Indonesian police routinely torture, rape and kill with impunity in Indonesia's easternmost Papua where they risk fanning separatism, an international rights group said in a report released yesterday.
Human Rights Watch warned that endemic police abuse in the isolated Central Highlands region was deepening mistrust of Jakarta and called on the government to open the region to independent observers.
A long-running but low-level separatist movement has simmered in the region since the 1960s, and the Indonesian government does not permit journalists or rights workers to travel there without special permission.
PHOTO: AP
The HRW report found that Indonesia's feared paramilitary Brimob were responsible for the most serious violations in the region today, though some reports of brutal treatment by Indonesian soldiers persisted.
Indonesia's military has for decades been accused by Papuans of committing human rights abuses in the isolated, resource-rich region, but the police have been gradually taking on more of their former security role.
"We found that both army troops and police units ... continue to engage in largely indiscriminate village `sweeping' operations in pursuit of suspected militants, using excessive, often brutal, and at times lethal force against civilians," the report said.
HRW documented 14 cases of abuse -- in which only one security officer was prosecuted and jailed for eight months -- and the report contains graphic first-hand accounts from the victims.
"I wanted to scream but he had his hand over my mouth and then he forced me. I resisted but he still forced me," a 16-year-old rape victim said.
"Then he carried out the act on me. I couldn't walk. I was in so much pain. After that he ordered me that if I told anyone what had happened he would come and kill me," said the girl, whose village chief advised her not to report the attack, afraid it would cause trouble with the military.
The head of the police and military in the region did not respond to requests by HRW for information on the cases they documented, the group said.
A lack of internal accountability and an abysmal justice system meant impunity for perpetrators, the report said.
"The police are acting as a law unto themselves. This is a serious breach of the public trust necessary for effective policing," Joseph Saunders, deputy program director at New York-based Human Rights Watch, told a press briefing.
Indonesia won sovereignty over Papua, formerly a Dutch colony in 1969 after a referendum widely seen as a sham.
A poorly armed separatist group, the Free Papua Organisation, has conducted a low-profile armed resistance since before Indonesia took over and the Central Highlands has seen tense confrontations erupt.
Asked whether researchers had found separatist sentiment was increasing, Saunders said this was the first HRW report in the region so they could not identify trends, "but in terms of the distrust and the fear, it was palpable."
HRW called on the Indonesian government to open Papua and West Papua provinces to independent observers.
The UN envoy for human rights defenders, Hina Jilani, called for better protection for activists in West Papua during a visit to Indonesia last month, saying she was concerned about police and military harassment.
A US YouTuber who caused outrage for filming himself kissing a statue commemorating Korean wartime sex slaves has been sentenced to six months in prison, a court in Seoul said yesterday. Johnny Somali, 25, gained notoriety several years ago for recording himself doing a series of provocative stunts in South Korea and Japan, and streaming them on platforms such as YouTube and Twitch. South Korean authorities indicted Somali — whose real name is Ramsey Khalid Ismael — in 2024 on public order violations and obstruction of business, and banned him from leaving the country. “The court has sentenced him to six months in
Former Lima mayor Rafael Lopez Aliaga, a Peruvian presidential hopeful, gathered hundreds of supporters in Lima on Tuesday and gave authorities 24 hours to annul the first round of the country’s election over allegations of fraud. Lopez Aliaga is locked in a tight three-way race with two other candidates for second place in Sunday’s vote. The election runner-up wins a ticket to June’s presidential run-off against front-runner Keiko Fujimori. “I am giving them 24 hours to declare this electoral fraud null and void,” said Lopez Aliaga, surrounded by a crowd of several hundred supporters. “If it is not declared null and void tomorrow,
PAPAL RETORT: Pope Leo told reporters that he has ‘no fear, neither of the Trump administration nor speaking out loudly about the message of the Gospel’ US President Donald Trump has feuded with Pope Leo XIV over the Iran conflict — setting off an unholy row that could have serious political implications for the Republican leader back in the US. Trump has drawn barbs even from some allies over the attacks on the US-born pontiff, who has criticized the Trump administration over its immigration crackdown, the intervention in Venezuela and the Iran war. The president risks alienating the religious right in November’s crucial US midterm elections. So far the unprecedented clash between the leader of the most powerful military on Earth and the head of the world’s 1.4 billion
A 16-year-old boy has been charged with murder and aggravated sexual abuse in Florida in the death of his 18-year-old stepsister on a Carnival Cruise ship, the US Department of Justice said on Monday. Timothy Hudson was initially charged in February and subsequently indicted on March 10, but the breadth of the case was not known until a seal was lifted on Friday last week, weeks after US District Judge Beth Bloom in Miami said that he would be prosecuted as an adult at the request of the government. Anna Kepner had been traveling on the Carnival Horizon ship in November last
RSS