2) Government to pursue human right violation case
3) Father Demands Justice for Son Killed by Indonesian Troops in Papua Protests
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1) Indonesian military say Papuan separatist killed in shootout
FEBRUARY 19, 2020 / 9:54 PM / UPDATED 8 HOURS AGO
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesian security forces shot dead an 18-year-old Papuan separatist during a shootout, a military spokesman said on Wednesday, though a separatist group disputed the account and said the victim was a civilian.
Remote Papua, the country’s easternmost region, has been plagued by a simmering separatist conflict since the former Dutch colony was incorporated into Indonesia after a widely criticized, U.N.-backed referendum in 1969.
Eko Daryanto, a military spokesman, said in a statement the shootout erupted on Tuesday when a patrol of soldiers and police clashed with separatists.
“Not long after the shootout, the joint forces cleaned up the site and retrieved items of evidence,” he said, adding the body of a separatist was found at the scene.
But Sebby Sambom, a spokesman for the West Papua National Liberation Army, a separatist group, denied his members had been in the area at the time and said the victim was a civilian.
“There was no shootout ... the security forces cracked down on villages,” he said.
Since coming to power in 2014, President Joko Widodo has pledged to speed up development and open up access in Papua, but in spite of a rise in investment and efforts to tackle some human rights problems, activists say abuses by the security forces persist.
This month, the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) released its findings into an investigation of a five-year-old case, accusing the military of “gross human rights violations” in connection with the shooting dead of four teenagers in Papua in December 2014.
The four were killed when a protest over the alleged abuse of a child turned violent in the town of Enarotali and security forces opening fire on protesters after being attacked by the crowd.
Officials said at the time the government was striving to resolve rights issues in Papua but faced a five-decade accumulation of socio-economic and political problems.
Chief Security Minister Mahfud MD was cited by media on Wednesday as saying the government would follow-up on the findings of the report.
Amnesty International said in a 2018 report that Indonesian security forces in Papua have unlawfully killed at least 95 people in the eight years since 2010.
Reporting by Agustinus Beo Da Costa; Writing by Stanley Widianto; Editing by Ed Davies and Robert Birsel
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2) Government to pursue human right violation case
6 hours ago
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Government will act on a report of Komnas HAM on alleged human rights violations in Paniai, Papua, on December 7 and 8, 2014, Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Mahfud MD stated. The process to make the report transparent to the public would be followed up, Mahfud assured.
"The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), is a state institution established under the law. Its authority is based on the law. I assure that it (the report) would be followed up, and not secretly," Mahfud said at the Presidential Palace Complex here Wednesday.
The transparent process would allow the public to monitor the progress of the case, he added.
"If there are any difficulties, people should know it. This is democratic statesmanship," he noted.
However, the minister refused to comment further on the issue as he had yet to receive an official report. He would study the report once he received it, he said.
"After we receive (the report) we can make a follow-up, study it, and whether we can proceed to the next move. We will see to this later," he said.
Komnas HAM in its plenary session on February 3 has categorized the Paniai incident on December 7 and 8, 2014 in Papua as a serious human rights violation.
The commission has conducted investigations from 2015 to 2020, interviewed 26 witnesses, examined the scene in Enarotali, Paniai District, studied related documents and sought the opinion of experts.
"After a thorough discussion in the plenary session, we have decided by acclamation that the Paniai incident on December 7 and 8, 2014 was a serious human rights violation," Komnas HAM chief Ahmad Taufan Damanik said in a statement.
The case met the criteria of a systematic, widespread attack against the civilian population during the incident, the commission's investigation concluded.
The investigation team concluded that members of the XVII/ Cendrawasih military command and sub-commands in Enarotali were responsible for the killing of four young men. Twenty-one indigenous Papuans sustained injuries as the security forces opened fire at the crowd. The ad-hoc team also found indications of violations committed by members of the police. However, these violations could not be categorized as serious human rights violations.
Komnas HAM submitted the results of the investigation to the Attorney General on February 11, 2020.
Related news: Government`s intention to settle human rights violation in Papua remains strong
Related news: Lack of evidence stalls human rights violations settlement
"The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), is a state institution established under the law. Its authority is based on the law. I assure that it (the report) would be followed up, and not secretly," Mahfud said at the Presidential Palace Complex here Wednesday.
The transparent process would allow the public to monitor the progress of the case, he added.
"If there are any difficulties, people should know it. This is democratic statesmanship," he noted.
However, the minister refused to comment further on the issue as he had yet to receive an official report. He would study the report once he received it, he said.
"After we receive (the report) we can make a follow-up, study it, and whether we can proceed to the next move. We will see to this later," he said.
Komnas HAM in its plenary session on February 3 has categorized the Paniai incident on December 7 and 8, 2014 in Papua as a serious human rights violation.
The commission has conducted investigations from 2015 to 2020, interviewed 26 witnesses, examined the scene in Enarotali, Paniai District, studied related documents and sought the opinion of experts.
"After a thorough discussion in the plenary session, we have decided by acclamation that the Paniai incident on December 7 and 8, 2014 was a serious human rights violation," Komnas HAM chief Ahmad Taufan Damanik said in a statement.
