelanggaran HAM".]
As Indonesia ascends to the presidency of the UN Human Rights Council, the country has been described by a West Papuan independence campaigner as "unfit" to hold the position.
The criticism came from Benny Wenda, the president of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua, after last week's election of Indonesian diplomat Sidharto Suryodipuro to the Geneva-based role. Sidharto is taking over the rotational position from Switzerland's representative, Jürg Lauber.
Wenda claimed that Indonesia's appointment to the head of the Council "makes a mockery of the UN and their claim to uphold international law and human rights", given the country's human rights record in West Papua.
While violations related to Indonesia's military operations in Papua have been long canvassed by human rights defenders, outside access to Papua remains tightly restricted by Jakarta for foreign NGOs, humanitarian groups, media and even diplomats.
Yet from behind the cordon, signs continue to emerge of conflict between Indonesia's military forces and Papua's pro-independence movement, particularly its armed groups.
"Over 105,000 West Papuans are currently displaced due to Indonesian military operations," Wenda said, adding that "Indonesia holding the Presidency of the HRC in 2026 is akin to Apartheid South Africa leading it in 1980."
He said West Papuans had suffered breaches of international law on a daily basis for the past 63 years, not just in relation to violent conflict but through violations ranging from land rights being taken away to infringements on the right to freedom of speech.
Indonesia's government said it could not respond directly to Wenda's comments. But in a statement to RNZ Pacific, the government said of the council presidency that "we would like to emphasize on the issue of the enhancement of human rights protection that unfortunately nowadays become a worrying issue in most countries, be it developing or even developed countries".
"One of the instruments that we would like to utilize more is the Universal Periodic Review, especially since we already have a strong and established cooperation between related bodies, such as our National Commission on Human Rights and Te Kāhui Tika Tangata (New Zealand's Human Rights Commission)," the statement read.
According to the Indonesia-based Human Rights Watch researcher Andreas Harsono, the country is still grappling broadly with issues of human rights, including on religious freedom, and more scrutiny could help bring improvements. He said there was now at least some recognition in Indonesia of rights violations in Papua region.
"Indonesia has a very bad human rights record in West Papua. Even in Indonesia, many high ranking officials and military commanders recognise that. But at the same time, I think there are some efforts within Indonesia - including in the military - to be better," Harsono said. He added that the conflict in Papua is intensifying and spreading to new parts, with an increasing number of Indonesian troops deloying in the region and a growing amount of weapons held by West Papuan militants.
'Wishy washy talk'
One of Wenda's criticisms is that Indonesia has not met a repeated request - coming particularly from Pacific Islands Forum countries - for Jakarta to allow the Office of the UN Human Right Commissioner (OHCHR) to visit West Papua in order to observe the rights situation there.
"For seven years, they have refused to admit the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, ignoring the repeated demand of over 110 countries, including all members of the EU commission, the United States, the Netherlands, and the UK," Wenda said.
Harsono noted that the much talked about OHCHR visit had not gone ahead, saying "Indonesia is very good at wishy washy talk in delaying things, that's what the Indonesian diplomats did over this UN visit to West Papua."
There's no hiding that diplomacy has been strained over the issue - two years ago, Indonesia's government told the UN resident coordinator in Jakarta, Valerie Julliand, to immediately leave the country due to UN criticism regarding human rights in West Papua.
Whether Sidharto can use his new position to finally pave the way for a visit to Papua by the OHCHR is unclear, but following his election in Geneva the ambassador promised an open approach.
"I will engage closely with all Member States, observers, non-member States, specialized institutions, national human rights institutions, civil society organizations, and regional organizations, recognizing their vital role in the human rights architecture," Sidharto said.
Meanwhile, Indonesia's Minister for Human Rights, the West Papuan Natalius Pigai, said Indonesia would use the position to counter breaches of international law in Venezuela and elsewhere. However it was notable, Harsono said, that Pigai had rarely spoken of the issue of West Papua in his capacity as minister.
The patterns of genocide, or the various ways humans go about killing large groups of other humans and their attempted justifications for doing so, are so sadly predictable or systematised that, in the case of West Papua, if you take just a small sample, say the last three months, about 2.5% of 60-plus years of Indonesian mass slaughter and environmental destruction, the fragmentary forms are recognisable enough to produce a picture of the ghastly whole. Very few people talk or protest about the genocide in West Papua, and this is one more element of the general picture: the coverup by the so-called international system because the frame of the West Papua mosaic extends way beyond the outline of the island of New Guinea.
