The Jakarta Post, 7/5/2007 4:01:29 PM
Police killing, raping civilians in Indonesia's Papua, rights group
says
JAKARTA(AP): Indonesian security forces killed and beat unarmed civilians and raped
women during recent operations against separatists in Papua province, Human Rights
Watch alleged in a report released Thursday.
Indonesia's police chief denied any abuses were taking place in the isolated region,
where mistrust between indigenous people and security forces runs high after years of
bloody military crackdowns.
"The police have undertaken many reforms," said Gen. Sutanto. "The human rights
situation in Papua is getting better." Like many Indonesians, Sutanto goes by a single
name.
The allegations of abuse contained in the report hinged on interviews with alleged
victims and witness, all of whom spoke anonymously due to fears of reprisal, New
York-based Human Rights Watch said.
The group's 96-page report covered investigations of eight alleged killings by police
and military officers in the province's central highlands since 2005, and several bloody
beatings.
"I was beaten with the end of a gun on my back and with fists to my face. My mouth
and eyes were smashed and bleeding," said one alleged victim.
The group also recorded two cases of rape - one of a 16-year-old girl by a soldier and
another of a married woman by police who accused her of supplying food for the
rebels.\
It said that only one officer - a low-ranking soldier who received an 8-month prison
term for killing a 16-year-old boy – had faced prosecution over any of the abuses.
Papua was incorporated into Indonesia in 1969 after a U.N.-sponsored ballot of tribal
leaders, which has since been dismissed as a sham.
A small separatist insurgency has raged ever since in the mostly Christian region in
Muslim-majority Indonesia. Tens of thousands have died as a result of military action
by Indonesian forces, rights groups say.
Around 100 Papuans demonstrated Thursday outside the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta to
demand an independence referendum in the province, which remains poor despite
being rich in natural resources.
"The nation of Papua has seen 44 years of sorrow," read a banner carried by the
protesters.
"Special autonomy has failed and a referendum is the only solution," it read, referring
to recent laws granting the region more power and money from its gold mines, forests
and natural gas reserves.
The Brussels-based International Crisis Group think tank said in a report last year that
the human rights situation had improved in Papua since the introduction of the
autonomy laws, but serious violations still occurred.
Human Rights Watch said the abuse was deepening mistrust of the national
government and risked fueling separatist tensions in the region, which occupies the
western half of Papua New Guinea island.
Since 2002, foreign journalists, diplomats and human rights workers have required
permission - which is often denied - to visit the region. Once there, strict limits are
imposed on freedom of movement and association.
Human Rights Watch urged the government to open Papua to independent observers,
and to allow independent and transparent investigations of rights abuses.
"By keeping the region closed to outside scrutiny, officials in Jakarta are receiving
biased and partial accounts of what is taking place," said Joseph Saunders, the
group's deputy program director.
"Reliable information is essential if officials are genuinely interested in identifying
problems and finding lasting solutions." (**)
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