West Papua: the culture of impunity persists
In 2011, Fr. Budi Hernawan OFM said that torture in West Papua is not something that is hidden. It is systemic!
The former Director of the Catholic Justice and Peace Office in Jayapura also argues that torture is not used for the purpose of extracting information from 'prisoners' as is done in Guantanamo. Perpetrated mainly against poor Papuans, these acts have become a "public spectacle". It aims to assert the hegemony of the Indonesian state and impose submission by terrorizing and controlling the Papuan population through fear.
In 2010, when footage of Indonesian soldiers torturing two Papuan civilians, including burning an elderly man's genitals with a stick, was leaked on YouTube, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, then President of Indonesia, remained silent. He simply called this barbaric act an "incident" committed by unscrupulous people. In reality, it was part of a culture of brutality, discrimination and impunity within the indonesian security forces. When these soldiers were tried, they were only sentenced to 8 to 10 months' imprisonment. All were charged with disobeying orders, not crimes against humanity.
The election of Joko Widodo, known as Jokowi, as a populist president in 2014 unfortunately did not improve the human rights situation in West Papua. In early 2023, Jokowi set a record as the first Indonesian president to acknowledge human rights violations committed or condoned by the state. Of the twelve incidents mentioned, two occurred in Papua: in Wasior in 2001 and in Wamena in 2003. To date, however, there has been no fair trial for these incidents. The Indonesian government's promise to set up a human rights tribunal in 2001 has not been kept. Unfortunately, the culture of impunity remains the norm in West Papua.
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