III. Kopassus Beatings and Abuses in Merauke

Merauke is a city on the southern coast of Papuan province, close to the border of Papua New Guinea. Many transmigrants from Java have settled there. The Kelapa Lima neighborhood of Merauke is a quiet and leafy area. Kopassus personnel have been stationed in Kelapa Lima since 2006. Local residents report a sign on the wall of the local barracks that says “Kopassus Mess.” Over time, the size of the Kopassus unit has increased. In 2006, Kopassus rented one building; at present it reportedly uses about six attached flats inside a compound.

On April 17, 2009, Indonesian Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono told Human Rights Watch that there are only about 50 Kopassus soldiers throughout Papua and West Papua, organized in groups of 10 to 20. However, an estimated 30 Kopassus soldiers operate in Kelapa Lima, Merauke alone, and Kopassus also reportedly has a presence in Jayapura, Wamena, Asikie, Timika, Keroom, Manokwari, Nabire, Puncak Jaya, and Sorong, suggesting a much higher number of troops.

Officially Kopassus operates in Papua to monitor and to suppress the Papuan separatist movement which has been leading an armed struggle against the Indonesian government since the 1960s.[10]  A Timika journalist told Human Rights Watch, “They are very mobile, moving from one regency to another. They think that they are ‘taming’ the Papuans.”[11]

The following six incidents took place between August 2007 and May 2009 in Merauke. The names of those detained and other information has been withheld to protect the security of those with whom Human Rights Watch spoke.

 

Case One: Benjamin [12]

On a Friday night in May 2009, Benjamin, age 23, was drinking sopi, a traditional alcoholic drink, with three friends inside his house in Kelapa Lima, when a woman started screaming. Suspecting a rape attempt, he and his friend Abner, went looking for the source of the scream.

At a street junction, they ran into five Kopassus soldiers with flashlights and a Papuan man who were also trying to find out who was screaming. Benjamin knew the Papuan man and they talked briefly before the soldiers left. About 15 minutes later, the five soldiers unexpectedly returned and stopped Benjamin and Abner.

Benjamin said the soldiers asked them to come with them.  When he asked, “What did I do wrong?” one soldier slapped him on the face five times. The soldiers kept asking him about his friends and the screaming woman, about which he said he knew nothing. When Abner broke from the group and ran away, the soldiers didn’t bother to chase him.

The soldiers took Benjamin inside the Kopassus mess hall, where they slapped him, beat him on the head and chest, and kicked him in the stomach. He said the beating continued for around one hour until around 11 p.m. when a police truck arrived. The Kopassus soldiers released Benjamin into the custody of the police[13].

Case Two: Antonius

Around 9 p.m. one evening in September 2008, Antonius, 21,  attended a street party in Kelapa Lima close to the Kopassus mess where he had a couple of drinks and joined in the dancing. Suddenly, a van pulled up and out came six men holding rifles, who wore black jackets and balaclavas that covered their faces. Without questioning anyone, they started beating the young men there. Many tried to run away. Antonius told Human Rights Watch:

I reached an intersection, a waterway. I fell down. They [the armed men] came and grabbed me and pulled me in through the sliding door of the van. They brought me to the [Kopassus] barracks and beat me. They put me into a room; they handcuffed my hands around my back, and asked me to kneel down on the floor. They hit me on the face. I fell down. I could not protect my head, so my head hit the floor.[14]

The soldiers hit Antonius on the face repeatedly, and beat him with a water hose while he was lying on the floor. They later asked him to sit on a chair. Every Kopassus soldier who entered the room—ultimately 12 of them—hit him. Antonius said the soldiers kicked him from night until morning. He told Human Rights Watch:

They beat me on my face repeatedly. My face was bleeding. My eyes were also swollen. Once one soldier held my chest and another one kicked my stomach. I asked them, “What did I do wrong?”[15]

Several soldiers pulled Antonius into a corner and kicked him with their boots until he was bleeding from the mouth and vomited blood. Early the next morning, the soldiers forced him to eat about 10 hot chilies. Then they took him outside into the compound and threw him into the muddy drainage pond. Then they told him to clean up the garden. He said:

I could not eat the whole day because of the chili. They beat me here on my jaw and the inside of my mouth was bleeding. For one week afterward I just ate noodle soup. I told my parents, but they could do nothing. “What can we do? Even if we want to be angry, they are Kopassus!”

It was mistreatment, they hurt me, but we are so scared of Kopassus. I did not see a doctor but I took antibiotics. I did not report it to the police or anyone else. I just told my friends, “If you are drunk don’t walk around the Kopassus mess.”[16]

Case Three: Nicolaas, Andrew and Bert[17]  

At around 8 a.m. one morning in April 2008, five Kopassus soldiers surrounded the house of Nicolaas, 27.  He had had a party with his friends the night before. The soldiers took Nicolaas and two of his friends, Andrew, 25, and Bert, 26, to the Kopassus mess hall. His parents watched as he was taken away, but were too scared to try to intervene. Nicolaas described to Human Rights Watch what happened at the mess:

