Introduction
Both police and military in West Papua have carried out numerous incidents of torture and other human rights violations but have faced almost no consequences. Between September 2021 until the first quarter of 2025, the police and military in Maybrat and the Central Highlands areas of West Papua committed 138 recorded acts of torture or other ill-treatment against people in detention. The majority of those tortured were males below the age of 24, while seven females were tortured and seven detainees were minors, aged 15-17. Most people were arrested for allegedly collaborating with armed groups while a significant number were arrested for participating in demonstrations. The severity of torture varied between those subjected to arbitrary arrest, threats and intimidation, up to those who died during the course of torture. These latter cases typically happened to civilians in areas where the military and police were carrying out operations against armed groups. We have highlighted these cases as well as those where law and order institutions – police, state prosecutors, and judges – have either failed to protect or been directly responsible for civilians' torture. All incidents and cases contained in this briefing are recorded on the ‘Papuans Behind Bars’ database.[1]
Torture in West Papua: an overview
In West Papua, state institutions have created numerous exceptions to legal norms relating to justice and democratic accountability, allowing them to clamp down hard on perceived challenges to their rule.[2] Standards of accountability for the security forces in torture cases – and indeed other human rights abuses – have been largely absent.[3] People attempting to engage in free expression in lowland towns are often criminalised, with the police using methods of arbitrary arrest, detention and even treason charges.[4] In the Central Highlands, problems of access, not to mention threats and intimidation of witnesses and human rights defenders, make effective scrutiny difficult.
Torture committed by the security forces in West Papua, and human rights violations more broadly, are investigated by the security forces, but most incidents remain uninvestigated. Security force personnel accused of committing such abuses are sanctioned under the outdated Criminal Code (Kitab Undang-Undang Hukum Pidana, KUHP) and Criminal Procedure Code (Kitab Undang-Undang Hukum Acara Pidana, KUHAP). Military personnel can only be tried in military courts, including for serious human rights violations such as extra-judicial killings or torture.[5] The National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) can investigate human rights violations including torture, but they may only make recommendations to the Attorney General’s office for further investigation and prosecution, which are often not followed up. In practice military courts tend to hand down relatively light sentences to low-ranking personnel. This makes transparency and accountability for cases of torture and human rights abuses very difficult.[6]
Torture and other ill-treatment have been carried out in public and in private. The security forces have deliberately tortured people in order to terrorise onlookers.[7] This is meant to prevent challenges to Indonesian sovereignty. Many other recorded cases of torture and other ill-treatment have taken place in detention, especially behind the closed doors of police stations or army bases. Between 1st January 2022 and 31st January 2024, 138 people were tortured by the security forces while in detention. Of these, 19 per cent were below the age of 24, 65 per cent were male, five per cent were female and the gender of the remaining 30 per cent was not known. Seven minors, between the ages of 15-17, were tortured in detention.
Further significant numbers of arrests were due to individuals being accused of committing murder (nine people), “affiliation with independence groups” (nine people) as well as possession of arms or ammunition (eight people). Some arrests were clustered around key events. For example, 16 people were arrested during the commemoration of West Papua’s national day in 2022. At other times, the security forces carried out mass arrests during operations. For example, 22 people were arrested after the Susi Air hostage-taking incident, while another 22 people were detained and tortured after the violent ‘sweeping’ operations in Kuyawage, Lanny Jaya Regency in April 2023.
A key tactic was to arrest, torture and later release people on the same day, 53 per cent of whom were released without charge. Of the 101 people detained by police who were subsequently later released, 84 per cent were released on the same day.[8] This figure climbs to 95 per cent if releases were within a week. The pattern occurs in relatively serious offences such as collaboration with armed groups or if those arrested had simply attended demonstrations. Release after a day is also evident in military arrests (57 per cent). Although the military may not arrest people under the Criminal Procedure Code (KUHAP), they continue to do so through a “legal loophole”.[9] The military overwhelmingly arrested and tortured people for collaborating with armed groups (85 per cent of arrests), with people arrested by the military tending to spend a longer period of time in detention. For example, 20 per cent of people arrested by the military spent up to a month in detention.
