Attachment E.

Press Release

6 July 2001

WEST PAPUA:

HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS DEMAND RELEASE OF 22 POLITICAL PRISONERS AND INVESTIGATION OF POLICE RIGHTS ABUSES

July 6, 2001. West Papua's leading human rights group, ELS-HAM, the Institute for Human Rights Study and Advocacy and TAPOL, the Indonesia Human Rights Campaign in London, are today demanding the release of 22 prisoners imprisoned in Wamena, West Papua (Irian Jaya) for their political beliefs and their support for independence for West Papua. 

The organisations are also calling upon the Indonesian authorities to investigate and bring to justice police officers and other state officials responsible for a death in custody, human rights abuses inflicted on the prisoners, and atrocities committed in Wamena on the day the prisoners were detained.   

A report compiled by ELS-HAM and TAPOL released today – Criminalising politics in West Papua - lists an appalling catalogue of abuses suffered by the prisoners while in detention and on trial, including torture and other forms of ill-treatment.  It reveals that the police and judicial authorities committed flagrant breaches of Indonesian law and international standards applicable to detention and the right to a fair trial.  The report casts serious doubt on the independence and impartiality of the presiding judges.

The 22 prisoners were arrested during and following a series of highly provocative operations by the Indonesian police in and around Wamena on 6 October 2000, which began when the police pulled down a number of West Papuan flags and brutally assaulted the flag-raisers.  The prisoners include five members of the pro-independence Papuan Presidium Council and 17 others.  The tragic events in Wamena that day resulted in the killing of 13 Papuans by the police and the subsequent killing of two dozen migrants seen as being in collusion with the police. 

The prisoners were all found guilty of rebellion or attempting to separate part of the territory of the State of Indonesia and other lesser offences and were sentenced to terms of imprisonment ranging from one to four-and-a-half years.  On 12 June 2001, they filed an appeal against their sentences to the Indonesian Supreme Court.  Their earlier appeal to the Irian Jaya High Court was dismissed.

The treatment of the prisoners is part of a concerted campaign by the Indonesian authorities to suppress legitimate independence aspirations, which has intensified since the recent deployment of additional security forces to the territory.  The report shows that little has changed since the dark days of the Suharto regime:

"In Indonesia, supremacy of the law has for decades been overridden by the political interests of the state, particularly in places such as West Papua where the demand for self-determination is strong.  This remains true three years after the fall of the Suharto and the coming to power of a democratically-elected president twenty months ago."

Soon after it took office, the Wahid government released all remaining political prisoners indicating that the detention and conviction of people for involvement in political activities would have no place in the post-Suharto Indonesia.  The Government has now reversed that policy and is creating a new generation of political prisoners.

ELS-HAM and TAPOL fear that a similar fate awaits five other members of the Presidium Council, including its leader, Theys Eluay - also charged with rebellion - and four students in Jakarta charged under Indonesia's notorious 'hate sowing' articles with expressing hostility, hatred and contempt of the Government.

Five other pro-independence activists from the town of Fak-Fak are in prison and victims of arbitrary detention following a grossly unfair trial for weapons offences, which involved serious breaches of Indonesian law and international standards.  

West Papua was incorporated into Indonesia following a fraudulent Act of

Free Choice in 1969, which involved a hand-picked assembly of 1,025 persons voting under duress to become part of Indonesia.  Since then violations of human rights have been widespread and tens of thousands have been killed. According to ELS-HAM, there have been 95 extra-judicial killings from July 1998 to May 2001, and the security forces have been responsible for 623 cases of arbitrary detention and torture.

The police operation to remove the West Papuan flag from Wamena was preceded by a campaign of intimidation against local people involving low-flying manoeuvres over the town by British Aerospace Hawk aircraft. The British Government was forced to intervene and insist on the withdrawal of the aircraft from West Papua after intense pressure from ELS-HAM and TAPOL.

ENDS

Attachment F.

Human Rights Watch [New York and Washington DC]

June 29, 2001 Embargoed for release July 3, 2001

INDONESIA:  VIOLENCE AND POLITICAL IMPASSE IN PAPUA

(New York, July 3, 2001) - Indonesia's crackdown on the Papuan independence movement is diminishing prospects for peace, Human Rights Watch said in a new report issued today.

A broad civilian independence movement has emerged alongside a decades-old armed insurgency in Indonesia's easternmost province, and Indonesian security forces increasingly have responded with force, imprisoning civilian leaders and terrorizing villagers.  The result, Human Rights Watch said, is more violence.

"In the last six months, we've seen arbitrary arrests and torture in Papua that should have ended with Soeharto's ouster," said Joe  Saunders,  deputy director of the Asia division of Human Rights Watch. "What we haven't seen is the political will to address any of the underlying causes of the conflict.  The political infighting in Jakarta may be partly to blame.  But those political battles are no excuse for failing to heed what's happening in the outlying provinces."

