ABSTRACT
Confronting disturbing phenomena In early 1998 during the first six months of my residence as a member of the Pastoral Team of St Joseph’s Parish in Enarotali in the highlands of Paniai, Papua,1 I confronted marks of torture presented to me by the locals. During private conversations with torture survivors, who were mostly our parishioners, I witnessed marks of torture left by the Indonesian military (Tentara Nasional Indonesia/TNI) on the bodies of Papuans in the highlands of Paniai. The survivors narrated their stories in whispering voices while showing swollen legs and hands, bruised eyes, or red scars all over their bodies. Although none of them were bleeding, it was obvious that they could not hide their pain, with terrified faces and tears in their eyes. In confidence, one by one they voluntarily told their experiences of being almost drowned in freezing water in a ditch, beaten up with a piece of wood or a rifle butt, humiliated in front of their family, or being forced to give some cash to the Indonesian soldiers in exchange for promises of protection from further harassment. All of this mistreatment happened because the TNI accused them of supporting a Free Papua Movement (Organisasi Papua Merdeka/OPM) based in Paniai led by the late TPN-OPM leader Tadeus Yogi by providing supplies and logistics. I had carefully documented some ninety victims’ stories before I found similar incidents in the neighbouring villages, especially around the Waghete area. When I put all the jigsaw pieces together, I found that patterns of mistreatment of the TNI against the Papuans were no coincidence. They indicated a high degree of intentionality and regularity. All incidences were reported by the three main Church leaders of Papua (Catholic, GKI and KINGMI) to the Commander of the Army in Jayapura in July 1998 under the title ‘Hak-Hak Azasi Manusia di Wilayah Paniai dan Tigi, Irian Jaya’ (The Human Rights Situation in Paniai and Tigi, Irian Jaya). The Churches’ report had an impact on the ground as the TNI groups were replaced by new ones which were reportedly more restrained. However, we never heard of any criminal investigation over the incidents and thus we cannot assume that the soldiers were ever held accountable, although by then Indonesia’s reformasi was on the move. My confrontation with torture incidents in Papua did not stop there. In 2010, torture footage from Papua was leaked on YouTube and grabbed international
attention (Hernawan 2016). The footage contains graphic images of two Papuan highlanders being tormented by a group of TNI in front of their community. As I will fully discuss this particular incident in Chapter 3, it will suffice to say at this stage that the event was not uncommon but the distribution of the footage through the internet was entirely novel. The setting of the incident was very much similar to that in Paniai. It targeted villagers/highlanders who were located in the remote area of Papua with limited access to public scrutiny. The way of responding to the incident and exposing the crime was entirely different from what the Papuan Church leaders did in 1998. The human rights activists called on the international public to act, which eventually led to prosecution of the perpetrators. Finally, another confronting phenomenon occurred on 2 May 2016. At least 2,190 Papuans, men and women, members of Komite Nasional Papua Barat (KNPB/West Papua National Committee) were arrested by the Indonesian police in seven Indonesian cities, including Jayapura, Sorong, Merauke, Wamena, Semarang, Makassar and Manokwari.2 They took to the street to protest what they called the beginning of Indonesian’s occupation over then West New Guinea back in 1 May 1963. This was the day when the United Nations Temporary Executive Authority transferred the administration of West New Guinea to Indonesia’s hands. The protesters believed that 1 May 1963 was when the Indonesian oppression against indigenous Papuans began by violating Papuan rights to self-determination. Therefore, they demanded a new referendum for Papuans to be held again today. The incident constituted the largest police arrests in a single day throughout the history of Papua. The Indonesian police forced people to strip their clothes, including women, to half-naked. Most of them were beaten and left bare under the scorching sunlight in the front yard of the Mobile Police (BRIMOB) headquarters in Kotaraja. In the downtown Provincial Capital of Jayapura, the police harassed a journalist from a local online publication, Suara Papua, and denied access to other journalists to cover the event. Nevertheless, the police publicly demonstrated that they had no hesitation in deploying large state resources to suppress the demonstration, even if the public closely watched their action across eight locations in Indonesia. The police actions were captured by amateurs who instantly distributed images and videos through both the mainstream3 and social media. The KNPB demand was also a signpost for another related event held in London on the following day (3 May 2016). A group of concerned lawyers and parliamentarians under the name of International Parliamentarians for West Papua (IPWP) expressed their calls for reviewing the so-called Act of Free Choice, which had been held nearly fifty years ago in 1969 under the UN auspices (see Chapter 3), as it was considered legally flawed. Although the event received little attention from the British public, it drew various reactions from the Indonesian audience and Indonesian authorities, including a visit from the Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Security, Legal and Political Affairs, Luhut Panjaitan.