Torture at the hands of police: flawed procedures, trials and convictions in Maybrat
Following attacks by the TPNPB (Tentara Pembebasan Nasional Papua Barat, National Liberation Army of West Papua) on a military post in Kisor, South Aifat district, Maybrat Regency, now Southwest Papua Province, on 7th September 2021, the military and police conducted sweeps of villages in South Aifat, torturing their inhabitants.
Maikel Yaam was forced under torture to give names of 'perpetrators' of the attacks. Police then rounded up six suspects, torturing them at the police station by covering their eyes with duct tape, and stapling their ears and forcing them to lick their own blood off the floor. They also severely beat the six, punching them repeatedly with a jade ring. This treatment was also meted out to LK, a child. After being arrested, LK was only provided with a lawyer in one of two police interrogations, had his identity revealed despite this being a breach of the Criminal Procedure Code, and was convicted based on evidence by a 'witness' who did not even give testimony at LK’s trial, which took place in a separate province. Going against the wishes of defendants and their families, six other individuals, known as the Sorong Six, were also tried in a separate province. These trials followed a drip feed of convictions until 2023, with further convictions resulting in sentences of between 15 years and life imprisonment, with each trial characterised by multiple irregularities.[10]
n 2024, three further people, Apolos Aikingging, Karel Fatem, and Alowisius Frabuku, were convicted of involvement in the Kisor incident in 2021. Their cases are reminders of the dubious regard for criminal procedure by police, prosecutors and judges in a succession of cases starting with those of the Sorong Six. The police examination reports of suspects (Berita Acara Pemeriksaan) were admitted as evidence at trial despite its authors having allegedly abused and intimidated the defendants in custody. When a legal representative was provided to defendants, it was of the police's choosing. At trial, no alleged witness could positively identify defendants, nor was evidence presented by the prosecution which could be connected to any of the defendants. Aikingging and Fatem were given sentences of 20 years each while Frabuku was imprisoned for life.
Military and police torture in the Central highlands
Several egregious cases of torture, abuses and unlawful killings were recorded across the Central Highlands and Nabire in 2024 and during the first quarter of 2025. On 3rd February in Omukia District, Puncak Regency, military and police conducted joint operations after a police weapon was allegedly stolen from Ilaga Market, Puncak Regency, two days before. This was not the reason given for the operations, however. Security forces acted on the pretext of preventing the burning of Omukia health clinic. Military personnel from Satgas Yonif 300 arrested two men, Andinus (Alinus) Murib and Devius Kogoya, who were carrying out repairs on the roof of a house. They also arrested a third man, Werinus Murib, while he was collecting firewood. Murib was beaten, stamped on, and kicked and stabbed to death. But a military spokesperson claimed that he had died while attempting to escape from a car as a result of hitting his head on a rock. A local human rights defender contradicted this account, saying that Murib's legs had been tied together and his body dragged by the car for a kilometre before he was bayoneted to death.
On 30th June in Intan Jaya, military special forces personnel (Kopassus) arrested Atinus Kum, a TPNPB member, in Mamba Village, Sugapa District, Intan Jaya Regency, torturing him for five days, to find the whereabouts of the group’s leader, Aibon Kogoya. When Kogoya was not found at the location given by Kum, on 5th July, the military are reported to have set fire to a number of traditional houses in Mamba, then thrown Kogoya into one of the burning houses, and shot him dead.
On 3rd September 2024, Police in Nabire Regency arrested Yeremias Magai, a teacher, due to his alleged involvement in the death of Supriyono, a security guard, on 23rd August 2024. Magai, who was also part of the civilian police corps (Satpol PP, Satuan Polisi Pamong Praja) was tortured until police extracted a confession about his supposed role in the murder of Supriyono and subsequently died in police custody. Police made arrests of two other men who were also tortured into confessing to the murder. Lawyers for the family of Magai have said that on taking receipt of his body, it had already been dressed in funeral attire and the coffin “sealed” in cloth and closed. Magai and the two other arrested men were 100 kilometers away at the time of the killing. According to Magai’s family, CCTV evidence used by the police to allege Magai’s involvement was of a different person. Nabire’s police chief made a statement to Magai’s family in which he admitted that the arrest of the three men had been done after he was put under pressure by a senior military officer, who was the brother of Supriyono. As of the end of September 2024, Magai’s family had made several calls for police perpetrators to be held accountable.
