Torture: evidence of Indonesia's primitive colonialism in West Papua

The torture suffered by civilians in West Papua since the beginning of the Indonesian occupation in 1963 has been brutal, inhumane and a blatant violation of human rights.

On March 22, the public was shocked by the circulation of two video clips of sadistic torture of a man by Indonesian soldiers in a remote highland in West Papua. Was this a coincidence?

Means of terror and subjugation

More than ten years ago, Father Budi Hernawan OFM, former director of the Jayapura-based Catholic Office for Justice and Peace, decried the fact that torture in West Papua was systemic and not something to be hidden.

Persecution is mainly carried out by Indonesian security forces against poor West Papuans and is deliberately made into a "public spectacle" to scare people into submission.

Separatists deserve torture 

West Papuans suspected of being separatists can be easily mistreated by authorities with impunity. "Torture first, investigate later" seems to have become the norm. That's exactly what happened to Defianus Kogoya, whose video went viral on social media recently. 

Although Indonesia has been a democracy since 1998 and has ratified the Human Rights Convention against torture, the brutality of General Suharto's dictatorial regime who had ruled the country for three decades (1967-1998) is still being practiced today.

Condemnation from civil society and churches 

On Monday, March 25, Chairman of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) Muhammad Isnur through a press conference stated firmly that, "YLBHI strongly condemns the torture committed by TNI soldiers against Papuans".

For Isnur, torture committed by Indonesian soldiers against Defianus Kogoya has violated various legal instruments, one of which is Article 1 of Law Number 5 of 1998 concerning the Ratification of the International Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

Similar condemnations have also come from church representatives, including Mgr Yanuarius You, Catholic bishop of Jayapura. The latter considers the torturers as inhuman and Godless. The sixty-three-year-old indigenous Papuan prelate demands justice that severely punishes the torturers.

Meanwhile, Reverend Benny Giay of the Papuan Evangelical Church called for a third-party investigation. To date, no cases of gross human rights violations in West Papua have been thoroughly investigated by the Indonesian government. The victims have not received justice.

Abolish colonialism in West Papua!

Indeed, torture by the Indonesian security forces is an old habit of colonial occupation armies towards the population in their colonized territories. In other words, we can argue that what the Indonesian government is doing through its military henchmen is a manifestation of primitive colonialism handed down by imperialist countries centuries ago.

Sixty-one years is enough for the suffering of the Papuan people. Now is the time for all elements that uphold humanity and justice to not only to condemn Indonesian atrocities, but also take action to dismantle the Indonesian colonial regime in West Papua.