The crackdown has also elicited an increasingly violent response from armed Papuan groups, which have stepped up attacks on security posts. In early June 2001, rebels kidnapped two Belgian filmmakers in an apparent bid to attract international attention.

The Indonesian attorney general is due to decide by mid-July whether to  make one of the most serious cases of police brutality in Papua the first case to be brought before Indonesia's new human rights courts.

Jakarta failed to deliver on promises of meaningful autonomy for Papua, Human Rights Watch said.  Instead, since June 2000, authorities have sent thousands of new troops to the province. They have banned peaceful expression of support for Papuan independence and have moved aggressively against independence demonstrators, in many cases killing or seriously injuring them.  Key Papuan leaders have been arrested, and prominent civil society groups, including human rights organizations, have been subjected to increased surveillance and harassment.

In the 27-page report, "Violence and Political Impasse in Papua," Human Rights Watch details the emergence of the civilian movement and the government's response, and describes key cases.  These include not only cases of Indonesian security force abuses, but several incidents in which Papuan militants attacked non-Papuan migrants from other parts of Indonesia.  The report calls on Papuan political and community leaders to join religious leaders in condemning such violence and to take steps to stop it.

The report looks in greatest detail at the so-called Abepura case, in which police killed three students and beat up and tortured dozens of others following a December 2000 rebel attack on a police post in Abepura, near the provincial capital Jayapura.  Human rights groups that reported on the incident were summoned by police for questioning and continue to be threatened with police action.

Indonesia's National Human Rights Commission has recommended that the Abepura case be heard by Indonesia's new human rights courts.  The courts, called for by legislation passed in 2000, are only now being established, and as yet no judges have been appointed.

"More than two years after Soeharto resigned, the police and military still enjoy near total impunity," Saunders said. "With the Abepura case,  Attorney General Baharuddin Lopa and President Wahid have a chance to signal that the Indonesian government is finally committed to prosecuting serious human rights violations. But they must get the new court in place first."

Other steps Indonesia should take, according to Human Rights Watch, include the removal of arbitrary restrictions on access to all regions of Papua by journalists and humanitarian workers; the ending of all forms of racial and ethnic discrimination against Papuans; and prosecution of those responsible for anti-migrant violence.

"We urge other governments to press Jakarta to invite the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture to visit Papua," said Saunders.  "And we hope those attending the ASEAN post ministerial conference in Hanoi in late July will express concern about ongoing abuses in Papua when they meet with senior Indonesian officials."

Human Rights Watch's new report on Papua will be followed in mid-July by a report updating the situation in Aceh, where popular support for independence has been fueled by failure of the government to prosecute human rights abuses.

Note on terminology:  Indonesia's easternmost province is still formally known as Irian Jaya, but is now widely called Papua, following the lead of Indonesia's President Abdurrahman Wahid and in deference to the wishes of the province's indigenous inhabitants.  West Papua is the name preferred by leaders of the independence movement.

After July 3rd, the report "Violence and Political Impasse in Papua" can be accessed online at: http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/papua/

For more information, please contact:

In New York, Joe Saunders: +1 212 216 1207 (o)

+1 718 398 8893 (h)

Sidney Jones: +1 212 216 1228

In Washington, Mike Jendrzejczyk: +1 202 612 4341

-------------------------

Human Rights Watch

July 2001  Vol. 13 No. 2 (C)

INDONESIA: VIOLENCE AND POLITICAL IMPASSE IN PAPUA

I. SUMMARY

The Abepura Case

II. RECOMMENDATIONS

To the Government of Indonesia

To Papuan Community Leaders

To the International Community

III. THE CONTEXT: EMERGENCE OF THE INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENT AND THE GOVERNMENT'S RESPONSE

IV. THE WAMENA VIOLENCE

The Clash

Analysis

Anti-Migrant Violence

V. THE ABEPURA CASE AND ITS AFTERMATH

Aftermath

Investigations

Analysis

VI. HUMAN RIGHTS DEVELOPMENTS IN PAPUA TODAY

The Ban on Pro-Independence Expression

Jailing of Civilian Independence Leaders and Students

Intimidation of Civil Society Actors by the Security Forces

Anti-migrant Violence by Papuan Militants

VIII. CONCLUSION

Acknowledgments

-------------------------------------

I. SUMMARY

 "The [Papuan] reform movement has removed the lid and released a lot of smoke. The problem now is that many people are still too preoccupied with the smoke. They forget that the smoke is there because there is a fire.... The fire is injustice."

Barnabas Suebu, former Governor of Irian Jaya, current Indonesian Ambassador to Mexico, interviewed in Tempo, October 23 - 29, 2000.

