Exclusive: Australia is seeking to strengthen ties with Indonesia, despite new reports of brutality by the military — including the torture and murder of civilians — in West Papua

 by Marni Cordell

The body of 17-year-old Wity Unue was brought back by the Indonesian military in a box, witnesses say. When soldiers couldn’t find his family, they burned the cardboard coffin, with his body inside, in a clearing at the end of a road in the remote highlands of West Papua.

The high school student, a promising musician and songwriter, had been tortured and burned to death.

His parents – who had recently fled a military crackdown in fear for their lives – were shocked and devastated when they found out, says Raga Kogeya, a West Papuan human rights activist.

Kogeya says that days earlier, on 7 April this year, Wity had been interrogated and detained along with three other boys and two young men under suspicion of being part of the troubled region’s rebel army. They were taken by special forces soldiers, who rampaged through the West Papuan village of Kuyawage – burning down houses and a church and terrorising locals.

Transported by helicopter to the regional military headquarters 100km away, the group were beaten and burnt so badly by their captors that they no longer looked human.

Kogeya says Wity died a painful death in custody. The other five were only released after human rights advocates tipped off the local media.

“The kids had all been tortured and they’d been tied up and then burned,” says Kogeya, who saw the surviving boys’ injuries first-hand on the day of their release.

“[The military] had heated up machetes and knives and pressed it against their skin … They didn’t even look like humans. They were burnt from head to toe. They were in a really bad way.”

Human rights advocates say the incident is one of many in recent years that go beyond a historical crossfire between the Indonesian military and West Papua’s rebel army, which regularly attacks and kills members of the Indonesian military and police.

Last year UN human rights experts called for urgent and unrestricted humanitarian access to the region over serious concerns about “shocking abuses against Indigenous Papuans, including child killings, disappearances, torture and mass displacement of people.”

Locals say civilians have increasingly become the target.

‘These are just kids’

When the military detains boys and young men in West Papua, they claim it’s because they are members of the West Papuan Liberation Army, or TPNPB, says Yones Douw, the head of the Peace and Justice Department for the Kingmi church of Papua.

“They say ‘oh we thought they were guerrillas’. But there’s no way that the guerrillas are walking around looking like schoolkids – that doesn’t happen,” he says. “The guerrillas are not walking around in the streets.”

“This is happening to ordinary people – we’re being arrested and beaten. And these are just kids often; they’re not even out of high school yet. It’s really dangerous.”

The day before the boys’ detention, in the same region of Nduga, soldiers opened fire on a group of women and children returning with string bags filled with food from shopping in a neighbouring village, locals say.

Those at the front of the group dropped to the ground in time but a teenage girl at the rear was shot. In a photo seen by Guardian Australia, the girl, whose name is Parina, lies on her side on a mat on the floor. She has a gaping wound in her lower back. Locals say she fled to a remote refugee camp with no electricity or healthcare services soon after – with the bullet still lodged inside her abdomen.

Nopinanus Kogoya, an uncle of one of the tortured boys, says the attacks are proof that ordinary West Papuans are being deliberately targeted by the Indonesian military – not just caught in crossfire as soldiers wage war against the militants.

“The military could tell that [the group of women and children] were not combatants,” Kogoya says. “And they still shot them.”

“They know we’re carrying vegetables not guns – so why are they shooting at us and why are they arresting us?

“They’re hunting us in this inhumane way.”

What is going on in West Papua?

The former Dutch colony is just 250km from mainland Australia. It’s a short boat ride from the northern islands of the Torres Strait. But most Australians know little about the war that is raging there.

The lack of knowledge is partly by design: very little about West Papua reaches the outside world because Indonesia tightly controls access for foreign journalists and human rights monitors.

The region makes up the western half of the island of New Guinea to Australia’s north – the eastern half is the independent nation of Papua New Guinea.

When the Netherlands began preparing for withdrawal in the 1950s, West Papuans pushed strongly for independence. As Melanesians, they see themselves as part of the Pacific, not south-east Asia. But their powerful neighbour had other ideas.

