Human Rights Watch publishes new report: “If It’s Not Racism, What Is It?” Discrimination and Other Abuses Against Papuans in Indonesia

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Nineteen-year-old Alfa Hisage was arrested on August 30, 2019, for joining a student-led protest against anti-Papuan racism in Jayapura, a city in the Indonesian territory of West Papua. He told Human Rights Watch that at the police station, officers beat and racially abused him, particularly for his dreadlocks. “They pushed my head on the table,” he said. “And they used a bayonet to cut off my hair.”

The Indigenous Papuan population of Indonesia has long encountered racial discrimination based on their ethnic origin, including from government agencies and institutions, as well as in laws and regulations. Ever since the Netherlands turned over West Papua to the newly independent government of Indonesia following a deeply flawed United Nations resolution in 1969, many Papuans have sought independence – primarily peacefully but also through the force of arms – from Indonesian rule.

The Indonesian government has responded with numerous grave abuses by the government security forces, the isolation of West Papua from the rest of the world, and the arrest, prosecution, and long prison terms for Papuan activists who have peacefully called for independence or other forms of self-determination. The Indonesian authorities have encouraged tens of thousands of non-Papuan families to work and to settle in West Papua, which has driven many Indigenous Papuans from their land.

The resistance of Papuans and many non-Papuans in Indonesia to discrimination took on a new dimension following an August 17, 2019 attack by security forces on a Papuan student dormitory in Surabaya, Indonesia’s second largest city, in which the students were subjected to racial insults. The attack renewed discussions on anti-Papuan racial discrimination and sovereignty for West Papua. Papuan students and others acting through a social media movement called Papuan Lives Matter, inspired by Black Lives Matter in the United States, took part in a wave of protests that broke out in many parts of Indonesia. Alfa Hisage was among the many students who joined the demonstrations.

The Indonesian government responded by detaining hundreds. Papuans Behind Bars, a nongovernmental organization that monitors politically motivated arrests in West Papua, recorded 418 new cases from October 2020 to September 2021. At least 245 of them were charged, found guilty, and jailed for joining the protests, with 109 convicted of “treason.” However, while in the past, Papuans charged with political offenses typically were sentenced to years – in many cases, 10 years or more – of imprisonment, in the recent cases, perhaps because of international and domestic attention and pressure, the courts handed down much shorter sentences, and many of those convicted were soon released because they had already served much of their term in pretrial detention.

Victor Yeimo, a prominent Papuan rights activist and spokesperson for the West Papua National Committee (Komite Nasional Papua Barat, KNPB), was arrested on May 9, 2021, but had to be hospitalized for tuberculosis three months later. He was eventually detained again in January 2023 to face trial for treason, and was convicted. When he was released after completing his one-year jail sentence (including pre-trial detention) on September 23, 2023, he was welcomed at a large public gathering, where he called on Papuans to resist racial discrimination: “It is imperative that the Papuan people learn that the annexation of this region is based on racist prejudice.”

West Papuan independence campaigners have largely protested peacefully against repression by Indonesians authorities. However, since the 1960s a small Papuan separatist insurgency has mainly targeted Indonesian security forces, but has also at times targeted Indonesian settlers to West Papua, foreign workers and corporations, and others they claim to be “spies.” The Indonesian military has been deployed in West Papua in large numbers to counter the insurgents. Secessionist demands have also been fueled by countless government and security force human rights violations.

Human Rights Watch takes no position on claims for independence in Indonesia or in any other country. We support the right of everyone to peacefully express their political views, including for independence, without fear of arrest or other forms of reprisal. The Indonesian government has legitimate security concerns in West Papua stemming from Papuan militant attacks. But these provide no justification for the government’s failure to uphold international human rights and humanitarian law prohibitions against arbitrary arrest and detention, torture and ill-treatment of persons in custody, and unlawful killings.

This report profiles cases of Papuan activists convicted after the Papuan Lives Matter protests, and also describes ongoing human rights violations rooted in racial discrimination, in particular, the right to education and to the highest attainable standard of health. We also documented recent abuses by security forces and Papuan militants during the ongoing conflict.

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