On 13th October 2024, in Mamba Village, Sugapa District, Intan Jaya Regency – the same location as the torture and killing of Atinus Kum – the military attempted to arrest two youths for allegedly collaborating with armed groups. They apprehended one, SB who was 15 years old and therefore a minor, taking him to the post of the unit (Yonif 506/BY). There, according to villagers, SB was tortured. The second person who did not stop when the military attempted to arrest him, was Pianus Sani, who voluntarily surrendered to the military at the post on the encouragement of villagers. SB was released but Sani was tortured to death with his body recovered by villagers by the side of a road on 14th October 2024.
On 8th December 2024, again in Mamba Village, a 16-year old child, Yulianus Abugau, was arrested by Yonif 506/BY, allegedly due to collaborating with armed groups, while on the way to collect fuel for a motorbike. His body was found in the forest behind the post of Yonif 506/BY, showing signs of having been beaten and bayoneted. The body was later taken by police to the local hospital before being handed over to Yulianus’s family. Yulianus was buried on 10th December 2024 without his body having undergone forensic testing.
Torture is rife during security force operations. Several recent cases across districts of the Central Highlands in 2024 and February and March of 2025 illustrate the problem. On 27th February 2025, in Mamba Village, Sugapa District, Intan Jaya Regency, Papua Tengah Province, following an armed clash between the TNI and TPNPB, the military arrested two men before taking them to the local military post (Yonif 509/BY). Both men were tortured, and while one was released, the other, 19-year-old Goliath Sani, was believed later to have been executed.[11]
On 4th March 2025, the military arbitrarily detained a 25-year-old motorcycle taxi driver at the Holohama Military Post, Intan Jaya Regency. He was subsequently beaten about the back in detention. Members of his family and the wider community demanded his release. After negotiations with the military, he was released and taken by his family for medical treatment.[12] Less than 10 days later, on the night of 13th March 2025 in neighbouring Puncak Jaya Regency, Papua Pegunungan Province, military personnel reportedly tortured five indigenous Papuans, having arrested them at an indigenous house (honai). The five had recently been involved in a tribal dispute. The military arrested the men at gunpoint, beating them in transit to the Kodim 1714 military base where their ill treatment continued. Their captors accused them of being involved in the death of a fellow soldier during the election campaign. They denied involvement, and eventually the commanding officer apologised to the men and offered them compensation of Rp300,000 each (about £13) before they were returned to their homes at 3 am without having received medical treatment.[13]
Between 22–25th March, the military arbitrarily detained and tortured several indigenous West Papuan people during operations in Nduga, Pegunungan Papua province. In Meborok Village, two West Papuan men, father and son, were apprehended on 22nd March in a honai and taken to the military base at Yuguru airfield. A crowd of several hundred people massed on the airfield, calling for the release of the men. The military commander then presented three dubious pieces of ‘evidence’ (including a Facebook post) supposedly justifying their detention, none of which directly implicated the men. He is said to have told the crowd that the detained men would be released on 24th March. One of the detainees, AW, was then believed to have been executed on the evening of the 23rd of March. His body was found by his family, dumped in a local river.[14]
Conclusion: Impunity without end in sight
Since a new wave of fighting between the TPNPB and security forces began in Intan Jaya in October 2024, the conduct of the security forces is reported to have become particularly egregious due to the escalation of security force operations affecting civilians.[15] However, the history of torture at the hands of both military and police in Intan Jaya reveals a troubling pattern of abuses dating back at least eight years.[16] The use of torture is particularly evident in the three cases where civilians were tortured and killed by the military in Mamba Village alone, all during 2024. The authorities have shown no indication that they will respond to calls from victims’ families and human rights defenders for these cases to be investigated and perpetrators held accountable.
Police torture in Maybrat helped to secure the convictions of 14 people, including a child, in flawed trials. Police subjected suspects to torture with their convictions partly based on examination reports written by police.[17] The convictions in Maybrat were different to torture and extrajudicial killings in the Central Highlands. They show how the police, prosecutors and judges have been allowed to overlook criminal procedure in the cause of securing convictions. Even in West Papua, where standards of justice have been so questionable, this could yet set a precedent by further eroding what minimal protections there are for people accused of involvement in serious crimes.