Isolated incidents are sometimes mentioned in the mainstream press, a village bombed here, a couple of teenagers shot there, rainforest (as if it were simply a bunch of trees) devastated, but the real context isn’t given. The real context is genocide and ecocide, but experts tend to pussyfoot around their own cognitive dissonance with tricky questions about whether there’s intent. The action of genocide is discussed more than its effects, which are many forms of appalling pain. But trying to come to grips with that would mean recognising the victims and giving them voice as fellow and equal human beings. The patterns of the mosaic scream intent and the screams are those of real people, the victims. Every single fragment, if you understand it’s not alone, screams intent, and not just intent of the immediate perpetrators but of all their enablers.
Before dawn on 15 October last year, Indonesian troops surrounded a men’s communal house in Soanggamavillage, in the Intan Jaya regency (site of the huge, heavily militarised Wabu Block gold ore deposit with, needless to say, active and retired military among its prominent investors) destroyed it and shot and killed eight people. They also captured, tortured, and murdered other men, as well as torturing and raping a woman who tried to flee but drowned in the Hiabu river. This kind of assault is no novelty in West Papua where, inscribed in the annals of brutality, are similar raids in Wamena 2003 (25 villages attacked, arbitrary arrests, torture, evictions after which 42 died of starvation, and other physical violence), Wasior 2001 (four dead, 39 tortured, some to death, one rape, five disappeared, destruction of property), Biak 1998 (approximately 150 killed, where “the sky was on fire”, where one victim declared, “A lit candle was penetrated inside me, they cut off my clitoris and they raped me”, and further evidence from villagers was apparently destroyed by the Australian Department of Defence), Abepura 2000 (three students killed, a hundred people detained, and dozen beaten and tortured), Wamena 2023 (nine dead, seventeen shot), and many other episodes of violence. Immediately after the attack on Soanggama last October, four members of the West Papua Liberation Army were killed in a drone attack in Kiwirok, which was also bombed in October 2021, after which at least 200 displaced people died of starvation. These atrocities, actual or their always-looming possibility, violence and feared violence, are part of everyday life.
And what happened? After all these crimes, which have displaced more than 100,000 people, the response has been silence from political leaders everywhere, despite video evidence, for example that provided by the Ngalum Kupel people of the Star Mountains. For years, West Papuan leaders have been seeking foreign policy support from Pacific nations for their country’s independence, as well as full membership status (which the non-Melanesian nation Indonesia has) in the Melanesian Spearhead Group, international support for UN access to West Papua, cancellation of bilateral agreements with Indonesia, and sponsorship of the West Papua case in the International Court of Justice. All in vain. On the other half of the island, shared by the same Melanesian people, many of them close relatives in areas sliced through by the colonial border, the prime minister, James Marape says that Papua New Guinea, independent since 1975, has “no right at all, to encroach into the sovereignty issue discussion [regarding West Papua]”, which is his version of a legalese cover for genocide.
Meanwhile, in the wider world, Australia, Papua New Guinea, and Indonesia are negotiating a trilateral defence pact with the purported aims of improved cooperation on “border management, maritime security, intelligence sharing, counter-smuggling and crisis preparedness”. The Indonesian representative, General Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin is well knownfor serious crimes (including murder, mass sexual violence, enforced disappearances, torture, displacement of populations, and arbitrary arrests) against human rights in East Timor (1976 and 1990), Aceh (1980), and West Papua (1987). Great Britain has a large economic stake in West Papua through companies closely connected with deforestation, mining, and gas production, including Prudential, HSBC and Legal & General (backing palm oil production in Merauke, the world’s largest deforestation project), Barclays, the Railways Pension Trustee Company, and Royal London (shares in the Freeport-McMoRan mine, which discharges some 300,000 tonnes of untreated waste into local rivers every day), the British-Australian mining company Rio Tinto, and then—no show without Punch—there’s BP, lead owner of the Tangguh LNG facility, which has displaced local villages, trashed mangrove forests, and will generate more than 1.5 billion tonnes of carbon emissions in its operative lifetime. The EU is no slouch either when it comes to dressing genocide complicity as business. In September, despite severe criticism, it signed the Indonesia-EU Economic Partnership Agreement in its attempts to limit reliance on the United States, especially after the imposition of Donand Trump’s tariffs.
