2) Military members alleged of torturing Papuan man in Deiyai Regency
The appointments to key government positions of figures linked to past human rights abuses in Indonesia have alarmed rights advocates, who warn the country may face a deepening culture of impunity under new President Prabowo Subianto.
A report by KontraS, a leading Indonesian human rights group, highlighted what it called troubling regressions in human rights protections in the January-December 2024 period.
The report, released on Friday to mark International Human Rights Day on Dec. 10, detailed extrajudicial killings, increased attacks on journalists, and unresolved historical abuses.
Prabowo, a former general in the army special forces, took over the reins of power from Joko “Jokowi” Widodo in October.
“KontraS sees no significant progress on human rights,” Dimas Bagus Arya, the KontraS coordinator, said during a press briefing in Jakarta.
“In fact, in many areas, we are witnessing a backslide.”
He pointed to Prabowo’s appointments of retired Gen. Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin as minister of defense and ex-armed forces chief Wiranto, who goes by a single name, as the special presidential adviser on politics and security.
Rights groups said Sjafrie, a former Jakarta military commander, should be held responsible for human rights abuses during 1998 riots in the capital that led to the downfall of Suharto, Indonesia’s long-time autocratic president.
Similarly, Wiranto has faced serious accusations. He was indicted for crimes against humanity committed in East Timor in 1999.
As the chief of Indonesia’s armed forces back then, Wiranto was accused of failing to prevent atrocities committed by the Indonesian military and pro-Jakarta militias against East Timorese civilians in the wake of a U.N.-sponsored referendum on independence.
Bivitri Susanti, a constitutional law scholar at the Jentera School of Law in Jakarta, pointed out that Prabowo himself had been accused of rights abuses during his military career.
“When individuals with questionable records are appointed to high-ranking positions, it fosters a culture of impunity and sends a message that past abuses will go unpunished,” she told BenarNews.
Efforts to resolve human rights violations through financial compensation alone – without first establishing accountability and truth – would only deepen distrust, Bivitri cautioned..
In 2022, then-President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo established a team to address unresolved human rights abuses through non-judicial means, such as state apologies and financial compensation for victims.
While the initiative was seen as a step forward, critics argued it sidestepped the judicial accountability necessary to build public trust.
“Truth must precede compensation. Without that, the likelihood of repeated violations remains high,” Bivitri said.
Presidential spokesman Hasan Nasbi and Human Rights Minister Natalius Pigai could not be reached immediately for comment.
Through 2024, KontraS documented at least 47 extrajudicial killings, and 62 incidents of torture involving 128 victims. The group also highlighted attacks on journalists, with 20 incidents of physical violence, intimidation, and criminalization.
In addition, KontraS’ report called attention to 161 human rights violations linked to exploitation of natural resources, including land occupation and the intimidation of indigenous communities.
In terms of national strategic projects, the report noted 13 reported violations, the majority of which affected indigenous peoples.
“The government’s focus on large-scale infrastructure and strategic national projects often comes at the expense of marginalized communities,” Dimas said, referring to projects that frequently displace indigenous populations or disrupt local ecosystems.
While Jakarta has touted its achievements in human rights diplomacy, Dimas argued that these narratives often conflict with local realities.
“The rhetoric does not match the policies,” said Dimas, citing recent bans on religious activities of the Ahmadiyya Muslim minority group as examples of this disconnect.
Amnesty International, for its part, criticized recent moves such as legislative efforts to rehabilitate the reputation of Suharto by naming the late president a national hero. Allegations of widespread human rights abuses tainted his 32-year rule, critics said.
This move was attempted after Suharto’s name was removed from a decree on anti-corruption during the national assembly’s final session of its five-year term in September.
The 1998 decree, passed after Suharto’s fall, had explicitly mentioned his name in its call to tackle corruption.
One of Suharto’s daughters, Siti Hediyati, was married to Prabowo.
“The systematic violence and human rights violations during the Suharto era are well-documented,” Usman Hamid, executive director of Amnesty International Indonesia, told BenarNews.
“This is not only an erasure of history but also a dangerous precedent for accountability.”
Meanwhile in Papua, the site of a long-running insurgency in Indonesia’s far east, 51 incidents of violence were recorded over the past year, with security forces often responding with excessive force, Amnesty said.
The London-based human rights group recorded at least 116 cases of serious police violence across the country from January to December 2024.
“These figures reveal a lack of accountability,” Usman said.
Gufron Mabruri, a member of the National Police Commission, an oversight body, acknowledged the ongoing issues in law enforcement, criminal justice, and excessive use of force by police.
“This violence is a problem that needs an internal solution within the police, as it recurs in various security situations when the public expresses their aspirations,” he told BenarNews.
He advocated for stronger oversight mechanisms involving both internal reviews and external monitoring by media and civil society organizations.
2) Military members alleged of torturing Papuan man in Deiyai Regency
Meki Pekei after admission to the hospital on 27 November 2024
As Interim President of the ULMWP, I welcome the release of the judgment of the Permanent People’s Tribunal(PPT) on West Papua.
After testimonies from West Papuans on the ground and legal and academic experts, the PPT found Indonesia guilty on all four counts:
- Of taking by various means the ancestral land of the Indigenous Papuan people against their will, employing racial discrimination which leads to the loss of culture, traditions and Indigenous knowledge, erases their history and subsumes them into the Indonesian national narrative;
- of violent repression, including unlawful detention, extra-judicial killing, and population displacement in West Papua as a means of furthering industrial development;
- of organised environmental degradation, including the destruction of eco-systems, contamination of land, the poisoning of rivers and their tributaries and of providing the permits, concessions and legal structure of non-compliance for national and foreign companies to invest in West Papua in a way that encourages environmental degradation;
- of colluding with national and foreign companies to cause environmental degradation, population displacement and sustain violent repression in West Papua.
This judgment is a total vindication of everything the West Papuan liberation movement has been saying for decades. We are not safe with Indonesia. If we continue to be denied our right to self-determination, everything that makes West Papua unique will disappear.
The PPT found the Indonesian state guilty of ecocide, of rapidly destroying our forest and poisoning our rivers through mines, plantations, and huge agribusiness food estates. But not only this: the judges also linked Indonesia’s ecocidal destruction to the systematic destruction of West Papua as a people. As they put it: ‘ecological degradation can’t be disaggregated from State and corporate projects which are tending toward the obliteration of a people, or what was called by more than one witness a “slow genocide”.’ The PPT therefore adds to the large body of evidence, including independent studies from Yale University and Sydney University, arguing that West Papuans are the victims of a genocide.
The PPT found in West Papua everything that the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights will also find – ecocide, genocide, ethnic cleansing, and mass displacement. That is why Indonesia continues to deny the UN access to West Papua, despite over 110 countries demanding their visit.
The ULMWP considers this judgment a significant step forward in our quest for liberation. The case for self-determination presented by the PPT is comprehensive and undeniable. We already know that our people want freedom – the West People’s Petition for self-determination was signed by 1.8 million Papuans, over 70% of our population. Now the PPT has shown how urgently we need it.
Indonesia knows they have lost the political, legal, and moral argument over West Papua. Their only remaining tactics are brutality and secrecy: brutality to crush our struggle and secrecy to hide it from the world.
Our independence is not only urgent for West Papua, but for the entirety of Planet Earth. Because Papuans are the stewards of the third largest rainforest in the world, the Indonesian occupation is one of the most severe threats to a habitable global climate. If Indonesia continues to destroy our forest at its current rate, there will soon be nothing left to save.
Benny Wenda
Interim President
ULMWP Provisional Government
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