ELSHAM, the Institute for Human Rights Study and Advocacy, Jayapura, issued the following Urgent Action on Monday, 16 July 2001

IMPACT OF SWEEPINGS AND CLAMPDOWN IN WASIOR, MANOKWARI, WEST PAPUA

"Thousands Flee, Kidénaps and Torture Everywhere, Houses Torched, Woman Shot Dead and Her Baby Wounded by Security Forces"

Jayapura, 16 July 2001 

Everything that ELSHAM feared about the 'Sweeping and Clampdown Operation" against the civilian population being conducted by the police backed by the regional military command has been borne out by events. 

The security forces are not capable of safeguarding the basic human rights of the civilian population in Wasior, Ransiki, Kaimana (Fak-Fak) and Nabire who are the targets of this operation. As is known, the operation being conducted by the security forces came in the wake of an attack by 'an unidentified group' on 13 June which resulted in the deaths of five members of Brimob and a civilian in the village of 
Wondibai, Wasior subdistrict, Manokwari. 

ELSHAM has interviewed a victim and a witness as well as church officials from the subdistrict and also from Nabire regarding the operation. YY (59), an elementary school teacher, told ELSHAM that he and four others were tortured on 17 June by members of Brimob at police headquarters in Wasior. He said that six members of Brimob took turns in maltreating them until they were black and blue. YY also said that Brimob members torched the houses of persons suspected of being involved in the 13 June incident. Kidnaps of civilians continue to occur. On 20 June, Brimob kidnapped Henok Marani (35), Felix Urbon (28), Y. Woisiri (28), Cornelis Tambawa (30) and Orpa Tambawa (26) in the villages of Tandia and Senderawoi, Wasior subdistrict. The witness said that Cornelis Tambawa and Orpa Tambawa have since returned but the three others were declared to be MISSING. 

On 26 June, a local resident found a decomposed body in the forest between Senderawoi and Tandia, and identified the body as being that of Felis Urbon. Another witness, NM (40) who returned to Manokwari from Wasior on 8 July told ELSHAM that on 28 June, Brimob forces shot dead a woman named Esther Matiopi (28) and wounded her baby Nona Kabiay (3) in the foot, in the village of Yopanggar, Roon island. Brimob also shot and wounded Endemina Numayomi (20) in the hand, while Cornelis Sumuay (50) , head of the village of Yopanggar was seriously tortured, and was struck on the head with a bayonet. 

A local official of the GKI church in Wondama, Wasior reported that Brimob forces torched the houses of inhabitants of the villages of Senderawoi, Isui and Wondoboy, While six families still remain in Wondiboy,all the inhabitants of the other two villages have fled to the forests. It is estimated that about 5,000 civilians have fled their homes in Wasior. Witnesses and church officials have also reported that local residents are daily compelled by Brimob to collect food for them. Social and economic activities (tending their gardens, hunting, fishing, going to school) are completely paralysed and everyone lives in a state of fear. 

In Nabire, about thirty members of Brimob were involved in an operation on 9 July during which they torched the home of Yotam Aronggiar (34), and destroyed three outboard motors, three vessels and 38 fishing lines belonging to fishermen in the village of Sanoba, Nabire town, causing losses worth more than Rp 150 million. Yotam Aronggiar is suspected of hiding the perpetrators of the 13 June incident. 

Brimob forces are in control of the whole area of Wasior, Ransiki, Fak-Fak (Kaimana) and Nabire. People's freedom of movement is now severely restricted and human rights abuses continued to occur. 

ACTION 

ELSHAM therefore calls on all human rights organisations, governments, religious bodies, individuals, acadmics, students and the general public who love peace, justice and human right and democracy, especially those in West Papua, to send faxes or cables to the following authorities calling on them: 

TO IMMEDIATE HALT THE SWEEPING AND CLAMPDOWN OPERATION, TO WITHDRAW ALL THEIR TROOPS AND OPEN UP THE REGION OF WASIOR TO HUMAN RIGHTS AND HUMANITARIAN GROUPS AND TO BRING TO JUSTICE ALL THOSE RESPONSIBLE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS.

Please write to: National chief of police, fax: 62-21 720-1402 

Regional police chief of Papua, Brig General Made Mangku Pastika,
Phone/fax: 62-967 533763/531717 

District chief of police of Manokwari, Drs Budi Bambang Santoso,
Phone/fax: 62-986-211365 

Copies please to: Minister for Justice and Human Rights, Mohamad 
Mahfud, 
62-21 525-3095/522-5036 

National Human Rights Commission, Phone/Fax: 62-21 392-5227 

Your immediate action will mean a lot to those who need your support. 

Thank you. 

As received from TAPOL, the Indonesia Human Rights Campaign
111 Northwood Road, Thornton Heath, Croydon CR7 8HW, UK.
tel +44 020 8771 2904 fax +44 020 8653 0322
tapol@gn.apc.org www.gn.apc.org/tapol 

© 2002 The Diary of Online Papua Mouthpiece