TAPOL, ETAN, WPAT: Statement shows global support for human
rights and human rights defenders in West Papua
Organizations based in more than a dozen countries today issued a statement of
support for West Papuan organizations appealing for justice and human rights.
The Papuan organizations have "decried the failure of the Indonesian government
to ensure justice for or protect Papuans who have been the victims of security
force brutality, including extra-judicial killing, torture, abduction and
imprisonment," the statement said. The international organizations expressed
their "support for these courageous appeals" by the Papuan organizations and
pledged "to pressure our individual governments and international organizations
to press the Indonesian government to act positively and immediately on these
demands for justice and the protection of human rights defenders." They said
that the "continuing violation of human rights starkly demonstrates the limits
of 'democratization' in Indonesia."
Contact: Ed McWilliams - +1-575-648-2078, edmcw@msn.com
Paul Barber - +44-1420-80153, paul.barber@tapol.org
John M. Miller +1-718-596-7668, john@etan.org
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July 14, 2011 - In recent weeks, highly regarded West Papuan non-governmental
and religious organizations which promote respect for human rights have spoken
out forcefully regarding the deteriorating human rights situation in the
territory. In two separate statements, the organizations decried the failure of
the Indonesian government to ensure justice for or protect Papuans who have been
the victims of security force brutality, including extra-judicial killing,
torture, abduction and imprisonment. The organizations have also called for
protection of human rights defenders. The continuing violation of human rights
starkly demonstrates the limits of 'democratization' in Indonesia.
In a recent press conference, two human rights NGOs, BUK (United for Truth) and
KontraS-Papua (Commission for the Disappeared and the Victims of Violence),
underscored the failure of the Indonesian justice system to address endemic
violation of human rights by the military and police. They noted that some
cases have languished for over a decade and said that years of inaction by the
Indonesian government regarding these cases have compelled them to appeal to
"international mechanisms" to ensure that the Government of Indonesia brings
these incidents before a court of law.
At their June 14 press conference in Jayapura, the NGOs, describing the
consistent failure of justice in West Papua, said:
"With regard to the human rights violations that have been perpetrated in
Papua at the hands of members of the Indonesian army (TNI) and the Indonesian
police (POLRI), in all these cases, it has been virtually impossible to bring
them before a court of law. In the case of those incidents that were actually
taken to court, nothing was done to side with the victims; the perpetrators were
protected with the argument that what had been done was in the interest of the
security of the state."
The NGOs made specific reference to particularly egregious incidents in
which Papuans were killed, brutally tortured or disappeared. These include the
June 2001 Wasior and 2008 Wamena incidents, a police rampage in Abepura, as well
as repeated military "sweeping operations" in West Papua's central highlands in
which civilians were driven from their homes into local forests where many died
due to a lack of food, shelter and access to medical care. The NGOs also
detailed policies and practices which subject "many Papuans to discrimination,
intimidation and extra-judicial punishment based on groundless charges by
Government agencies that these Papuans, or their family members are
"separatists."
The two NGOs issued the following demands:
1. The President of Indonesia should immediately resolve the
Wasior and Wamena cases and in doing so recognize the fact that Papuans are
citizens of the Unitary Republic of Indonesia, NKRI which means that their
standing and dignity within the state is in keeping with the values of the
Papuan people as citizens of Indonesia.
2. The attorney-general's office should end its machinations
with regard to the Wasior and Wamena cases and co-ordinate with other state
institutions and in so doing halt their activities which have resulted in
reinforcing the cycle of impunity.
3. The administration of the province of Papua, along with
the DPRP (Provincial Legislature of Papua), KomnasHAM-Papua and the MRP (The
Papuan Peoples Council) should act together as quickly as possible to ensure
that the Wasior and Wamena incidents are brought before a human rights court
in the Land of Papua.
4. A Papuan human rights court should be set up immediately.
5. If the government fails to deal seriously with the Wasior
and Wamena cases, we, as representatives of all the victims of human rights
violations in the Land of Papua, will bring these matters before an
international court of law.
In a separate
June 17 press conference, the Coalition of Human Rights Defenders in the
Land of Papua, comprising leading human rights and religious organizations spoke
out against "acts of violence and terror that have been perpetrated against
human rights defenders as well as against journalists."
The coalition includes KomnasHAM-Papua, the Synod of the Kingmi Church in Papua,
the Synod of the Baptist Church in Papua, Foker NGO (NGO Working Group) Papua,
KontraS Papua, LBH - Legal Aid Institute in Papua, and BUK. The organizations
were especially critical of the Indonesian military whose members were involved
in five recent incidents of violence against Papuan civilians and whose actions
they noted, contradict claims that the Indonesian military is engaged in a
process of reform.