[1] Available at: tapol.uwazi.io
[2] TAPOL, ‘Entrenched militarism, the ‘prosperity’ approach and governance by exception in West Papua’ 8th December 2020.
[3] Torture is defined in international human rights laws and standards as “..any act by which severe pain, physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed or intimidating or coercing him or a third person or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity.” 1987 Convention Against Torture or Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Article 1.
[4] See TAPOL, ‘West Papua 2024 Freedom of Expression and Assembly Full Report’ 15th April 2025.
[5] Military personnel only staff the military criminal justice system. Any human rights allegations made against the police are also carried out by the police, although police may be tried in civilian courts.
[6] AJAR, KontraS, TAPOL 'Human Rights Court Mechanism and The 2014 Paniai Papua Case', 31st August 2022 https://tapol.org/publications/human-rights-court-mechanism-and-2014-paniai-papua-case
[7] B. Hernawan ‘Torture as a Mode of Governance: Reflections on the Phenomenon of Torture in Papua, Indonesia’ in J. Munro & M. Slama (eds) From 'Stone-Age' to 'Real-Time': Exploring Papuan Temporalities, Mobilities and Religiosities. ANU Press 2021, p.197.
[8] This often happens in West Papua as a result of mass arbitrary arrests, when the Police intend to disperse demonstrators and intimidate would-be demonstrators. Police also typically do not have the facilities to detain many arrestees. Importantly, they often lack evidence to press charges while the Criminal Procedure Code (KUHAP) stipulates that formal detention begins after a suspect spends an initial 24 hours in detention.
[9] Amnesty International 'Indonesia Comments on the draft revised Criminal Procedure Code' 6th September 2006, p.16 https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/ASA21/005/2006/en/
[10] TAPOL 'Maybrat: Return of Displaced People Fails, Injustices Continue' 5th October 2024 https://tapol.org/briefings/maybrat-update-2
[11] HRM ‘Military Accused of Again Executing Papuan Civilian in Mamba Village, Intan Jaya’ 3rd March 2025. https://humanrightsmonitor.org/case/military-again-alleged-of-executing-papuan-
civilian-in-mamba-village-intan-jaya/
[12] HRM ‘Military members torture Papuan man inside military post in Intan Jaya’ 5th March 2025. https://humanrightsmonitor.org/case/military-members-torture-papuan-man-inside-military-post-in-intan-jaya/
[13] HRM ‘Military members torture five indigenous Papuans..’
[14] Suara Papua ‘Operasi Brutal di Kampung Yuguru Abaral Wandikbo Disiksa Hingga Tewas’ 6th April 2025. https://suarapapua.com/2025/04/06/operasi-brutal-di-kampung-yuguru-abaral-wandikbo-
[15] HRM ‘Military Accused of Again Executing Papuan Civilian in Mamba Village, Intan Jaya’ 3rd March 2025. https://humanrightsmonitor.org/case/military-again-alleged-of-executing-papuan-
civilian-in-mamba-village-intan-jaya/
[16] TAPOL ‘Displaced and Disempowered: Military expansionism at the cost of civilian lives’ 5th October 2023, p.11. Having built up forces in the area in 2017 on the pretext of stopping violence associated with local elections, the military later established several posts after attacks on couriers alleged by the TPNPB to be spies in 2019. The military have subsequently amassed what is likely to be thousands of troops in the area. Intan Jaya is the district (kabupaten) adjacent to the PT Freeport gold and copper mine, long reported to be a source of revenues to the security forces. The massive Bloc Wabu gold concession is in Intan Jaya and is also contributing to military and police involvement in the area, often with appalling consequences for civilians.
[17] Even this basic right could be undermined under forthcoming draft legislation. If the recording of police interviews were to be made optional, as proposed in Article 31 paragraph (2) of the Draft Criminal Procedure Code (RUUKUHAP), or complaints against police were investigated by the police, it would remove another layer of scrutiny allowing many more opportunities for torture to flourish. See P. Wahyuningtyas 'Isi RUU Polri Terbaru, Daftar Kontroversi, dan Alasan Ditolak', Tirto.id, 24th March 2025.
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