07 May 2026
Prabowo has been in power as President of Indonesia since October 2024, and the marks of his regime have been increasingly felt across civil society. The atmosphere has turned colder, with greater power going to the security services, a tightening of laws that criminalise dissent, a return of New Order-esque policies, and a sense that the civil rights fought for during the period known as Reformasi are being eroded away.
TAPOL’s latest 2025 West Papua Freedom of Expression and Assembly Report saw the following major trends developing last year compared with 2024:
- More provinces were affected by incidents than in 2024.
- 24.2 per cent increase in intimidation and harassment incidents, including torture and killings.
- 14.3 per cent increase in incidents of arbitrary arrests.
The report shows in numbers that:
- In total, 14 provinces had incidents regarding Freedom of Expression and Assembly in West Papua in 2025, 4 more than in 2024. Papua remains the province with the largest number of incidents, followed by Central Papua and then South Sulawesi. Unlike in previous years, the number of incidents wasn’t as concentrated in Papua Province, but was more widely distributed across West Papua and Indonesia, with a noticeable hotspot being South Sulawesi, which is the first time that a province outside of the West Papua region has appeared in the top three.
- With regard to perpetrators, security force personnel, including police, carryed out or were involved in the majority of incidents, which together cover around 65 per cent of reported incidents. This is consistent with levels seen in previous years. The high number of cases committed by unknown perpetrators, which made up 15.6% of all incidents, has been a cause of concern during 2025, and points to a large number of intimidation incidents where no actor involved could be identified. Moreover, companies have come into more and more conflict with local indigenous communities that are speaking up to protect their land, explaining companies” relatively strong involvement in silencing local protests against their plans and intimidating local leaders in order to compel communities into acquiescence. They made up 5.2% of all incidents.
- The majority of those affected is consistent with previous years, but does also include attempts at intimidating Komnas HAM personnel, who ended up being shot at by the TPNPB. The total impact on all campaign groups on West Papua hit 42 per cent of all incidents, which is lower than previous years, as students were the single group that ended up being the most affected in 2025, covering 29.1% of incidents and bearing the brunt of intimidatory activities in particular, as well as dispersal events. Intimidatory actions against individuals and smaller groups shows a return to the proclivity towards these sorts of tactics in 2023, which contrasts to the election year of 2024, but also the climate of fear that Prabowo seeks to create against those who might oppose his policies.
We can discern certain important trends from the data we have collected and analysed:
- Firstly, there has been a general trend since 2023 of strong-arm and targeted arrest tactics to create a climate of fear, with 2025 showing a continuation of this pattern in West Papua. 2024 was somewhat anomalous due to the fact that it was a general election year. There has been a noticeable downturn in mass protest events in West Papua (and those arrested in them), which shows the dire atmosphere of free expression that these conditions are creating.
- Secondly, mirroring Prabowo’s desire to intensify PSNs throughout West Papua during his term as President, there has been a noticeable uptick of intimidation, arrests or attack incidents against those speaking up for indigenous communities affected by these policies. This shows an intensification of tactics that began in 2024.
- Thirdly, intimidation targeted at Papuans across Indonesia has meant the greater geographic spread of incidents recorded this year across the country. Whilst there were no international incidents recorded this year, the fact that a province outside of West Papua (that of South Sulawesi) managed to get into the top three of provinces affected by incidents this year shows a definite increased frequency and proportion of overall events now occurring outside of the region.
Check out the full report by clicking on the link below.
ENDS
Themes
Freedom of Expression & Association
Type
2025 TAPOL West Papua Freedom of Expression and Assembly Report_0.pdf
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Australia West Papua Association Adelaide 