One of the worst aspects of the overall picture is that it’s almost impossible to depict the real suffering of the actual people and other forms of life that are also being tortured—for example cassowaries and orangutangs (the name in Malay, orang hutan means “person of the forest”) and thousands of other species dying deprived of a habitat—because one of the bits of the mosaic is an almost total gagging of any firsthand expression of what the inhabitants of West Papua have been subjected to all these years. Papua Food Estate, a recent documentary about the huge-scale destruction of human and natural habitats in West Papua for monocropping, gives some idea. And giving an idea through the voices of affected people, it also gives another idea of how much isn’t allowed to be said. The fragmentary form of news items over the last three months of 2025 are further proof of this.
West Papua is assaulted in “small” ways with attacks on individuals, groups, and villages, and in large ways dressed up as feeding people or clean energy, as with Indonesian president Prabowo Subianto’s food estates. In September he issued presidential instructions for an eight billion dollar deforestation project of 250,000 hectares of palm oil plantations for biodiesel around the Merauke Food Estate, plus 180 hectares for a new airport, as well as a new highway. One supporter of the project is Brazil’s supposedly progressive president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva who, not ignorant of what the environmental and human consequences are, and instead of focusing on the dire state of the Amazon rainforest, has offered to help Indonesia to develop fuels mixed with bioethanol via agreements worth $5 billion. There are many more politicians and business moguls who are attacking this ecosystem of more than 70 million years old, rainforests that constitute one of Earth’s most diverse biomes.
Further plans include pet projects of East Timor-born Joao Angelo De Sousa Mota, former president-director of the state-owned food company Agrinas Pangan Nusantara and recipient of an award given by none other than Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin for service to “national unity” (involving killing almost 40% of the East Timorese population using starvation, sexual violence, and chemical weapons, operations overseen by Prabowo Subianto and carried out by Sjafrie Sjamsoedin). His plans include 200,000 hectares of rice and cassava estates in West Papua. An important aspect of this destruction is that Prabowo is mobilising the army and his connections with oligarchs (for example, Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin’s cousin Andi Syamsuddin Arsyad, founder of the Jhonlin Group conglomerate, into coal mining and palm oil, one of Southeast Asia’s leading deforesters, and known for using armed forces to intimidate journalists and activists) to push it through. Indonesian troops are not only protecting construction workers and land-clearing machinery, but are actively razing rainforest. A total of three million hectares have already been earmarked for industrial agriculture. Prabowo’s Minister for Forestry, Raja Juli Antoni, says that twenty million hectares will undergo industrial conversion but has not disclosed where. His plans augur ill for West Papua, especially after the recent deforestation-caused Sumatra floods that took more than 1,100 lives and left 1.2 million homeless.
Reports on harm to local communities, Indigenous population displacement, human rights abuse, land grabbing, deforestation, destruction of Indigenous food systems, ecological damage, and labour exploitation are ignored because, as happened in the Sumatra floods, the worst effects of the resulting climate breakdown crush powerless people who have done least to cause it, people taking the brunt of the disaster, Indigenous peoples, and especially women and girls. And they lack the means to protest or, rather, to be heard. Meanwhile, in the first three days of 2026, the world’s richest 1% exhausted its “carbon budget” (as if they really did “budget”, which is just another example of coverup language). Exploiting resources from countries like West Papua, these powerful people are contributing a huge piece of the genocide mosaic, the part that’s always decked out in elegance, luxurious houses, cars, clothes, jewellery, makeup, coiffing, good manners, important contacts, and celebrity circles. To quote from Shakespeare’s Richard III, their entitlement and the suffering they cause make them “unfit for any place but hell”. And that’s what they might get if they end up in their climate catastrophe bunkers.
There used to be a few niceties about genocide, if trying to hide it could be called a “nicety”. But, now in the age of Trump, niceties have become blatancy, bragging even. Just check out his recently published National Security Strategy. The threat that anything goes is barely concealed in this vision of diplomacy: “The purpose of foreign policy is the protection of core national interest”. Pushing things further, Trump declares he doesn’t need international law because he has his “own morality”. He changes the meaning of words like morality (“principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behaviour”) so that when “morality” is magicked into a dictator’s “morality” it’s no longer possible to say that genocide is wrong because it’s right for the dictator.