The political situation in Irian Jaya (also known as West Papua or Papua), Indonesia-s easternmost province, is fundamentally unsettled.  Papua is remote from Jakarta and home to only two million of the country-s more than 200 million inhabitants, but what happens in the resource-rich province is likely to have great importance for Indonesia. Like Aceh, Papua is home to an armed insurgency against the Indonesian government. Although far less violent than Aceh at present, the province is seen in Jakarta as a front line in national efforts to defend Indonesia-s territorial integrity against newly energized separatist movements and growing communal conflict. 

On the surface, Indonesian security forces appear to be in control, having forcibly subdued the broad independence movement that emerged into public view in the province after the fall of Soeharto in May 1998; below the surface, however, Papuan sentiment remains overwhelmingly opposed to rule from Jakarta. Tensions are high and recent months have seen an escalation in violence, including at times lethal security force operations against independence supporters as well as several ugly attacks on migrants by Papuan militants, a disturbing development that suggests more trouble ahead.

Segments of the Papuan population have been demanding independence for decades, but, until recently, resistance to Indonesian rule was limited to small bands of guerrillas loosely organized under the names Free Papua Movement (Organisasi Papua Merdeka or OPM) and National Liberation Army (Tentara Pembebasan Nasional or TPN). The insurgents have mostly staged relatively small-scale hit and run attacks on Indonesian military posts and, on a few occasions, have taken hostages to draw attention to their cause. In the three years since Soeharto fell, however, a broad, civilian-based Papuan independence movement has emerged along side the guerrilla fighters and, for the first time, poses a serious challenge for Indonesia.

The Indonesian government has made important political overtures to Papuan leaders since the ouster of Soeharto and has promised, though not yet delivered, substantial autonomy for the province (Otonomi Khusus, literally -Special Autonomy,- to distinguish it from the devolution of central authority now taking place across Indonesia). At the same time, military and police authorities have returned to a hardline approach.

Since June 2000, authorities have sent thousands of new troops to the province, intimidating and at times attacking civilians in areas where rebels are believed to be active; the government has banned even peaceful expression of support for

Papuan independence; security forces have moved aggressively against independence demonstrators, in many cases killing or seriously injuring them; key Papuan leaders have been arrested; and prominent civil society groups, including human rights organizations, have been subjected to increased surveillance and harassment.

With the crackdown has come a return to many of the abusive practices of the past. For nearly thirty years, from 1969, when the territory was formally incorporated as part of Indonesia in a still controversial U.N.-supervised process, until October 1998, five months after the fall of Soeharto, the province was formally designated a Military Operations Area (Daerah Operasi Militer, or DOM). Under the DOM, in effect in

Papua far longer than anywhere else in Indonesia, security forces were given a free hand to combat the guerrillas. Papuans claim that thousands of civilians were terrorized and often tortured and killed during counterinsurgency campaigns. Not only did the army-s heavy-handed tactics fail to extinguish the guerrilla struggle, but, as in East Timor and Aceh, they created made many new enemies among the civilian population.

Indonesian authorities have justified the recent return to a high-profile military presence in the province as necessary to curb the growing demands for independence that have emerged since post-Soeharto civilian adminstrations began adopting more tolerant policies. As indicated above, however, current Papuan demands are themselves rooted, among other things, in past military abuses and pervasive mistrust which the recent build-up has only made worse. The crackdown has also elicited  an increasingly violent response from armed Papuan groups, which have stepped up attacks on security posts, with major incidents resulting in casualties in December 2000 (Abepura), February 2001 (Betaf) and June 2001 (Wasior). As this report was being prepared, militants were also reported to be holding hostage two Belgian filmmakers who had first been reported missing on June 7, 2001.

Human Rights Watch believes that continuing human rights abuses have contributed to the increasing violence and political impasse in Papua today, and that addressing the abuses is a precondition to any long-lasting solution.

The abuses include:

- a ban on even peaceful expression of pro-independence sentiment and symbols;

- disproportionate and often lethal use of force by Indonesian police and military forces against pro-independence demonstrators;

- torture and brutal beatings of detainees, at times in plain view of witnesses, a product of the impunity which such forces have long enjoyed in the province;

- ethnic and racial discrimination by government authorities, particularly directed against Papuans from the central highlands;

- intimidation of journalists, human rights activists, and others who  attempt to expose abuses by the security forces; and

- arrest and imprisonment of Papuan leaders for nonviolent advocacy of independence.

On the Papuan side, there has been little public condemnation of recent violence, directed against non-Papuan migrants and settlers, with which some

Papuan militants have responded to the crackdown. On June 13, 2001,  church leaders from Papua condemned the increase in violence by all  parties, but other community and political leaders have not spoken out forcefully. This silence undermines the expressed commitment of the civilian leadership to lawful and peaceful struggle and has increased the likelihood of more such incidents.

