How many victims of the Papuan genocide? (1963-present)

A report from the Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide (CPG) in 2022 shows that Indonesia ranks 27th on the list of countries at risk of mass atrocities.

For those familiar with modern Indonesian history, this is not surprising given the series of humanitarian crimes that have occurred since Indonesia's independence in 1945 until now. The Indonesian government's promise to open a human rights court in 2001 has yet to materialize. There has never been any act of justice, as was done in Cambodia after the Khmer Rouge genocide (1975-1979). The absence of historical rectification is what makes similar crimes always recur. Sadly, some of the alleged perpetrators even hold important positions in the current government.

Regarding human rights violations in West Papua, some question the validity of the data stating that 500,000 Papuans were killed by the Indonesian military. Unfortunately, due to the closed access for international investigation teams to visit West Papua, it is difficult to specify the exact number of victims of the military operations that have been carried out since May 1, 1963, the first day of the Indonesian occupation of West Papua. Estimates range from 100,000 to 1.5 million victims.

The results of research by Yale University, in 2003, stated that 100,000 Papuans were killed. (Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic, Yale Law School, November 2003 specifically on pages 14-22 gives us a complete report of gross human rights violations as a study and concludes that what has happened so far is categorized as an act of genocide.)

Previously, Dr. Kees Lagerberg, an expert on Indonesia, estimated that 300,000 people had disappeared. Estimates of the total population were around 700,000 in the early 1960s and around one million in the 1980s when Dr. Lagerberg made this claim. So, this means about 30% of this population has disappeared.

Tom Beanal, Head of the Papua Presidium Council, states that from 1963-1998 more than 600,000 Papuans were killed.

Benny Wenda, chairman of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) who is currently in exile in the UK, has stated on several occasions that more than 500,000 Papuans have died from violence during the 60 years of Indonesian occupation.

Meanwhile, Jakobus E. Dumupa, a leader of the Papuan People's Assembly (MRP) in his book Hunting for Justice, in 2006 mentioned 1.5 million people!

Reflecting on what happened in the small province of East Timor during the twenty-four years of Indonesian occupation (1975-1999), in which international observers recognized the genocide of 200,000 Timorese, it is not unreasonable to expect the Indonesian military regime to do the same on a larger scale in West Papua. The latter is many times the size of East Timor and the period of colonization is much longer.

Now the question is: how long can the international community tolerate this? How long will our intellectual elites, church leaders and politicians remain indifferent? Sadly, our world is full of brilliant people who are useless!

Read also: Definition of genocide according to the UN