Activists have been closely following the trial and repeatedly launched peaceful actions in support of Victor Yeimo in front of the district court in the city of Jayapura (PN Jayapura). …
Police arrest 24 protesters demanding justice for Victor Yeimo in Jayapura Read More »
New armed clashes in the Dekai District of Yahukimo Regency erupted after TPNPB fighters killed an Indonesian migrant on 20 February 2023. Multiple attacks against security force members followed. Following the attacks, joint members of the Police Mobile Brigade (Brimob) and the 1715 Yahukimo Military command conducted raids in the district of Dekai and the surrounding area. The raids were accompanied by 22 arbitrary arrests of indigenous Papuans.
Over the past years, there have been several reports of such abuses and Human Rights Monitor (HRM) has compiled a list of victims of enforced disappearance and extra-judicial killings in West Papua between January and December 2022.
Thirteen Papuan students have sustained bruises and injuries after being attacked by Garuda Nusantara Patriots (PGN) members during a peaceful assembly on 1 April 2023 in the city of Denpasar, Bali Province. The PGN is one of many nationalist groups in Indonesia promoting pro-government values and state ideologies.
The panel of judges at the Jayapura District Court postponed the trial on charges of treason against the international spokesman for the West Papua National Committee (KNPB), Victor Yeimo on 20 March 2023. At the hearing on 20 March was scheduled an expert testimony to be presented by the Papua Law Enforcement and Human Rights Coalition as Victor Yeimo’s legal counsel.
Yayasan Pusaka Bentala Rakyat recorded that by the end of 2022, there was deforestation covering an area of 19,426 hectares in Papua, which occurred as a result of logging and palm oil plantation business activities. “According to our year-end records in 2022, deforestation in Papua was observed at 19,426 hectares.
Hendrikus ‘Franky’ Woro, an environmental defender from the Awyu tribe, accompanied by the Papua Legal Aid Institute (LBH) filed a lawsuit at the Jayapura State Administrative Court (PTUN) concerning an environmental permit issued for palm oil company PT Indo Asiana Lestari (PT IAL) by the Papuan Investment and One-Stop Integrated Service Office (DPMPTSP).
On 6 March 2023, the case file for alleged defamation charges faced by woman human rights defenders Fatia Maulidiyanti and Haris Azhar was declared complete and handed over to the Attorney’s Office.
Two major developments with a significant effect on the human rights situation in West Papua throughout 2022 were, firstly, Jakarta’s plans to amend the Papuan special autonomy law and establish new provinces in West Papua. This has caused widespread rejection among indigenous Papuans. In July 2021, the central government unilaterally amended the Papuan Special Autonomy (Otsus) Law without the participation of the Papuan Peoples Assembly (MRP) and the provincial government. Secondly, the ongoing armed conflict in West Papua causes a climate of persistent violence, particularly in the conflict areas. Papuan human rights defenders kept reporting cases of torture, extra-judicial killings and enforced disappearances – many of such cases are directly related to armed conflict.
On 14 November 2022, the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) published in a press release the success of a joint humanitarian pause in certain areas of Papua. One …
West Papua: Humanitarian pause not implemented after three months Read More »
On 9 November 2022, Indonesia was reviewed for a fourth time by the UN Human Rights Council’s (HRC) Universal Periodic Review (UPR), a review in which the members of the Human Rights Council discuss the overall human rights situation in Indonesia, including in West Papua. During the three hours session in Geneva, Indonesia presented its human rights record from the state’s perspective after it had submitted its national report for this review.
Four Manuhua Biak Air Force soldiers (TNI AU) allegedly tortured their junior, Prada Indra Wijaya, an enlisted man assigned to the Secretariat, Makoopsud III Biak. Prada Indra Wijaya died with a bleeding head and blood pouring out and full of bruises. He had fainted at the Mess Makoopsud III Biak and was then taken to the Manuhua Biak Air Force Base hospital for treatment. Still, he died on 19 November 2022.
A 45-year-old man named Amis Ando died after being detained at the Muna Resort Police (Polres) Headquarters for 12 hours. He was arrested and detained on 3 May 2022 at 8 pm because he was caught possessing a knife while drunk in a resident’s house. He was found dead on 4 May 2022. There were strong indications that Amis Ando had been tortured.
The Seberang Ulu 1 Palembang Police Sector tortured 33-year-old Aidil Aditiawan. The Police accused Aidil of being a drug dealer and arrested him on 19 August 2022. There was no arrest warrant, and during the arrest, the Seberang Ulu I Police Criminal Investigation Unit committed violence.
wenty-three-year-old RF, a resident of Loce Village, East Sahu Subdistrict, who was a suspect in a case of maltreatment, died at the West Halmahera Resort Police Office, North Maluku Province, on 13 October 2022. Police said that the suspect died by hanging himself in the holding cell. However, the police provided different versions of information and delayed providing accurate information to the family. This made the family doubt the truth that RF died by suicide.
A public official with the initials AA, one of the heads of an agency in Kerawang Regency, West Java tortured two journalists, Gusti Sevta Gumilar and Zaenal Mustofa, on Saturday night, 17 September 2022, and Sunday morning, 18 September 2022. There are strong indications that AA and his men kidnapped, illegally detained, punched and kicked the victims’ bodies and genitals, forced the victims to drink urine, and threatened to kill the victims.
PT Toba Pulp Lestari Tbk (PT TPL) criminalised 59-year-old Dirman Rajagukguk, a farmer and member of the Tongkunisolu indigenous community in West Parsoburan Village, Habinsaran District, Toba Regency, North Sumatra Province. PT TPL reported Dirman to the Porsea Sector Police in August 2022. PT TPL accused Dirman of destroying 69 hectares of the company’s industrial plantation forest by planting yams, and corn and building a house.
Thirteen Indonesian National Army (TNI) from Infantry Battalion 411 of the Army Strategic Reserve Command (Kostrad) Salatiga tortured five civilians. This incident occurred at the Yon 411 Kostrad dormitory in Salatiga, Central Java Province on 1 September 2022.
Belu Resort Police Officer Brigpol Rogerius Roy Sonbay shot 18-year-old Gerson Yaris Lau alias Eton to death on 27 September 2022. The police accused the suspect of trying to escape when a joint team of the Belu Police Buser team and the Belu Police Intelkam Unit were about to make an arrest.
On the night of 4 June 2022, two officers from the Sleman Resort Police, Yogyakarta, LV and AR, assaulted 29-year-old Bryan Yoga Kusuma in the parking lot of a bar called Holywings, on Magelang Street, Sleman Regency, Yogyakarta Province. About 20 people gathered around Bryan. Some of them were Sleman resort police. They beat him and threw him on the asphalt.