Indonesia put pressure on the Netherlands to hand over the resource-rich region. When that didn’t work, it began to prepare for a full scale invasion.

A ceasefire was brokered by the United Nations, and a UN-backed ballot was held in 1969, ostensibly to allow West Papuans to have their say on integration with Indonesia.

But advocates say the “Act of Free Choice” was rigged from the start. Just 1,022 West Papuan leaders were handpicked by Indonesian officials to represent the entire population, and they were coerced and threatened at gunpoint to rejectindependence.

In this environment, support for integration was unanimous. The result was rubber-stamped by the UN.

Indigenous West Papuans continue to demand a real vote on self-determination, mostly through acts of civil disobedience such as raising the banned ‘Morning Star’ flag. They pay a heavy price in police and military brutality, as well as long jail sentences, for their activism.

“There are two students [currently] on trial for holding a flag,” says Douw, who also works with the investigations division of human rights organisation Elsham. “We have witnesses [in legal cases] being hunted. We have journalists being hunted.”

But the region is also home to the TPNPB, who regularly launch attacks and engage in skirmishes with the Indonesian security forces.

Under ‘complete military occupation’

In a photo that appears to have been taken by the military after Wity’s death, seen by Guardian Australia, his young face looks beaten and bruised. In another, a small group of friends stands in heavy rain at his gravesite.

The youngest of five siblings, he loved playing traditional guitar, composing songs, and was “always entertaining other people”, Kogeya says. He was “a lovely person [who was] always helping others”.

Before he died, he helped evacuate a group of refugees on foot from an area that was under constant military attack. Kogeya is adamant he was not a member of the TPNPB.

The regency of Nduga (pronounced: en-doo-ga), where Wity and his friends were from in the West Papuan highlands, is a stronghold of the TPNPB and a hotspot in the conflict. The area is under what locals describe as “complete [Indonesian] military occupation”.

“We can’t do anything here,” says Nopinanus Kogoya. “People are even dying of hunger in the street because they can’t farm, they can’t go anywhere. We’re just completely, completely under the control of this fierce military occupation.”

He says the military’s actions go far beyond what is required to contain the security situation and are often not just violent, but cruel. “They’ll kill livestock just for the hell of it – they just go and kill people’s pigs and cows. They’ve also raped women.”

Human rights groups say the military buildup began in 2018, after the TPNPB killed 17 construction workers building a bridge in Nduga. The militants claimed the dead were military personnel disguised as civilians, but Human Rights Watch disputes this and says at least some of them were in fact ordinary Indonesian workers.

Locals say the brutality escalated in February this year, when Phillip Mehrtens, a New Zealand pilot working for Indonesian airline Susi Air, was taken hostage and his plane burned by the rebel army at Nduga airport.

The 37-year-old father and husband is still being held after negotiations broke down between his captors and the New Zealand government and Indonesian rescue missions failed. It’s understood he hasn’t been harmed by the militants but he’s in a very remote area with no access to health services.

In a proof-of-life video released by the militants in April, Mehrtens pleaded with the military to stop dropping bombs on the jungle camp where he’s being held. “Please, there is no need, it is dangerous for me and everybody here,” he said. “Thank you for your support.”

Dozens of Indonesian soldiers have so far been killed by the TPNPB during the failed operations to rescue Mehrtens – and this in turn has led to more civilian deaths.

“The military operation to free him included Kopassus, and Kopassus are elite combat troops,” says Douw. “They shoot to kill – and they have killed [ordinary] people in this operation.

“People are really afraid.”

Australia seeks closer ties

In August, Indonesian para raiders dropped from the sky above Shoalwater Bay in Queensland as part of Operation Talisman Sabre, a multi-country war games event.

It was the first time that Indonesia had fully participated in the biennial exercise, and was a jarring sight for anyone who has followed the chequered history of military ties between the two countries.

A spokesperson for the defence department told Guardian Australia that “Indonesia is one of Australia’s closest and most important defence partners”, but it hasn’t always been that way, according to Donald Rothwell, a professor of international law at ANU.