The Coalition of Human Rights Defenders in the Land of Papua therefore issued
the following statement:
1. Protection is needed for human rights defenders in Papua in carrying
out their humanitarian activities throughout the Land of Papua. Such
protection can be provided by the introduction of a special law, while at
the same time setting up an independent commission at state level for the
purpose of monitoring and advocacy as well as taking sanctions against those
individuals who commit violence against human rights defenders.
2. As a short-term measure, we regard it as important to set up a
special bureau within KomnasHAM to focus on the protection of human rights
defenders.
3. In view the many acts of intimidation and violence perpetrated by
members of the armed forces, we urge the military commander of Cenderawasih
XVII military command (in West Papua) to take firm measures in the law
courts and administration against all violations perpetrated by members of
the TNI on the ground.
4. To provide moral guidance to all officers of the armed forces as well
as disseminate an understanding of human rights so as to ensure that acts of
violence perpetrated by members of the armed forces are not committed
against civil society or against human rights defenders in the Land of
Papua.
Indonesia has clearly failed to ensure justice in multiple cases of gross
violations of human rights in West Papua and to protect Papuans defending their
human rights violate the Indonesian government's legal obligations contained
within international agreements to which it is party, including the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It also contravenes the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, notably articles 6, 7 and 8.
These abuses, policies and practices, as well as others not mentioned
specifically by the NGOs and religious organizations have been carefully
documented and condemned in United Nations reports, reports by other
governments, and by leading international human rights organizations.
These international reports also include accounts of egregious government abuse,
including the 1998 Biak tragedy and the Indonesian government's incarceration of
scores of political prisoners. Many of these political prisoners experienced
targeted abuse and mistreatment that exceeded even the brutality meted out to
criminal prisoners. International accounts of the failure of justice in
Indonesia have also condemned the continued use of provisions of the Indonesian
criminal code which form the basis for charges of "subversion" (such as Article
106 of the code). This was a legal tool of the Suharto dictatorship to repress
freedom of speech and has its antecedents in Dutch colonial rule.
We, the undersigned organizations express our strong solidarity with and support
for these courageous appeals made by these Papuan non-governmental and religious
organizations. We pledge to pressure our individual governments and
international organizations to press the Indonesian government to act positively
and immediately on these demands for justice and the protection of human rights
defenders.
Endorsed by
Tapol (UK)
West Papua Advocacy Team (USA)
East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) (USA)
ARTICLE 19
Asia-Pacific Solidarity Coalition (APSOC)
Asia Pacific Action (USA)
Asia Pacific Support Collective (Australia)
Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA)
Australia East Timor Friendship Association Inc
Australian West Papua Association South Australia (Inc)
Baltimore Nonviolence Center (USA)
Campaign for Peace and Democracy (USA)
Catholic Agency For Overseas Development (CAFOD) (UK)
The Catholic Justice and Peace Commission of Brisbane (Australia )
East Timor Action Network / Portland, Oregon (USA)
East Timor Religious Outreach (USA)
Fellowship of Reconciliation (USA)
Foundation Dr. F.C. Kamma, the Netherlands
Foundation Pro Papua, The Netherlands
Green Delaware (USA)
Indonesia Human Rights Committee, Auckland (New Zealand)
Indonesian Solidarity (Australia)
THE INSTITUTE on Religion and Public Policy (USA)
International League for Human Rights
KontraS (Indonesia)
Land is Life
Luta Hamutuk Institute (Timor-Leste)
Madison-Ainaro (East Timor) Sister-City Alliance, Madison, WI (USA)
Missionaries of the Sacred Heart Justice and Peace Centre, Australia
Nonviolence International
Office of the Americas (USA)
Pax Christi Aotearoa-New Zealand
Pax Christi Australia
Pax Christi Metro New York (USA)
Pax Christi, New Orleans (USA)
People's Empowerment Consortium (PEC), Indonesia
Philippine Workers Support Committee (USA)
Press for Change (USA)
Seattle CISPES
Seattle International Human Rights Coalition (SIHRC) (USA)
Swedish Association of Free Papua
Swedish East Timor Committee
Syracuse Peace Council (USA)
Urban Poor Consortium, Indonesia
War Resisters League (USA)
West Papua Action Network, Canada
West Papua Action Network / US
West Papua Media (Australia)
West Papua Network (WPN), Germany
The West Papua Solidarity Group Brisbane (Australia )
John Feffer, co-director, Foreign Policy In Focus*
Sharon Silber, U.S. Representative, Society for Threatened Peoples
Eileen B. Weiss, Co-Founder, Jews Against Genocide (U.S.)
Shulamith Koenig, People's Movement for Human Rights Learning (PDHRE)
