Violations of human rights threaten to escalate in West Papua

Alarmed by support groups for Papua the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) has warned of a deterioration of the human rights situation in West Papua /West New Guinea in the run-up to the presidential election in Indonesia on 8th July 2009. In the remote highlands of the province units of the notorious mobile police "Brimob” are reported to have attacked villages at the end of June, killed several inhabitants and raped girls. Hundreds of Papua have fled to the nearby forest. "These reports must be taken very seriously, for, well away from the public gaze, the Brimob and Indonesian soldiers constantly commit serious violations of human rights in West Papua”, criticised the human rights organisation in Göttingen. The Indonesian government sent additional units into the region at the beginning of June.

At the beginning of April 2009 in the run-up to the parliamentary elections there was in the province violent conflict between the indigenous people and the Indonesian security forces. 13 people were killed. In the capital of Jayapura armed police attacked the office of the traditional Papua Council, arrested 15 activists and set fire to the office. This was a signal for tens of thousands of demonstrators in various towns throughout West Papua to demand independence from Indonesia and to call for a boycott of the election. In Nabire and Jayapura security forces shot on demonstrators. Several people were severely injured, including a ten-year old boy. A number of demonstrators were arrested.

Since 2008 Jakarta has been increasing its military presence in West Papua. The people of Papua are being set in fear and panic by deaths which happen "by chance” or which are not explained, arbitrary arrests, shootings, torture and rape. Hundreds of Papua human rights activists have been sentenced to long periods of imprisonment because they raised their flag or demanded independence.

The Papua have been fighting for the independence of their half of the island since the 1960s. The annexation to Indonesia was pushed through by force in 1969. The central government uses military force to combat the opposition, which is still today in some parts armed with spears and bows and arrows. Meanwhile more than 150,000 Papua have been killed in crimes of a genocide nature. Tens of thousands have fled to neighbouring New Guinea or into the highlands, where there are practically no roads.

Since 2003 foreign journalists and independent observers have been forbidden to visit the province. A deliberate policy of immigration has turned the indigenous Papua population of 250 different traditional communities, each with their own language, into a minority in their own country. They make up now only about half of the 2.93 million inhabitants of the province. In West Papua there is not only the last intact rain-forest of Asia. There are also enormous reserves of copper, gold, silver, nickel, bauxite, mineral oil and natural gas. The massive exploitation of the resources by multi-national concerns environmental is causing destruction on an unimaginable scale.