Not to be outdone in unfitness for any place but hell, the Indonesian president, war criminal Prabowo Subianto, has named his former father-in-law, Suharto—whose regime, it is reliably estimated, killed between 500,000 and a million people in 1965-1967 and imprisoned almost two million more without trial—a “national hero” (a dictionary hero being “a person who is admired for their courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities”). Maybe Prabowo felt the need to puff up his connections with the Suharto family (looted wealth, some $35 billion, almost 220 times Prabowo’s fortune, as estimated eleven years ago) through his former wife Titiek, Suharto’s second daughter, politician, businesswoman and still ally, but more important is the message he wants to convey. If kleptocrat, mass murderer Suharto is named a national hero, massacres will inevitably follow. This “strongman” is a symbol of mass murder. Look at his record. Look at who named him a hero and you’ll find all the patterns of genocide, corruption, and not just in money terms but of all values. Genocidaires don’t kill only for money but for greed and power, whatever the cost to anyone or anything else. And they turn the evil of their amorality into “morality”.
A genocide needs connections and Prabowo is almost certainly reminding the “international system” of the favours his “hero” former father-in-law did for the system’s oligarchs. The Suharto dictatorship secured US interests in Southeast Asia (during the Vietnam War years) once the purge-by-mass-murder of the Indonesian Communist Party was consummated in favour of the US capitalist strategy of crushing communism, no matter where, no matter how. And Suharto’s legacy remained. The whole system he built on the Dutch colonial repressive apparatus, Sukarno era decrees like Eradicating Subversive Activities (1963), his own KOPKAMTIB (Operational Command for the Restoration of Security and Order) Cleansing Decision (1968), and GOLKAR the dictatorship party, sometimes with new names (and sometimes not, just to remind people what happens if they protest), remained equally operative through the so-called “reformation”, the so-called civilian governments of Abdurraman Wahid (1999-2001), Megawati Sukarnoputri (2001-2004), Yudoyono (2004-2014), and Joko Widowo (2014-2024). Almost every village and family in Indonesia was affected by the crimes of Suharto’s coup d’etat but, evidently no justice was or will be done in a system where a kleptocratic mass murderer can be named a national hero. Joshua Oppenheimer’s devastating film An Act of Killingmakes this terribly clear.
Franz Neumann observes in Behemoth: The Structure and Practice of National Socialism, 1933-1944 (first published in 1942),
When it becomes ‘political’ justice breeds hatred and contempt among those it singles out for attack. Those whom it favours, on the other hand, develop a profound contempt for the very value of justice; they know it can be purchased for the powerful. As a device for strengthening one political group at the expense of others … law then threatens the fundamental convictions upon which the tradition of our civilization rests.
In Indonesia, the nature and scale of the carnage and the fake trials “all but destroyed the ‘juridical person’ … Justice is perverted when it is confined to a call for procedural norms against such a background of mass murder”. And one result is that mass murder continues. So, genocidal actions should be understood not only as the specific crimes that are perpetrated but as the whole system that allows, encourages, and repeats them for the benefit of the few who run it. The principle extends beyond Indonesia and its dictatorial structures, which were seen as a promising investment for other powers. For example US aid quadrupled to US$546 million in 1968 after which it shot up to $1.22 billion in 1972.
In The Killing Season: A History of the Indonesian Massacres, 1965-1966, Geoffrey B. Robinson writes of horrific events that occurred sixty years ago.
“Bound and gagged, they were then lined up and shot at the edge of mass graves, or hacked to pieces with machetes and knives… Many were subjected to sexual abuse and violence before and after their killing; men were castrated, and women had their vaginas and breasts sliced or pierced with knives. Corpses, heads, and other body parts were displayed on roads as well as in markets and other public places” (p.7).
He continues, “[…] most died in isolated killing fields—in plantations, ravines, and rice fields, or on beaches and riverbanks—in thousands of rural villages dotted across the archipelago.” (p.123). The same patterns are recognisable in West Papua today, although some of the weapons used against the Indigenous people are now more sophisticated than the “knives, sickles, machetes, swords, ice picks, bamboo spears, iron rods, and other everyday implements” Robinson describes. And like the IDF forces in Palestine forces, the TNI troops in West Papua make videos trying to normalise the atrocities they’re committing.
Genocide isn’t just about episodes of killing and how many died. The usually overlooked or hidden point is the means of it—and here I refer to the so-called international system, the Godfather of it all—and why, by whom, and for whom. When, after his attack on Venezuela and kidnapping its president and its wife, and killing nearly eighty people in doing so, Trump gloated on Fox News, “This incredible thing last night … We have to do it again [in other countries]. We can do it again, too. Nobody can stop us”, he gave the context in which all crimes against humanity, all crimes against the planet itself, must be understood. In The Jakarta Method: Washington’s Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped our World (2020), Vincent Bevins shows how Washington saw the “Jakarta method” as a blueprint for other crimes in other countries. The threat which, for three years, painted on walls or written on postcards sent to Allende’s colleagues in the Popular Socialist party, heralded the 1973 Pinochet coup in Chile, was “Jakarta is coming”, and those to whom it was addressed understood the message of a coming terrible violence. In Brazil, the 1970s US-supported plan of the military dictatorship to eliminate the communist party (PCB) and other leftists was called Operação Jacarta (Operation Jakarta).
