GENEVA (1 March 2022) - UN human rights experts* today expressed serious concerns about the deteriorating human rights situation in the Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua, citing shocking abuses against indigenous Papuans, including child killings, disappearances, torture and mass displacement of people.
The experts called for urgent humanitarian access to the region, and urged the Indonesian Government to conduct full and independent investigations into abuses against the indigenous peoples.
"Between April and November 2021, we have received allegations indicating several instances of extrajudicial killings, including of young children, enforced disappearance, torture and inhuman treatment and the forced displacement of at least 5,000 indigenous Papuans by security forces," the experts said.
They said estimates put the overall number of displaced, since the escalation of violence in December 2018, at between 60,000 to 100,000 people.
"The majority of IDPs in West Papua have not returned to their homes due to the heavy security force presence and ongoing armed clashes in the conflict areas," the experts said. "Some IDPs live in temporary shelters or stay with relatives. Thousands of displaced villagers have fled to the forests where they are exposed to the harsh climate in the highlands without access to food, healthcare, and education facilities."
Apart from ad hoc aid deliveries, humanitarian relief agencies, including the Red Cross, have had limited or no access to the IDPs, they said. "We are particularly disturbed by reports that humanitarian aid to displaced Papuans is being obstructed by the authorities," the experts added.
"Severe malnutrition has been reported in some areas with lack of access to adequate and timely food and health services. In several incidents church workers have been prevented by security forces from visiting villages where IDPs are seeking shelter.
"Unrestricted humanitarian access should be provided immediately to all areas where indigenous Papuans are currently located after being internally displaced. Durable solutions must be sought."
Since late 2018, the experts have written to the Indonesian Government on a dozen occasions** about numerous alleged incidents. "These cases may represent the tip of the iceberg given that access to the region is severely restricted making it difficult to monitor events on the ground," they said.
They said the security situation in highland Papua had dramatically deteriorated since the killing of a high-ranking military officer by the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPN PB) in West Papua on 26 April 2021. The experts pointed to the shooting of two children, aged 2 and 6, on 26 October when bullets pierced their respective homes during a firefight. The 2-year-old later died.
"Urgent action is needed to end ongoing human rights violations against indigenous Papuans," the experts said, adding independent monitors and journalists must be allowed access to the region.
"Steps should include ensuring all alleged violations receive thorough, prompt and impartial investigations. Investigations must be aimed at ensuring those responsible, including superior officers where relevant, are brought to justice. Crucially lessons must be learned to prevent future violations."
The experts have again raised their concerns with the Government and they acknowledge the Government sent a reply to the allegations letter AL IDN 11/2021.
ENDS
**Latest letter AL IDN 11/2021 and previous letters sent to the Government regarding alleged violations in West Papua: IDN 4/2021 (reply 09 Apr 2021), IDN 2/2021 (reply 22 Mar 2021), IDN 4/2020 (reply 15 Sep 2020), IDN 5/2020 (reply 20 Jan 2021), IDN 2/2020 (reply 09 Jul 2020), IDN 7/2019 (12 Sep 2019), IDN 6/2019 (reply 04 Apr 2019), IDN 3/2019 (08 Mar 2019) and IDN 7/2018(14 Dec 2018). Allegations of forced displacement of indigenous were also raised in IDN 1/2020(reply 01 Jul 2020), IDN 8/2019 (reply 21 Nov 2019 and 14 Feb 2020) and IDN 6/2019 (reply 04 Apr 2019).
* The experts: Francisco Cali Tzay, Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, Morris Tidball-Binz, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Cecilia Jimenez-Damary, Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons.
The Special Rapporteurs are part of what are known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. The Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN human rights system, is the general name for the Council's independent investigative and monitoring mechanisms that deal with specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent of any government or organisation and serve in their individual capacity.
For further information and media enquiries, please contact Mr. José Parra (+41 22 917 9613;jose.parra@un.org).
For media enquiries about other UN independent experts, please contact Jeremy Laurence (+ 41 79 444 7578 / jeremy.laurence@un.org).