The two countries spectacularly fell out over Australia’s involvement in the intervention in Timor-Leste in 1999, and military cooperation was temporarily suspended. The relationship has been tested numerous times since.

Now, Australia is seeking to forge closer military ties in negotiations on a “defence cooperation agreement” – a “treaty-level instrument” that will be legally enforceable before an international court, says Rothwell.

Defence minister Richard Marles has said the agreement will be “ambitious”, with “a high level of cooperation, befitting what should be the security relationship between two friendly countries who are neighbours with each other”.

“We want to see greater opportunities for our defence forces to work together, to exercise together, to use each other’s facilities,” he said.

Australia also provides weapons and other tools of war to Indonesia, including a recent shipment of 15 Bushmaster armoured vehicles, intended for use by Indonesian special forces during peacekeeping missions.

The defence minister and alleged war crimes

In February, there was another first: a photo of the Indonesian defence minister, Prabowo Subianto, in Canberra’s parliament house, standing alongside Australian foreign minister Penny Wong and Marles.

The former commander of the special forces has not always been a welcome guest in Australia because of his alleged involvement in some of the most deadly military-sponsored crimes in Indonesian history.

In the 1980s and 90s, Prabowo was allegedly involved in the planning and execution of numerous targeted killings of East Timorese civilians, including a 1983 massacre that killed hundreds, mostly men, in Kraras – since known as “the village of widows”.

Prabowo did not respond to questions from Guardian Australia but has previously called claims about his involvement in Kraras “unproven allegations, innuendoes and third-hand reports”.

In 1998, he was allegedly involved in the kidnapping and disappearance of more than 20 Indonesian student activists, many of whom remain missing. Soon after he was discharged from the army for his alleged involvement in the abductions. He has never been prosecuted. In January, president Joko Widodo made a rare public apology for a number of historical “gross human rights violations” in Indonesia, including this one.

For many years Prabowo was reportedly on an unofficial visa blacklist in Australia, and was banned from entering the US. But his first run for president in 2014 – and his subsequent appointment to the ministry by Widodo – changed that. He is now making another tilt for president for when Widodo’s term ends in 2024.

Andreas Harsono, who is Indonesia researcher for Human Rights Watch, acknowledges foreign governments face a difficult task when engaging with the alleged war criminal.

“It’s unavoidable because he’s the defence minister but there are many things that governments can do to send a message that they do not approve of his track record,” he says.

“For instance, they can meet him somewhere other than their headquarters, or decline photo opportunities with him.

“Whether the Australian government meets with him or not, they should be acknowledging the serious human rights abuses he has been involved in.”

At a June press conference in Jakarta, Marles waxed lyrical about a recent visit with his counterpart to the Royal Military College, Duntroon, where Prabowo trained as a cadet in 1974. It was a “poignant moment” for Australian officers to “see what happens to officer cadets who do their training at Duntroon”, he said.

A defence department spokesperson said Marles engages with Prabowo “as a senior member of a democratically elected government”.

“The Australian government has regular and open discussions with Indonesia on a range of issues including the Papua provinces and human rights,” they said. “Our bilateral defence activities incorporate training on professionalism and the laws of armed conflict.”

A message for Australia

The year after Prabowo trained as a young cadet in Australia, Father Dorman Wandikbo, the president of the evangelical church of Indonesia and a veteran of the West Papuan independence struggle, fled military violence in his home town of Wamena.

He says he spent five years as a refugee in the jungle before joining the priesthood, and later, nine months in jail for a speech in which he urged West Papuans to rise up against injustice.

In West Papua, Prabowo is “greatly feared and shunned”, Wandikbo tells Guardian Australia from Port Vila, Vanuatu, where he is taking part in a meeting of civil society delegates working on a roadmap for West Papuan independence.

He has a stark message for the Australian government: “Stop the military aid, stop selling [military] equipment to Indonesia and stop training the special forces and the police from Indonesia.”