The consequences, though apparently unconnected, never stop rippling out. With the tourist boom that followed when the Suharto regime privatised communal land and wallowed in foreign investment, a Bali killing field in Seminyak became a chic beach club. But atrocities attract more atrocities. The tourist boom has gobbled up traditional rice paddies, strained infrastructure, choked the island with traffic and waste, and caused cultural conflict. The bombing attack of 12 October 2002, which killed 202 people in the adjacent Kuta area, is just one indirect and not so distant result of Suharto’s “heroism”.
The antecedents are all documented and, now with all the outright bragging, it’s not difficult to identify the perpetrators who are pulling everyone and everything into their system. “Genocide”, especially after the open depravity of Israel’s destruction of Gaza, isn’t a serious word anymore. It’s not serious because it’s been stripped of its real meaning: the immense, the unspeakable physical suffering, mental torment, and grief inflicted on vast numbers of our fellow humans. The bitter truth is that, whether genocide is blatant or dressed up as “food estates”, the capitalist system has created a world in which it’s acceptable. For decades now, the genocide mosaic has been coming together in small and large pieces, but few want to read its real shape, let alone create a different caring mosaic of a world that’s truly democratic and free. Basically, modern civilisation has converted into genocide what, long ago, was called human sacrifice, the ritualistic killing of humans and animals to appease deities or fulfil elite social obligations. Now the altars are those of mammon, and the deities are the tiny percentage of the world’s population that controls everything, people for whom no crime is too abhorrent. This is the terrible message of the mosaic they’re making.
3) Police violence against a student free speech rally in Jayapura
13 January 2026 / 3 minutes of reading
On 8 December 2025, police officers carried out acts of intimidation and physical violence against students during a peaceful free speech rally at the P3 Uncen Atas bus stop, Jayapura City, in the Papua province. The incident resulted in physical assault and an attempted arbitrary detention of 17-year-old Yeheskiel Walela, a student of SMA YPPK Taruna Dharma, who suffered injuries to his right shoulder and chest after being struck by police officers (see photos and video below, independent HRDs).
The incident occurred when students affiliated with West Papua Student Solidarity (SPWP) held a public free speech rally at around 2:30 pm as part of their Christmas activities and to express opposition to the government’s Free Nutritious Food (MBG) programme. The students argued that, in the context of the Papuan provinces, priority should be given to free education and adequate health services rather than symbolic food programmes. Shortly after the rally began, police officers arrived at the location and immediately engaged in repressive actions, including intimidation, confiscation of pamphlets and rally equipment, and the forcible dispersal of participants without prior dialogue.
According to witness statements, police officers struck Yeheskiel Walela with their hands on his chest and right shoulder, causing him pain and distress. The officers then attempted to detain and take him away from the scene. A video recorded by a bystander confirms these allegations (see photos and video below, independent HRDs). Only after intervention and negotiations by fellow students was Yeheskiel released. Other participants reported being verbally intimidated and forced to disperse under threat of arrest.
Human rights analysis
From a human rights perspective, this incident constitutes a serious violation of the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, as guaranteed under Article 19 and Article 21 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Indonesia is a State Party. The use of physical force against peaceful demonstrators, particularly minors, also raises concerns under Article 7 ICCPR and the Convention against Torture (CAT), which prohibit torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment. The attempted arrest without lawful grounds further indicates arbitrary deprivation of liberty, contrary to Article 9 ICCPR.
Under Indonesian law, the police interventions are inconsistent with the Indonesian Criminal Procedure Code (KUHAP), which requires clear legal grounds, proportionality, and due process in any arrest or use of force by law enforcement officials. The confiscation of pamphlets and rally materials and the forced dispersal of a peaceful assembly also undermine constitutional guarantees of civil liberties.
Ahead of World Human Rights Day on 10 December 2025, this case reflects a broader pattern of shrinking civic space and repression of student activismby Papuans in Indonesia. Authorities should cease repressive practices, ensure accountability for police officers involved in acts of violence, and guarantee that students and citizens can safely exercise their fundamental freedoms without fear of intimidation, assault, or arbitrary arrest.