They stripped us down to just our underwear. They immediately beat us, without saying anything. They used a water hose. They beat us till we bled and had cuts. Then they asked us to go to the tennis court. They forced us to face the sun and chew chilies... We were not allowed to spit. It was very hot. After eating the chilies, knowing that most people in Merauke are Catholics, they asked us to say “The Lord’s Prayer (Our Father in Heaven)” and “Hail Mary.” But I refused, saying that it is not a holy place, not a place to pray. My two other friends did pray. The Kopassus soldiers kicked me. They stripped Andrew totally naked. A Kopassus soldier took his picture with a cell phone camera. Many people saw us being tortured in the compound. One elderly Papuan lady cried when she saw us, helplessly, being tortured by Kopassus soldiers.[18]

Nicolaas said the mistreatment lasted about two hours. From the tennis court, the soldiers took the three men back inside the office. The soldiers asked them to take a shower and offered to treat the cuts with a lotion, but they refused. They were then sent home. Nicolaas said:

Now Papuan young men do not want to stay in the vicinity of the Kopassus mess. The soldiers like to look for drunken kids; they even come inside their own houses. Prior to Kopassus’ arrival, the Kelapa Lima neighborhood was a nice area. Now we don’t feel secure any more.[19]

 

Case Four: Yehezkiel

One afternoon in March 2008, Yehezkiel, 19, walked past the Kopassus mess hall while drunk. A plainclothes Kopassus soldier, whom he knew only as “Acong,” an ethnic Batak, pulled him inside the mess and started asking him questions about one of his friends.

According to Yehezkiel, when he said he did not know where his friend was, Acong began to beat him. When Yehezkiel fell to the floor unconscious, Acong threw water on him to wake him up. Yehezkiel estimates that the beating lasted more than one hour.

Some youth on the street heard Yehezkiel screaming and told his relatives, one of whom went to the Kopassus mess. Yehezkiel said he begged him, “Please help me, he [the soldier] is going to kill me.”[20]The relative persuaded the Acong to let Yehezkiel go.

Another relative told Human Rights Watch:

Yehezkiel said he was beaten all over, especially in the stomach with a water pipe this big [about 7 centimeters in diameter]. There was no bleeding, and no visible bruising, but it is hard to see as his skin is so dark. He did not want to go to the hospital. He refused, but we were worried he might have some internal bleeding. But our cousin is a doctor and he treated him at home.[21]

Case Five: Nathan and Patrick

One morning in January 2008, Nathan, 22, was taking a walk with his brother, Patrick, 24, and their friend when a soldier on a motorcycle passed by. Nathan’s friend stopped the soldier and asked for a cigarette. The two brothers kept on walking. A moment later the friend returned with the cigarette. Suddenly, two Kopassus soldiers started chasing them, shouting and firing a warning shot into the air. They all ran away. But the soldiers chased them, demanding that they stop.

Nathan and Patrick hid in a house but the Kopassus soldiers found them. According to Nathan, they beat him until he was bleeding. They brought both of them to the Kopassus mess hall. Inside, the soldiers chained Patrick’s hands with a dog chain. Nathan told Human Rights Watch:

We were ordered to put our hands behind our backs and kneel down. They began to beat us. They repeatedly beat us on the face, blood was everywhere. I do not know the reason. I assumed they didn’t like Patrick’s friend asking for a cigarette from the soldier.[22]

According to Nathan, six Kopassus soldiers beat the brothers from 8 to 9 a.m.  The soldiers asked a carpenter working near the barracks to beat Nathan and Patrick, and he did so. Later the soldiers ordered the brothers to eat raw chilies and then continued to beat them. Nathan said many neighbors witnessed the beating, as they could see into the compound through an opening in the fence from the street, but they kept quiet.

The soldiers then called the Merauke police, who picked up the brothers from the mess, taking them to the Merauke police precinct.  The police later released them without charge.

Case Six: Petrus

Around 4 p.m. one late afternoon in August 2007, a fight broke about among young people partying and drinking at a house in Kelapa Lima. Petrus, 41, who had been drinking nearby, went to see what was happening. When five plainclothes Kopassus soldiers arrived at the house on motorbikes, the youth ran away. According to Petrus, who was standing across the street, the soldiers approached him. He told them he was not involved in the fighting, but they handcuffed him and took him by motorbike to the Kopassus mess hall.

Inside the mess, the soldiers told Petrus to squat on the floor, hit him repeatedly with a water hose, and kicked him in the chest with their boots. Petrus told Human Rights Watch that he recognized the one who kicked him as a Kopassus officer.  Another officer shouted at him: “You Papuans, one single Kopassus soldier can kill you like chickens!”[23] Petrus told Human Rights Watch:

I had my head down and I could not see, but I estimated about 10 people took part. Later I had blue bruises on my chest—it was very painful. Up till now [18 months later] I still feel pain. It is difficult for me to lift weights. I had bruises on my back—long black marks with the skin peeled off.[24]

Petrus said the beating lasted around 15 to 30 minutes, until a relative of his arrived, at which point the soldiers stopped beating him and called the police. The police took Petrus from the Kopassus mess, put him in a cell for a night, and then released him the next day without charge.

Petrus tried to report the beating to the police, but the police said it was dangerous for them to do anything and that Kopassus troops were not under their authority. Petrus asked whether he could report the case to the military police, but the police discouraged him from doing so, saying that the military police are afraid of Kopassus.