“Australia wants this close relationship [with the Indonesian military] because they think they’re protecting Australia’s security from terrorism,” he says.

“But those weapons are not being used to protect Australia from terrorism. Those weapons are not supporting Australia’s security. Those bullets, those guns, those military vehicles are ending up in Papua and harming Papuans.”

Wandikbo says there are two things he asks Australians to do when he talks to them about the conflict. “One: ask that [Indonesia] let foreign journalists into Papua; and two: ask that they allow the UN Human Rights Commission to enter West Papua. Those are the two things we want the solidarity movement to press for.”

Parina’s condition unknown

Without access to doctors or medicine, injured teenager Parina is likely to be in a dire condition. No one Guardian Australia spoke to knows whether her bullet wound festered or healed; whether she lived or died.

Locals say the remote refugee camp she fled to is completely inaccessible because of military checkpoints and snipers.

Eneko Bahabol, who does advocacy work with refugees in the highlands, says in his visits to similar camps he’s seen children, women and the elderly dying, as well as more than a dozen untreated serious diseases – pneumonia, rheumatic fever and amoebic dysentery among them.

Between 60,000 and 100,000 people from the West Papuan highlands are displaced, according to the UN. Bahabol says many live in poverty in nearby towns, with no money or access to land to grow food, while others have fled to camps in the jungle.

“We’re pretty worried about these refugees because as time goes on, their condition is worsening and the longer they are in refugee camps, the worse the outcomes [will be] for them,” he tells Guardian Australia. “Their physical condition is pretty bad.”

“All of the refugees in camps are saying the same two things: we want to go home, and we want the military out,” he says. “They also [say] the TPNPB and the Indonesian army have to come to some kind of agreement about ending the conflict.

“They’re not going to feel OK to go home unless there is an agreement about [that].”

In recent weeks, the Indonesian military has launched a new offensive against the militants in the neighbouring regency of Yahukimo. Locals say at least five civilians have been killed.

The military did not respond to questions from Guardian Australia.

In Port Vila, Wandikbo says what’s happening in West Papua is a slow-motion genocide. “We feel, as Papuans, if we stay within the nation of Indonesia, we will be finished,” he says.

“We will be wiped out.”

Translation by Zelda Grimshaw

• Research for this article was supported by a grant from the Melbourne Press Club’s Michael Gordon Fellowships program.

Suara Papua – September 23, 2023

Agus Pabika, Jayapura — West Papua National Committee (KNPB) international spokesperson Victor F. Yeimo was released from the Abepura Penitentiary in Jayapura city on Saturday September 23. He was greeted by family members, activists, his team of lawyers and thousands of ordinary Papuans.

On May 5 Yeimo sentence to eight months in prison on charges of makar (treason, subversion, rebellion) for allegedly being involved in and mobilising anti-racism protests in Jayapura on August 19 and 29, 2019.

At exactly 11.17 am, Yeimo was escorted out of the Abepura Penitentiary by prison officials.

He was then greeted by family members and his team of lawyers from the Papua Law Enforcement and Human Rights Coalition (KPHHP), advocates Emanuel Gobay, Persila Heselo, Gustaf Kawer and other team members. Also present was Papua Regional House of Representatives (DPRD) lawmaker Laurenzus Kadepa.

Yeimo said that his release today is not the end of the struggle and called on all Papuan people to continue to fight racist discrimination.

“Today I am free, but the continuing struggle is to be free from racism that still exists in [and is still a festering wound in this country]”, said Yeimo.

Yeimo was then accompanied in a procession to the Waena Expo to take part in a thanksgiving event to celebrate his release. The procession and thanksgiving event were closely watched over by police.

Activists blocked by police

Scores of activists who went to the Abepura Penitentiary to pick Yeimo up however were initially blocked by police at the Abepura taxi traffic circle.

An argument broke out between the activists, Yeimo’s team of lawyers and the police who were on guard in front of the Sumber Makmur shop. In the end however, they were allowed to greet Yeimo at the prison.