Police officers attempt to detain Yeheskiel Walela and pull him away from the protest site at Permunas III, Jayapura, on 8 December 2025
Bruises on Yeheskiel Walela’s shoulder and chest following the police violence on 8 December 2025
4) Jayapura Police intimidate, arbitrarily detain, and ill-treat peaceful political activists in Sentani
13 January 2026 / 3 minutes of reading
On 6 December 2025, Jayapura Resort Police (Polres Jayapura) officers forcefully dispersed a peaceful assembly organised by the West Papua National Committee (KNPB)at the BTN Matoa Field, Sentani, Jayapura Regency. During the crackdown, officers intimidated and arbitrarily arrested six participants. Twelve activists were subjected to ill-treatment during the incident. The assembly was held to commemorate the 11th anniversary of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) and to distribute leaflets for a peaceful action for World Human Rights Day on 10 December 2025.
Between 08:20 am and 09:50 am, KNPB members and supporters arrived at BTN Matoa Field from various parts of Sentani to attend the ULMWP anniversary commemorations. At approximately 11:00 am, police officers approached the location. Some KNPB representatives attempted to engage in dialogue and clarify the nature of the activity.
Despite the attempt to de-escalate the situation, police personnel allegedly launched an indiscriminate assault, using rubber batons, bamboo sticks, rattan canes, boots, and physical force. Participants were beaten at the scene, including women and young adults. At least six individuals were forcibly arrested, while others fled the area in fear. By 11:2o pm, the police had transported the detainees and two confiscated motorcycles to the Jayapura District Police Station (Polres Jayapura) in Doyo Baru, Sentani. Victims reported that beatings continued during transport and that no access to legal counsel or medical assistance was provided while in custody.
The six detainees were released the following day, on 7 December 2025, due to public pressure from civil society organisations, churches, and human rights defenders. The police neither pressed criminal charges against the detainees nor did they present arrest warrants or clear legal grounds for the deprivation of liberty.
Human rights analysis
This incident reflects an ongoing pattern of shrinking civic and democratic space in West Papua, where peaceful political expression is routinely met with repressive policing. The conduct of the Jayapura Police raises serious concerns under international and Indonesian human rights law. The violent dispersal of a peaceful gathering constitutes a violation of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association, as protected under Article 21 and Article 22 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and Article 28E(3) of the 1945 Constitution of Indonesia.
The use of excessive and indiscriminate force against unarmed civilians, including beatings causing visible injuries, is inconsistent with the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials, which require necessity, proportionality, and accountability. The reported assaults may also amount to ill-treatment under Article 7 ICCPR and Article 33 of Indonesia’s Human Rights Law (Law No. 39 of 1999).
Furthermore, the arbitrary arrest and short-term detention of six individuals without a clear legal basis, access to lawyers, or prompt judicial oversight violates Article 9 ICCPR and provisions of Indonesia’s Criminal Procedure Code (KUHAP). The confiscation of personal property without due process and the intimidation of participants further demonstrate a pattern of criminalisation of peaceful political expression in the Papuan provinces.
Table of victims
No
Name
Age
Violation
Injuries / Treatment
1
Frengky Kogoya
N/A
Ill-treatment
Bleeding lip
2
Dortius Tengket
N/A
Ill-treatment
Bleeding lip
3
Lukas Deal
N/A
Ill-treatment
Injury to the back of the head
4
Thyna Lokon
N/A
Ill-treatment
Severe head wound with bleeding
5
Rambo Wenda
N/A
Ill-treatment
Injuries to the head and hands
6
Erson T. Kalaka
N/A
Ill-treatment
Arm injury
7
Elky Matuan
N/A
Ill-treatment
Arm injury
8
Meage Fernando Pase
20
Arbitrary arrest, ill-treatment
Beaten over the entire body
9
Alex Tepmul
19
Arbitrary arrest, ill-treatment
Injuries to the eye and body
10
Melky Pase
18
Arbitrary arrest, ill-treatment
Head, hand, and shoulder injuries
11
Ido Udam
18
Arbitrary arrest, ill-treatment
Head injuries
12
Demanus Deal
24
Arbitrary arrest, ill-treatment
Injuries to the forehead, temple, and wrist
13
Nesta Enambere
17
Arbitrary arrest
Protesters show the injuries they sustained as a result of police violence in Sentani on 6 December 2025
Police members s entered the Matoa Field in Sentani to disperse the crowd on 6 December 2025
KNPB members and supporters gather at the Polres Jayapuraayapura to demand the immediate release of the six activists detained in Sentani on 5 December 2025