This report, based on a visit to Papua in March 2001 and follow-up interviews by phone through mid-June, looks at the situation in the province and recommends steps that should be taken to address human rights abuses. The report looks in greatest detail at the nationally significant Abepura case from December 2000 but also describes other major cases and provides an overview of human rights developments in Papua from June 2000 to June 2001.

The Abepura Case

On December 7, 2000, two police officers and a security guard were killed in Abepura, a college town near Jayapura (the provincial capital) in an early morning raid, believed by police officers to have been carried out by pro-independence Papuan highlanders ("orang pegunungan tengah"). The perpetrators escaped into the hills. In response, police  officers and Brimob troops (mobile brigade police often used in quelling riots and counterinsurgency operations), under command of the Jayapura police chief, aggressively retaliated. Police awakened and seized sleeping students (mostly highlanders) from three different dormitories, rounded up people in other highlander settlements in the Jayapura area, and beat and tortured them for much of the next thirty-six hours -- in some cases in broad daylight. One student was shot and killed, two more died of the multiple beatings they received; dozens suffered serious injuries (one is still paralyzed).

The Brimob response to the attack on the Abepura police post is an example of the kind of abuses that all too often accompany security "sweeps." Many of the people we spoke to in Irian Jaya, both Papuan and  non-Papuan, claim that such "sweeps" often turn into indiscriminate army retaliation in which civilians are the victims. As this report was being prepared, four Papuans were reported to have been killed in another

Brimob sweep near Wasior, in Manokwari district. Such criminal retaliation may be common, but it rarelyoccurs in a setting as urban and open as Abepura and rarely with students - articulate and able to shape public opinion -- as the target.

Although the Abepura case has attracted widespread attention to the brutality of Indonesian security forces in Papua, the very high profile of the case and clear evidence of egregious wrongdoing offer Indonesian authorities an opportunity to conduct a broad reassessment of where responsibility lies for this and related cases and to take steps to prevent such violence in the future.

Prosecution of the Abepura case is important nationally as the first case due to be prosecuted under the new Human Rights Court law, adopted in November 2000. At the national level, it is also critical in order to expose the role of human rights abuses in generating support for independence movements. This is true not solely for the sake of Papua or because of the disastrous effects of similar army behavior in Aceh. It is also important because the separatist wave likely is not over -- new troubles can be expected in future years in other regions (e.g., nascent Dayak nationalism in Kalimantan). To ensure that the failures of Aceh and Papua are not repeated, the government should take decisive action against military and police officials responsible for unlawful violence and killings. The Abepura case will be an important test of the government-s commitment. 

Drawing on Indonesian-language sources, this report also provides a description of the Wamena case, in which a series of police raids on pro-independence community centers in the central highland town of Wamena were followed by one of the worst riots in Papua's history. On the early morning of October 6, 2000, joint security forces in Wamena moved aggressively against Papuan community centers where the Papuan flag was flying. In one incident, ten Papuans were wounded by bullet fire, at least one of whom died, a fifty-year-old man who had been hit by a stray bullet while walking with his eight-year-old son. In response, an angry Papuan mob gathered and eventually began burning and looting shops. Confronted by gunfire from security forces, the mob went on a rampage, venting their anger in a residential area that is home primarily to migrants from other parts of Indonesia. In the ensuing melee, at least seven Papuans were shot and killed and twenty-four non-Papuans were killed.

Following the Wamena violence, twenty-two Papuans, including five locally prominent independence leaders who had not taken part in the attacks on migrants, were arrested, prosecuted, and sentenced. Army and police commanders who directed the violent assault on the posts that preceded the rioting, however, were not punished. For many Papuans, this is a clear example of how Indonesian government decisions are still  based on understandings, perceptions, and versions of events that are absolutely at odds with those of Papuans. The government appears alien, hostile, and unresponsive. This in turn plants the seeds of distrust and future conflict: in Wamena, none of the underlying grievances have been addressed and inter-ethnic and Papuan-government relations have been set back.

This report begins with a brief survey of the evolution of Papuan political demands in the post-Soeharto period and an overview of human rights developments following the pro-independence Papuan 'Congress' held in June 2000. Separate chapters are devoted to the Wamena and Abepura cases. The report concludes with an overview of key human rights developments in Papua as of June 2001, including the government-s on-again, off-again ban on independence symbols; continued security force assaults on community posts where such symbols are displayed; the arrest and trial of key community leaders; intimidation of civil society actors by the security forces; and, increasingly, anti-migrant violence and raids on police and army posts by Papuan guerrillas.

© 2002 The Diary of Online Papua Mouthpiece