During the procession from the Abepura prison, Yeimo and his entourage were closely guarded by police until they reached the Waena Expo where the thanksgiving event was to be held.

Also present at the thanksgiving was acting Papua Council of Churches moderator Benny Giay and United Liberation Movement for West Papua

(ULMWP) Secretary Markus Haluk.

The thanksgiving was held under the theme “Racism is a Global Enemy”.

When Yeimo arrived, he was greeted by thousands of supporters, traditional dances by different tribal groups and shouts of “Free Papua”.

A number of those present wore the Moring Star independence symbols on their bodies or noken (knitted or woven bags). Others unfurled KNPB flags.

“All of the resistance groups have joined us here. The KNPB, the Papuan Traditional Council, Sonamapa [West Papua Youth and Student National Solidarity], Green Papua and all of the people and student movements that have joined in”, said organising committee head Kamus Bayage in welcoming Yeimo’s release.

[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was “Victor Yeimo Disambut Ribuan Rakyat Papua Dengan Ibadah Syukur”.]

We can say that they are not members of the TPNPB. They are village youth. They usually deliver food to the village. after buying it at Dekai

News Desk – Five People Found Dead in Brasa River

September 16, 2023

Jayapura, Jubi TV– Chairman of the Fellowship of Yahukimo Churches or PGGY, Pastor Atias Matuan stated that the five civilians who were shooting victims and were found dead at the mouth of the Brasa River, Dekai, capital of Yahukimo Regency, Mountain Papua, were not members of the West Papua National Liberation Army or TPNPB. This was stated by Atias Matuan when contacted on Friday (15/9/2023).

Pastor Atias Matuan, who is also the Pastor of the Kingmi Papua Church, explained that the five civilians were Darnius Heluka, Musa Heluka, Man Senik, Yoman Senik, and Kaраі Payage. According to him, the five victims were members of the Kingmi Papua Church who were only 15-18 years old, and ordinary civilians.

“We can say that they are not members of the TPNPB. They are village youth. They usually deliver food to the village. after buying it at Dekai. “When they wanted to go to the village, they walked without carrying sharp tools or weapons, but Indonesian security forces immediately shot them until they died,” said Matuan.

Matuan said the families of the five victims had also explained that Darnius Heluka, Musa Heluka, Man Senik, Yoman Senik, and Kapаі Payage were not members of the TPNPB. “They are young people from the village, most of them have dropped out of school,” he said.

On Friday, PGGY accompanied the family to collect the bodies of the five victims at the Yahukimo Regional General Hospital (RSUD). “After seeing their bodies with gunshot wounds to the stomach, chest and legs,” said Matuan.

Matuan said TNI officers had a guard post at the Dekai urban boundary, so that residents who wanted to travel from Dekai were required to report to the security post. “Residents must report to the security post. “If they don’t report it, they are considered part of the TPNPB, even though they don’t carry war equipment,” he said.

Matuan explained that Darnius Heluka, Musa Heluka, Man Senik, Yoman Senik, and Kaраі Payage had been buried at the Kilo Enam Public Cemetery (TPU) in Dekai. “The family agreed not to carry out a mourning [ceremony], because they died as heroes of the Papuan nation. “We immediately buried their bodies,” said Matuan.

According to him, the group of mourners arrived at Kilo Enam TPU at around 11.00 WP. “When we arrived at Kilo Enam TPU, the security forces, the majority of whom were Papuan children, were digging graves. [After] the security forces left the place, we buried [the victims] and dispersed,” he said.

Matuan said that if the TPNPB and TNI/Polri want to continue fighting each other to defend their respective beliefs, the armed conflict should not sacrifice civilians. “TPNPB and TNI must protect the community, so that the community does not experience victims [or] displacement,” he said.

Matuan said that his party had difficulty mediating in the armed conflict, because he felt that the Indonesian security forces did not trust the Servant of God. “The Indonesian state no longer trusts [members of] the Regional People’s Representative Council, governors, regents. So us wanting to step in [to] mediate [the conflict] is also difficult. I advise the public to each take care of [themselves]. “We need to convey that in the church, in the pulpit,” he said.