Follow news related to UN independent human rights experts on Twitter @UN_SPExperts.
https://www.ucanews.com/news/papua-governor-sets-up-human-rights-legal-team/96298#
2) Papua governor sets up human rights legal team
Provincial chief recruits legal experts to fight cases for indigenous people in the restive Indonesian region
Konradus EpaKonradus Epa, JakartaPublished: March 01, 2022 08:09 AM GMT
The governor of Indonesia’s Papua province has established a specialized legal team to better protect and represent indigenous Papuans subjected to human rights abuses and facing other legal cases.
Lukas Enembe said people in Indonesia’s restive and easternmost region were in need of a crack team to ensure they receive justice and that their human rights are respected.
He has chosen three lawyers — Saur Siagian, a Protestant, Stefanus Roy Rening, a Catholic, and Usman Hamid, executive director of Amnesty International Indonesia — to represent them.
Enembe announced the establishment of the legal team on Feb. 27.
The move comes amid a rise in complaints by indigenous Papuans that state forces are making arbitrary arrests and committing acts of violence against civilians.
It also follows a recent request by United Nations special rapporteurs seeking explanations to accusations of state violence, torture and enforced disappearances in the troubled region.
"We are given authority to offer representation and pursue institutions involved in legal and political cases in Papua, particularly rights protection for Papuan indigenous people”
"The governor chose these lawyers because they have extensive experience in fighting such cases," said the Papuan governor’s spokesman Rifai Darus.
Rening said he felt honored to have been chosen for the task.
“We are given authority to offer representation and pursue institutions involved in legal and political cases in Papua, particularly rights protection for Papuan indigenous people,” he told UCA News on March 1.
He said there are several such cases in Papua that the new team needs to address and must be handled soon.
Likewise, Amnesty’s Hamid welcomed the governor’s move, saying the team will work closely with rights groups in Papua.
He pointed to cases where religious leaders were attacked in Intan Jaya district, including Reverend Yeremia Zanambani, who was shot dead in 2020.
“We aim to ensure victims will get justice,” Hamid told UCA News.
The military is investigating the death of a boy in Indonesia’s rebellious Papua region after he allegedly was tortured by soldiers who had accused him and his friends of stealing a firearm, an army spokesman in the area said Tuesday.
Human rights advocates, meanwhile, are clamoring for an independent probe into the death of 12-year-old Makilon Tabuni. He died on Feb. 22 after being arrested two days earlier along with six other children for allegedly stealing a gun belonging to an Indonesian soldier in Sinak, a district of Puncak regency in Papua province, a resident said.
“The investigation team is already in Sinak district, Puncak regency. The investigative team has inspected the location of the incident at the Sinak Airport Command Post, where the firearm disappeared, and the location of the alleged abuse,” Col. Aqsha Erlangga, the spokesman for the provincial military garrison, told BenarNews.
“The investigation team has also investigated a number of … soldiers who are suspected of having knowledge of and being directly related to the incident of the missing weapon. … I hope the public can be patient because the investigation team continues to search to obtain the correct data,” he said.
The alleged incident has cast a fresh spotlight on longtime grievances among locals about Indonesian government forces using excessive force and engaging in racist actions against indigenous people in mainly Melanesian Papua. The militarized region in Indonesia’s far-east is home to a separatist insurgency that has simmered for decades.
The body of Makilon, who was the son of a village chief, was cremated on Feb. 24, according to local customs, said a resident who requested to be identified only by the initials “Y.K.” for security reasons. No autopsy had been conducted.
Y.K., a teacher, said a soldier tasked with guarding a military post in Sinak lost his gun on Feb. 20 and immediately suspected that children who were watching television at the post earlier in the day had taken it.
“A joint military and police team arrested seven elementary school-aged children,” Y.K. told BenarNews.
A Papuan human rights activist, Okto Tabuni, said Makilon was dead on arrival when he was rushed to a community clinic in Sinak on the night of Feb. 22.
