2) Indonesia: Police Disperse Papuans Protesting ‘Food Estate’ Project
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https://humanrightsmonitor.org/reports/papua-quarterly-report-q4-2025-securing-development-through-force-surge-in-victims-as-military-operations-expand-across-west-papua/
1) Papua Quarterly Report Q4 2025: Securing Development Through Force: Surge in victims as military operations expand across West Papua
Summary
Human rights
Conflict
Political developments
International developments
(Tokyo) – Indonesian police unlawfully dispersed, beat, and detained 11 Papuan protesters in Merauke City, South Papua, on January 25, 2026, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities should promptly and impartially investigate the incident, appropriately discipline or punish those responsible for abuses, and consult with Indigenous communities to address longstanding grievances.
That morning, members of the Voice of Catholic People of Papua (Suara Kaum Awam Katolik Regio Papua) had gathered at the St. Francis Xavier Catholic Cathedral to call on church officials to protect Indigenous people harmed by the government’s massive Merauke food project. They also expressed opposition to the bishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Merauke for backing the government project. The police arrived and forcibly dispersed those gathered inside the church courtyard and arrested 11.
“Indigenous Papuan communities have the right to protest the government’s Merauke food project without having to worry about being beaten, arrested, and jailed,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Police and military personnel who commit abuses against local communities should be held to account and appropriately punished.”
Protesters allege that the police broke up the peaceful protest with unnecessary force. Stenlhy Dambujai, 30, said that the officers “choked and beat” him, and hit two others, Maria Amote, 24, and Angel Gebze, 22, on the head with batons.
The police took those detained to the Merauke Traffic Police Station, where the officers again beat them, and then transferred them to the Merauke police precinct for further questioning. All the protesters were released without charge after midnight, but their legal counsel, Arnold Anda of the Merauke Legal Aid Institute, said that the police had refused to disclose any legal basis for their detention.
“The police also forcibly seized a smartphone belonging to one of our friends, which was only returned after the photos and videos had been deleted,” Dambujai said. “I feel unsafe because it feels like I am constantly being monitored by the authorities.”
The Indonesian government’s Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate project aims to convert nearly three million hectares of forest and swampland to grow rice, sugarcane, and other crops for national food self-sufficiency. Then-President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono initiated the project in 2010, but it stalled. His successor, Joko Widodo revived and expanded the plan in 2023, giving it National Strategic Project status, which increased deforestation in Merauke. Since succeeding Widodo in October 2024, President Prabowo Subianto has accelerated expansion of the food estate, saying he wished to transform Indonesia into the “granary of the world.”
The Merauke food project risks the customary land rights of over 40,000 people from the Indigenous Malind, Maklew, Yei, and Khimaima communities, who depend upon the forest and swampland for their livelihood and traditional practices, Human Rights Watch said. The communities allege that the project is displacing Indigenous communities, forcibly taking customary lands, logging traditional forests, threatening biodiversity, and using the military to suppress dissent.
The government asserts that no one has applied for the designation of customary forests in the Merauke project area and that the project has complied with applicable national laws and regulations, including those related to upholding Indigenous rights, environmental protections, and human rights.
The civic group Solidarity for Merauke says the project has exacerbated human rights violations and forced displacement. President Prabowo has deployed the Indonesian military to support agricultural programs in the Merauke regency, including to plant and harvest food crops, but also to discourage protests.
Norton Kamuyen, a Marind resident of Nakias village, Nguti district, told Human Rights Watch that he and his family were forced to flee to a neighboring village in January due to a land dispute. “We once lived safely and without fear, free to forage in our forests,” Kamuyen said. “But since we disagree with the National Strategic Project, we are considered to be opposing the government. The military makes us afraid, so we have to leave our villages to find safety and protect our lives.”
Indonesian authorities regard Merauke as an important symbol of nationalism, signifying the unity of the vast Indonesian archipelago through the “From Sabang to Merauke” anthem, referring to Sabang Island, Indonesia’s westernmost tip, and Merauke, which is Indonesia’s easternmost regency. Protests by Indigenous Papuans are unusual in Merauke because of the heavy military deployment. A Malind tribal leader in Merauke said that “Bulldozers here are always guarded by soldiers with semi-automatic weapons.”
On February 5, the Communion of Churches in Indonesia, the umbrella organization of 105 Protestant denominations, issued a joint statement in Merauke, calling on the Indonesian government to “[end] land grabbing of Indigenous Papuans, even in the name of National Food Security,” in the six Papuan provinces and to have “honest, equal, and dignified dialogue with Papuan Indigenous communities” in reviewing the food estate.
In March 2025, nine United Nations special rapporteurs raised concerns in a letter that Indigenous peoples living in 40 villages within and around the project area would lose their livelihoods and traditional rights. They reported systematic human rights and environmental violations, including the denial of customary land rights, deforestation, severe environmental degradation, minimal meaningful participation by Indigenous peoples in decision-making, and the military’s alleged intimidation of Indigenous peoples and others.
“The Indonesian government has a responsibility to improve food production in the country,” Ganguly said. “But it should be clear that the Merauke food project cannot be pursued by trampling on the rights to liberty, land, and livelihoods of the Indigenous Papuan population.”
3) INDIGENOUS FAMILIES FORCED TO FLEE FROM INDONESIAN SECURITY FORCES IN WEST PAPUA
February 13, 2026
New raids and aerial strikes by Indonesian security forces in the central highlands of West Papua have once again forced Indigenous civilians to flee their homes and makeshift refugee camps into surrounding forests.
Residents of Puncak Regency, already displaced by earlier clashes, were among those uprooted in the latest wave of violence that began with intensified military operations at the end of January.
Civilians from at least nine villages in the Kembru District abandoned settlements and camps after what local monitors describe as air and ground strikes — including drone attacks near civilian areas — left families with little choice but to flee on foot through rugged terrain.
“This is part of their ongoing campaign of terror in the West Papuan highlands,” said a statement this week from United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) President Benny Wenda, who accused Indonesian forces of breaching international law by bombing refugee sites and cutting internet access to the affected areas.
“It is an international disgrace that Indonesia has been chosen to lead the UN Human Rights Council. How can Indonesia lead on human rights when they are dropping bombs on refugees?” Wenda said. “Their presence on Donald Trump’s Board of Peace is yet another hypocritical joke. Indonesia asks for justice for displaced Palestinians while displacing hundreds of thousands of Indigenous West Papuans.”
Wenda’s office said the populations fleeing the latest strikes include pregnant women, children and elderly people who had already been displaced by earlier fighting.
“It is only a matter of time before West Papuans begin dying as a result of these attacks, as thousands have over the past five years while living in the bush without adequate food, water, or medical care,” Wenda added.
Indonesian officials have not issued a public response to the most recent attacks. However, they typically frame their military operations in West Papua — which Jakarta administers as part of the republic — as efforts to suppress armed separatist groups that have waged an insurgency for decades. But rights groups and advocacy organizations contend that the blurred distinction between combatants and civilians has contributed to widespread suffering among Indigenous Papuans.
The escalating conflict has forced tens of thousands of people from their homes across multiple regencies, with internal displacement figures reportedly topping 105,000 as of early 2026.
The latest displacement is part of a long history of violence in West Papua, where conflict has simmered since the territory was incorporated into Indonesia following a disputed UN-backed vote in the 1960s. Since then, Indigenous Papuans have reported decades of military operations, human rights abuses and restrictions on political expression tied to an ongoing independence movement.
According to some estimates, at least 100,000 Indigenous Papuans have also been killed
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