On Friday, the Head of Public Relations for the Papua Regional Police, Kombes Ignatius Benny Ady Prabowo, stated that the bodies of the five residents were found after a firefight occurred between TNI/Polri security forces and the TPNPB armed group on Thursday (14/9/2023). Benny stated that at the same location the police found two magazines and four bullets. (*)

This article was published on jubi.id with the title: PGGY: 5 shooting victims in Yahukimo were not TPNPB members

————–

TPNPB stated that the 5 victims found dead in Yahukimo were not its members

September 17, 2023

Writer: Hengky Yeimo | Editor: Aryo Wisanggeni G

Jayapura, Jubi – Spokesperson for the West Papua National Liberation Army or TPNPB, Sebby Sambom, stated that the five victims who were found dead in the Brasa River, Dekai, capital of Yahukimo Regency, Papua Mountains, on Friday (15/9/2023) were not members of the TPNPB.

This was stated by Sebby Sambom on Saturday (16/9/2023). “They are not our members. They were purely civilians who wanted to return to their villages and were shot and bombed by the Indonesian military. The Indonesian military has shot dead civilians who don’t know anything. “We ask the United Nations to immediately carry out an investigation into the killing of indigenous Papuan civilians in Yahukimo,” said Sambom.

On Friday (15/9/2023), five civilians were found dead at the mouth of the Brasa River, Dekai. Head of the Public Relations Division of the Papua Regional Police, Kombes Ignatius Benny Ady Prabowo, stated that the bodies of the five residents were found after a firefight occurred between TNI/Polri security forces and the TPNPB armed group on Thursday (14/9/2023). Benny stated that at the same location the police found two magazines and four bullets.

On Friday, the Chair of the Yahukimo Church Fellowship or PGGY, Pastor Atias Matuan stated that the five civilians who were victims of the shooting were Darnius Heluka, Musa Heluka, Man Senik, Yoman Senik, and Kaраі Payage. According to him, they were ordinary civilians aged 15 – 18 years, and not members of the TPNPB.

Ambom said the TPNPB National Command Central Command Headquarters had received a report from the Commander of the XVI Yahukimo TPNPB-Free Papua Organization, Brigadier General Elkius Kobak, that security forces killed five indigenous Papuan civilians on September 15 2023.

“This incident occurred because the TNI and Polri monitored the movements of TPNPB members in Yahukimo using aerial cameras along the Brasa River. “Usually, [during] this time indigenous Papuan civilians [from] the Ngalik and Kesing tribes commute to [Dekai, Ibu] Yahukimo City,” said Sambom.

Sambom asked the Regent of Yahukimo to take responsibility for allowing the TNI/Polri to build a number of posts in Yahukimo. “TPNPB will not let Indonesia control our territory, because we are the owners of the country,” he said.

Commander of the XVI Yahukimo TPNPB-Free Papua Organization Defense Regional Command, Brigadier General Elkius Kobak also emphasized that the five victims found in the Brasa River on Friday were not members of the TPNPB. “We have confirmed that it was the TNI/Polri who planted the bomb on the road that killed five indigenous Papuan civilians,” he said. (*)

—————————————-

Suara Papua – September 21, 2023

Jayapura – West Papua National Committee (KNPB) spokesperson Ones Suhuniap is asking Jayapura city police chief (Kapolresta) Senior Commissioner Victor Makbun to stop creating a commotion in the media about a planned thanksgiving meeting to welcome the release of Victor Yeimo.

According to Suhuniap, Makbun does not need to be overly excessive in response to Yeimo’s welcome.

Papua activist Yeimo, who is also the international spokesperson for the KNPB, will be released from the Abepura penitentiary on Saturday September 23.

Earlier in May, the Jayapura District Court sentenced Yeimo to eight months in prison for treason over the anti-racism demonstrations and riots in Jayapura in 2019.

