2) Nabire District Police carries out violent raid and arbitrary arrests
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http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/335069/indonesia-says-mass-papuan-arrest-claim-is-wrong
1) Indonesia says mass Papuan arrest claim is wrong
8:08 pm on 13 July 2017
The Indonesia government says claims of mass arrests of West Papuans in the past two weeks are wrong.
Earlier this week the Australia West Papua Association called for Canberra to press Jakarta over the arrests in the city of Nabire of about 150 Papuans, mostly members of the pro-independence West Papua National Committee, or KNPB.
But a statement from the Indonesian Embassy in Wellington says these arrests did not happen.
It says only one KNPB sympathiser was arrested on July 1st and released the next day.
The statement says two other Papuans were detained on 2 July and held for questioning.
It statement confirms a demonstration at the police station over the arrest of these two men but notes that by July 7th the KNPB members were all returned to where they had come from after they had signed a declaration that they would not violate law and order.
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ICP report on Nabire incident. Full ICP-Human Rights Update West Papua – 2nd Quarter 2017 below
- Published on Friday, 07 July 2017 09:18
Human rights defenders of the Papuan Tabernacle Church (KINGMI Papua) have reported that police forces of the district police carried out raids in Nabire, the capitol city of Nabire Regency. The raids took place on the 29 June 2017 in the so-called 'Karang Barat' complex, which is mainly inhabited by indigenous Papuans. Police forces used tear gas and water cannons against the residents. The reason for the raid remains currently unclear.
Inandus Mote (20 years old) was arbitrarily arrested as he witnessed police officers opening fire at the complex. Inandus was brought to the Nabire district police headquarters where officers tortured him by repeatedly beating him in the face. As a result of the torture, Inandus Mote sustained swellings around both eyes and a bleeding nose and mouth. Frederika Pigome (35 years) died on 1 July 2017 after she had inhaled the teargas. A teargas grenade in front of her window had caused the quick spreading of a concentrated amount of tear gas inside her room, where she had been resting in her bed. Most residents of the 'Karang Barat' fled their house to wash off the tear gas residues in the nearby Nabire River.
On 1 July 2017, police officers of the Nabire District Police arbitrarily arrested Yanto Waine (23 years) as he was preparing copies of leaflets for a political discussion organized by the West Papua National Committee (KNPB). When other KNPB members found out on 4 July 2017 that Yanto Waine had been arrested, 30 KNPB members – among them Agus Pigai, Henok Tebai, Marthinus Goo and Kristina Yeimo – went to the the Nabire Distict Police office to demand his release. Police officers arrested the KNPB members, forced them to open their shirts and subsequently tortured the activists using rifle butts, wooden sticks and bare hands. 28 detainees were released the same day while two KNPB leaders named Andi Ekapia Yeimo (26 years) and Samuel Wespa Kobepa (24 years) remained in custody.
On 5 July 2017 approximately 250 KNPB supporters had gathered to conduct a peaceful long march to the Nabire District Police headquarters in order to demand the release of the three KNPB arrestees. Police officers blocked the protesters in front KODIM 1705 military headquarters, where they arrested 89 KNPB supporters while the rest of the protesters were able to escape. Subsequently, the arrestees were brought to Nabaruan Sub-district Police Station, where they were interrogated and forced to take off their shirts (see images on top). As a human rights defender tried to enter the police station, the Nabaruan Police Chief prevented him from visiting the arrestees and insisted to check his mobile phone.
Around 4:00 pm the head of Nabaruan sub-district police asked the supporters to enter police trucks, telling them that they would be released and brought home. However, instead of releasing the KNPB supporters, the arrestees were moved to the Nabire district police station where police officers tortured each arrestee with wooden sticks and metal bars. According to human rights activists the officers particularly targeted their heads, the spine and chest during the beatings. Subsequently, the KNPB supporters were detained at the district police station for 24 hours. The police officers did not allow them to defecate or urinate during custody. All 92 KNPB supporters were released on 7 July 2017, at 7:00 pm.
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ICP-Human Rights Update West Papua – 2nd Quarter 2017
- Published on Saturday, 08 July 2017 03:37
In the second quarter of 2017, the number of torture and ill-treatment cases has significantly increased while the cases of extra-judicial killings have dropped in comparison to the previous quarter of 2017. While the months January to April 2017 were comparatively quiet in terms of political arrests, activists and human rights defenders reported at least 321 political arrests during the second quarter of 2017, which mainly occurred in May. One can observe a greater variety of violations during the reporting period covering also violations against human rights defenders, political arrests and violations of the right to health. The strategy to criminalize peaceful political activists with treason charges continues to be commonly applied by law enforcement agencies in West Papua. The violations during this reporting period were equally committed by members of police and military units. At least four cases with the involvement of police officers were brought to the attention of police-internal investigation body PROPAM between April and June.
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