The case met the criteria of a systematic, widespread attack against the civilian population during the incident, the commission's investigation concluded.
The investigation team concluded that members of the XVII/ Cendrawasih military command and sub-commands in Enarotali were responsible for the killing of four young men. Twenty-one indigenous Papuans sustained injuries as the security forces opened fire at the crowd. The ad-hoc team also found indications of violations committed by members of the police. However, these violations could not be categorized as serious human rights violations.
Komnas HAM submitted the results of the investigation to the Attorney General on February 11, 2020.
Related news: Government`s intention to settle human rights violation in Papua remains strong
Related news: Lack of evidence stalls human rights violations settlement
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3) Father Demands Justice for Son Killed by Indonesian Troops in Papua Protests
Victor Mambor Jayapura, Indonesia 2020-02-18
The father of a high school student who was one of four protesters killed by soldiers in Indonesia’s troubled Papua province in 2014 demanded justice for his son, a day after the National Commission on Human Rights ruled the shooting “a gross violation.”
Alpius Gobai, Yulian Yeimo, and Alpius Youw – all 17 – and fellow student Simon Degei, 18 were shot and killed during anti-Jakarta protests in Paniai regency on Dec. 8, 2014. Violence erupted in Enarotali, the regency’s capital, after two soldiers who had been challenged by local teenagers the previous day for reckless driving allegedly attacked the youths, seriously injuring one of them.
“We want the perpetrators to be tried and punished according to the law. My child is dead and he won’t come back, but the culprits must be tried,” Obet Gobai, the father of Alpius, told BenarNews on Tuesday.
He was speaking from Paniai, through a relative who interpreted for him. Obet does not speak Indonesian but said the shootings occurred in broad daylight and were witnessed by many people.
On Monday, more than five years after the killings, a team set up by the national commission known as Komnas HAM – an independent body – concluded that soldiers were responsible for the incident.
“By acclamation, we decided that it was a gross violation of human rights,” Komnas HAM Chairman Ahmad Taufan Damanik said in the statement.
Team leader M. Choirul Anam said the Paniai incident met criteria necessary for a gross human rights violation, saying it was part of a pattern of “widespread or systematic crimes directed against a civilian population.”
The team questioned 26 witnesses, inspected the scene of the shootings in Enarotali, examined documents and consulted experts during its investigation, the commission said.
The team also found indications of “obstruction of justice” in the aftermath of the shootings, Choirul said.
It submitted a report on the investigation to the Attorney General’s Office on Feb. 11.
Meanwhile, human rights activists called on Indonesian leader Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to act on the report.
“We urge the president to take concrete steps following Komnas HAM’s investigation into the Paniai incident and to order the attorney general to immediately conduct an investigation,” Yati Andriani, coordinator for the Commission on Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (KontraS), told BenarNews.
Yati said the report could be the first step in efforts to heal the wounds of the Papuan people. She also called on Jokowi to start a dialogue with Papuans and end what she called “the militaristic approach.”
John Gobay, secretary of the Papuan Customary Council, urged the government to establish a human rights court in Papua where the Paniai case could be tried.
“The Papuan public must be able to see the judicial process with their own eyes. If a human rights court is established in Papua, it will be easier for witnesses to testify,” Gobay said.
Chief of staff: ‘No structural of systematic attacks’
In Jakarta, presidential Chief of Staff Moeldoko challenged the Komnas report. The Paniai incident was not a gross human rights violation, he insisted, adding there were no orders for soldiers to shoot.
“Paniai was a sudden event. It must be seen in that context because there were no structural or systematic attacks,” Moeldoko said on Monday.
Moeldoko, who commanded the Indonesian military at the time of the shooting, said soldiers were responding to an attack by the crowd.
“Don’t make an inaccurate conclusion,” Moeldoko said.
AI speaks out on Papua
On Tuesday, the director of the Indonesian chapter of Amnesty International said the Paniai case was one of many attacks allegedly conducted by the military in Papua.
“According to a 2018 Amnesty report, the Paniai case was only one of a total of 69 extra-judicial killings that occurred from 2008 to early 2018,” Usman Hamid said.
Meanwhile, Mahfud MD, the coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs, said he had not seen the report.
“I have not received the letter. I just read about it in the news. Why should I make statements to the media?” Mahfud told reporters at the presidential palace in Jakarta on Tuesday.
In a report released a year after the shootings, Amnesty and KontraS said the Paniai case was “not an isolated incident but speaks to a culture of impunity that continues to exist in the Papua region.”
“Previous administrations have also turned a blind eye to human rights violations carried out by security forces, including unlawful killings, excessive use of force, and torture and other ill-treatment, which is evident from investigations that have been delayed, dropped, or their findings buried, leaving victims and their families without access to truth, justice and reparations,” the groups said.
The Papua region, which makes up the Indonesian half of New Guinea island, is home to a separatist insurgency that has simmered for decades. The region was incorporated into Indonesia in 1969, after a U.N.-administered ballot known as the Act of Free Choice. Many Papuans and rights groups said the vote was a sham because it involved only 1,000 people.
Ronna Nirmala in Jakarta contributed to this report.
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