Okto also said that he did not know details about Makilon’s injuries. But he said that under a local custom, cremation is usually performed for people who die of unnatural causes.
“Culturally, it is a form of protest to the authorities,” he told BenarNews.
After Makilon’s death, the other six children were transferred from a police detention center to a hospital to be treated for their injuries, the source Y.K. said.
When asked about Makilon’s death, Papua police spokesman Sr. Comr. Ahmad Musthofa Kamal replied: “I need to emphasize that the police are not involved.”
He declined to comment further.
Calls from rights groups mount
Usman Hamid, executive director of Amnesty International in Indonesia, said the alleged assault that led to the boy’s death could not be justified, as he called for an independent investigation.
“We would like to remind [authorities] that civilians, especially children, must not be made victims of abuse, let alone be killed in an armed conflict,” Usman told BenarNews.
Usman said allegations of torture by security forces must be investigated thoroughly and independently to ensure that such cases do not happen again.
“For the sake of justice, those responsible for this tragedy must be made to account,” Usman said.
Fatia Maulidiyanti, coordinator for the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), also called for an impartial investigation.
“It must be uncovered with an investigation involving other parties such as the National Commission on Human Rights and the Indonesian Child Protection Commission,” Fatia said.
Okto echoed Fatia’s calls.
“This is not the first case of children dying because of the military in Papua. So, other parties must be involved in the investigation, so that it does not set a bad precedent in the future,” Okto said.
Two children were shot, one of them fatally, during a gun battle between security forces and rebels in Intan Jaya Regency in October 2021.
In Jakarta, a deputy of the Presidential Chief of Staff, Jaleswari Pramodhawardani, could not be reached immediately for comment.
On Monday, United Nations human rights experts expressed serious concern about what they called the “deteriorating human rights situation” in the Papua and West Papua, provinces, citing “shocking abuses” against indigenous Papuans.
These abuses, they said, included child killings, disappearances, torture and mass displacement of people.
“Between April and November 2021, we have received allegations indicating several instances of extrajudicial killings, including of young children, enforced disappearance, torture and inhuman treatment and the forced displacement of at least 5,000 indigenous Papuans by security forces,” the experts said, according to a statement issued by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
They said estimates put the overall number of displaced, since the escalation of violence in December 2018, at between 60,000 to 100,000 people.
Violence and tensions in the Papua region, which is made up of the provinces of Papua and West Papua, have become more intense in recent years after separatist rebels killed 19 workers who were building a bridge in Nduga regency in late 2018, accusing them of being government spies.
In 2019, more than 40 people were killed in violent unrest across the Papuan region after police raided a dorm in Surabaya and arrested dozens of Papuan students amid allegations they had disrespected the Indonesian flag. Video was circulated of the armed police using racial slurs against the students.
Meanwhile, provincial military garrison spokesman Col. Aqsha said authorities had arrested a teacher, who authorities identified only as D.M., for leaking photos of Makilon’s cremation that later were posted on social media accompanied with text deemed to be “fake news.”
Aqsha did not elaborate on why the text was considered to be false.
“The suspect, D.M., admitted that he was the one who sent the photo of Makilon Tabuni’s cremation to the the WhatsApp group of Puncak Students’ Association,” Aqsha said.
Aqsha added that D.M. admitted that he sent the photos to the WhatsApp group but denied posting them on social media or writing the text.
Under the law, distributing fake news online is punishable by six years.
Last year, the government designated separatist rebels as terrorists after insurgents ambushed and assassinated an army general who headed the regional branch of the National Intelligence Agency. The killing prompted President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to order a crackdown.
In 1963, Indonesian forces invaded Papua – like Indonesia, a former Dutch colony – and annexed the region that makes up the western half of New Guinea Island.
Papua was incorporated into Indonesia in 1969 after a U.N.-sponsored vote, which locals and activists said was a sham because it involved only about 1,000 people. However, the United Nations accepted the result, which essentially endorsed Jakarta’s rule.
The Free Papua Movement (OPM) has fought for independence for the mainly Christian region since the 1960s.
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