“The statement by the Kapolresta is as if the KNPB organisation will create a commotion, but it is the Kapolresta’s statement itself that is in fact creating a skewed opinion and a commotion. The Kapolresta does not need to create a subjective public opinion about the KNPB without evidence that can be justified”, Suhuniap said on Thursday September 21.

Suhuniap claimed that in every activity the KNPB does in fact prioritise the values of humanity and democracy, uphold human rights and respect the laws and regulations of Indonesia.

He then stated that on the contrary, every activity by the KNPB attracts provocation from the police.

“At every single peaceful demo or religious event, the police always creates a provocation, with the latest being on August 15, 2022, when the KNPB was holding a peaceful demo, instead the police committed violence and torture”, he said.

The KNPB in suspects that thorough Makbun’s statement the police have in fact something bad planned for Yeimo’s release.

“We can believe that the statement publically expressed by the Kapolresta is a way of creating a commotion and preconditioning to frighten the ordinary Papuan people. We are sure there is a plot to criminalise the activity welcoming Victor Yeimo”, said Suhuniap.

“We ask that the Jayapura Kapolresta not create a skewed public opinion or create an uproar”, he said.

The KNPB itself, said Suhuniap, in welcoming Yeimo’s release, will hold thanksgiving prayers and a joint meal that is being planned by the Papuan People’s Front Against Racism (RPMR), which has up until now been campaigning for Yeimo’s release.

“As believers who have faith in God, the RPMR fights racism and is planning thanksgiving prayers, because worship is part of the human rights guaranteed under Indonesian law. The thanksgiving itself will be joined by all the organisational movements, social organisations, associations, church groups, traditional [communities] and the ordinary Papuan people who are anti-racist”.

“All Papuans who are victims of racism will be involved in the thanksgiving for Victor Yeimo’s release. We once again convey to the police, more specifically the Jayapura city police chief, not to create a skewed opinion. The thanksgiving for the release of Victor Yeimo does not need to be politicised with subjective sentiments.”

“To the people in the land of Papua, especially Papuans in the cities of Jayapura, Sentani and Kaerom and surrounding areas, please come peacefully and take part in the thanksgiving prayers. We also convey to non-Papuans in organisations and personally who are against the practice of racism, please join the prayers [as well]”.

Meanwhile the Jayapura district police are planning to deploy a number of personnel to provide security when Yeimo is released on Saturday.

[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was “KNPB Minta Aparat Tidak Memprovokasi Pembebasan Victor Yeimo”.]

By APR editor –  September 17, 2023

Asia Pacific Report

An Australian human rights advocacy group for West Papuans has condemned the killing of 5 youths found dead in Dekai, capital of Yahukimo Regency, and have challenged Canberra to reconsider government ties with Indonesian security forces.

Criticising the latest deaths, Australia West Papua Association (AWPA) spokesperson Joe Collins said: “While West Papuans are being killed by the Indonesian security forces, we have Australia and Indonesia sitting down at the ninth bilateral consultation to discuss
bolstering anti-terror cooperation”.

Antara News reports that Indonesia and Australia have committed to continue “anti-terrorism” cooperation through dialogue at bilateral, regional, and multilateral forums, as well as technical cooperation.

• READ MORE: OPM calls for decolonisation of West Papua, condemns UN ‘collusion’
• Other West Papua reports

Collins said it was time that the Australian Defence Department and DFAT (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade) “seriously looked at their ties with the Indonesian security forces” and the affect their aid and training had on West Papuans.

The five civilians who were found dead at the mouth of the Brasa River were aged between 15-18 and were members of the Kingmi Papua Church.

According to church officials, the five youths usually delivered food to the village after buying it at Dekai.

Sebby Sambom, a spokesperson for the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) fighting for independence from Indonesia, was reported to have said that the five victims found dead on Friday were not members of the TPNPB.

‘Not ours’ says TPNPB
“They’re not our members. They were purely civilians who wanted to return to their villages and were shot and bombed by the Indonesian military,” he was quoted as saying by the Papuan news outlet Jubi.

