06/17/2016
Continued arrests in West Papua
Indonesia must allow demonstrations and ensure freedom of the press! (Press Release)
When Widodo became president in October 2014, many people hoped that this would lead to an improvement of the human rights situation in West Papua. But they were disappointed. Under the leadership of President Widodo, the Papua natives experienced a massive increase in violations of their rights. Photo: Axel Drainville via Flickr
Given the ongoing wave of arrests in West Papua, the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) demands the Indonesian government to allow demonstrations in the conflict region and to ensure freedom of the press. “If the basic human rights of the indigenous peoples of Papua are ignored, this will only lead to a further escalation in the striving for an independent state in West Papua,” said Ulrich Delius, the STP’s Asia-expert, in Göttingen on Friday. During the last seven days alone, a total number of 1,236 Papuans were detained for a short while. Thus, the number of Papuans who were arrested during demonstrations in the cities of Jayapura, Fakfak, Baliem, Timika, Sorong and Sentani since April 10, 2016, has increased to 3,844.
Indonesia’s police chief in West Papua, Inspector General Paul Waterpaw, denied the high number of arrests, stating that the police forces had merely broken up unauthorized demonstrations to maintain the constitutional order of the country. Further, the police chief accused Indonesian human rights organizations such as the Institute for Legal Aid (LBH) of publishing “provocative material”, and he advised the human rights activists to enter a dialogue with the police. The LBH managed to document most of the arrests in detail.
Papuan journalists are also openly harassed and intimidated by the authorities and police forces, as an attempt to influence the reports. Thus, the journalists Benny Mawel and Zely Ariane were briefly detained on June 15, 2016, when they tried to clarify what had happened to a group of arrested protesters. Both of them work for Jubi, the most popular West Papuan news portal. The deputy police chief of the capital Jayapura, Arnold Tata, complained about the research work, describing it as “inopportune and intrusive” and stating that no media coverage was needed since the demonstrations were to be seen as illegal. Tata strongly advised press representatives to cooperate with the police and to have their research reviewed by the authorities.
In West Papua, there has been a considerable increase in demonstrations by the National Committee of West Papua (KNPB) during the past three months. The organization advocates for the establishment of an independent state. Indonesia’s authorities don’t seem to have a real strategy to deal with the protests of the Papua natives, so they react by stepping up the repressive measures against independence activists.
Header photo: Axel Drainville via Flickr