The chair of the Yahukimo Church Fellowship (PGGY), Pastor Atias Matuan, named the five dead civilians as Darnius Heluka, Musa Heluka, Man Senik, Yoman Senik and Kaраі Payage.

On Friday, PGGY accompanied the family to collect the bodies at the Yahukimo Regional General Hospital (RSUD).

“Their bodies had gunshot wounds to the stomach, chest and legs,” Pastor Matuan said.

The pastor also reported that TNI officers had a guard post at the Dekai urban boundary, and residents wanting to travel from Dekai were required to report there.

“Residents must report to the security post. If they don’t, they’re considered part of the TPNPB, even though they don’t carry military equipment,” he said.

Victims buried
The five victims were buried at the Kilo Enam Public Cemetery, Dekai, on Friday.

Joe Collins of AWPA said there appeared to be a “total lack of trust” between the security forces and local people in the region.

Pastor Matuan said that his party “had difficulty mediating in the armed conflict because he felt that the Indonesian security forces did not trust the Servant of God”.

Inilah.com – September 18, 2023

Vonita Betalia — Nine human rights organisations calling themselves the “National Solidarity for Rempang” have published the results of a preliminary investigation into the September 7 riots on Rempang Island in Batam, Riau Islands. The investigation found a number of human rights volitions.

The publication, titled “Flawed Justice on Rempang Island”, is the result of a joint investigation by the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI), the Pekanbaru Legal Aid Foundation (LBH Pekanbaru), the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) National Executive, Walhi Riau, the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), Amnesty International Indonesia, the Agrarian Reform Consortium (KPA), the Nusantara Indigenous Peoples Alliance (AMAN) and Trend Asia.

“We concluded that alleged human rights violations occurred during the violent incident in Rempang on September 7, 2023 and therefore it must be declared as a human rights violations as stipulated under Law Number

39/1999 on Human Rights”, read a section from the report published on Monday September 18.

In the report it said that these rights violations can be seen from a number of things such as the excessive deployment of security forces, the use of violence and minimum participation and access to information on the Eco City project on Rempang Island.

This included arbitrary arrests by the Barelang municipal police

(Polresta) following protests by residents, the violation of the rights of women and children related to the social conflict, the loss of a sense of security and widespread fear among Rempang residents.

In addition, the series of violations that occurred in Rempang were violations of national and international human rights instruments including Law Number 39/199 and the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights which Indonesia has ratified through Law Number 12/2005.

“Thus, this is enough for the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas

HAM) to declare the tragedy in Rempang on September 7, 2023 as a human rights violation”, read the report.

As reported earlier, residents on Rempang Island opposing the Rempang Eco City project held a protest that ended in a clash with joint units of the TNI (Indonesian military) and police on September 7.

The Coalition is asking security forces to end the repressive actions against Rempang Island resident and stop the development of the Rempang Eco City.

The act of violence, according to the Coalition, resulted in the local indigenous people falling victim to the ambitions of the national strategic project.

“The Indonesian military and the police were used as a tool by the state to facilitate the development of the Rempang Eco City area requiring the eviction of people from 16 ancient Malayu [traditional Malay communities] villages which have existed since 1834”, read the Coalition’s report.

The clash between the local peoples and the authorities occurred at around 10 am. The joint force of TNI and police using tactical vehicles attempted to force their way onto Rempang Island to install boundary markers and conduct land measurements.

At the time, residents were gathered at the entry point onto Rempang Island at the Barelang IV Bridge. A clash was inevitable and during the incident police arrested at least six people. Scores of other suffered injuries, several children were traumatised and one child was injured after police fired tear gas into their school.

The Rempang Eco City will an industrial area resulting from investment commitments by a glass and solar panel company from China, namely the Xinyi Group. Later, Batam will have the second largest glass and solar panel factory in the world after China.

[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was “Laporan Investigasi 9 Lembaga HAM: Peristiwa di Pulau Rempang Adalah Pelanggaran HAM”.]