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Human Rights Watch said today that the explosion of violence over the weekend in Irian Jaya, Indonesia's easternmost province, underscored the need to take urgent measures to prevent further human rights violations there. On July 6, the army shot rubber bullets into a crowd of pro-independence protestors in Biak, wounding fifteen; there are unconfirmed reports that one of them died. On July 3, two student demonstrators were shot near the Cenderawasih University campus in Jayapura after students beat up and gravely injured a police intelligence agent. The plainclothes policeman is reported to have died; one of the two students is in critical condition in a Jayapura hospital. The shootings came after a month of protests against military abuses and demonstrations in support of independence for West Papua, as nationalists call the territory that has been an Indonesian province since 1969

In post-Soeharto Indonesia, there should be room for peaceful assembly and expression in support of any political cause," said Sidney Jones, Asia director of Human Rights Watch. "Indonesian leaders may be worried about calls for independence of Irian Jaya, but they need to understand the depth of resentment there at the way the province has been administered. If local and national government officials had undertaken a serious dialogue with influential public figures, church leaders, and representatives of human rights organizations in Irian Jaya, the deaths and injuries of the last few days might have been averted." She called on Indonesian troops to abide by the Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials. The U.N. principles state among other things that security forces should exercise restraint and use firearms only in self-defense or "defense of others against the imminent threat of death or serious injury [...]and only when less extreme means are insufficient to achieve these objectives."

Human rights defenders contacted by Human Rights Watch said the wave of protests was sparked in part by a letter sent to Indonesian President B.J. Habibie by fifteen United States congressmen on May 22, 1998. The letter, widely circulated in Irian Jaya, called on Habibie to initiate "direct good faith dialogues with the peoples of East Timor and Irian

Jaya on human rights and a just solution to their political status." Many of the protesters interpreted the letter as meaning that in the context of reforms taking place in Indonesia more generally, the U.S. government would back peaceful moves for independence.

In the aftermath of the army shootings, church leaders and human rights groups have sought troop withdrawals from the province as well as a dialogue between leaders of the demonstrations and provincial civilian and military leaders to discuss the political aspirations of the populace.

In 1995, the Irian Jaya regional command drew widespread domestic and international praise for issuing human rights guidelines for its troops. Local newspapers reprinted those guidelines in June as more and more information about military abuses surfaced.

Key incidents of the past six weeks included the following:

On May 25 three religious leaders from Irian Jaya, Father Nato Gobay, Rev. ABM Hutapea, and Rev. Isak Onowame, presented a report on human rights violations stemming from military operations in the Mapnduma area of Irian Jaya to Indonesia's National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM). The report documented sixteen killings, "disappearances," and widespread destruction of homes and church buildings by Indonesian army troops. The abuses took place during military operations led by the army special forces (Kopassus) to capture leaders of the armed independence movement known as the Free Papua Movement (Organisasi Papua Merdeka or OPM). The operations were launched after the military released a group of Indonesian and foreign wildlife researchers taken hostage by the OPM in 1996. Most of the killings occurred in 1997 near the villages of Bella and Alama in the Central Highlands region, but troops were active in the area through early 1998. The religious leaders requested a full investigation and urged that henceforth the regional military command based in Irian Jaya be staffed solely with Irianese troops, rather than by Javanese and soldiers from elsewhere in Indonesia who did not understand or appreciate the local culture.

On May 28 and 29, demonstrations took place in front of the provincial parliament building, led by a coalition called the "Group Concerned about Human Rights in Irian Jaya" (Kelompok Peduli HAM Irja) and a student group called Solidarity Forum of Irian Jaya Students. They demanded that troops be pulled out of the Central Highlands, that those responsible for abuses be prosecuted, and that more attention be given human rights issues by local officials. Students from Irian Jaya and elsewhere also demonstrated in front of the Defense Ministry in Jakarta on May 29. On June 11, Komnas sent one fact-finding team to the area and a second on June 29.

On June 17, three non-Irianese transmigrants working for a palm oil plantation in Arso, outside Jayapura, were shot and killed in the early evening by gunmen whom local military commanders immediately labeled as OPM; their actual identity is far from certain, and one church leader noted that any time someone was killed in Arso, a large transmigrant area, it was always blamed on guerrillas. A fourth transmigrant remains missing. There is widespread skepticism about the army's claim that the gunmen were rebels; church leaders noted it was odd that just as demands were increasing for soldiers to be withdrawn, an incident would occur that might justify their continued presence.

On June 21, students from the Central Highlands region studying in East Java demanded that the pool of candidates for district head (bupati) of Jayawijaya, the district where most of the killings documented in the May 25 report took place, be entirely drawn from civilians. The bupati is to be chosen this year for a five-year term, and of thirty candidates, seven are military men.

On June 22, about one hundred members of a group called Communications Forum of the Younger Generation of Irian Jaya (Forum Komunikasi Generasi Muda Irian Jaya or FKGMI) demonstrated in front of the Ministry of Justice office in Jakarta demanding that political prisoners from Irian Jaya be freed. Justice Minister Muladi invited the group in to discuss the issue. He told the demonstrators that he did not have the authority to order the releases but would convey their concerns to the next meeting of Cabinet members responsible for security and political affairs.

On July 1-3, a series of demonstrations in support of West Papuan independence took place around the Irian Jayan towns of Jayapura, Sorong, Biak, and Nabire. On July 1, hundreds of demonstrators converged on the provincial parliament building in Jayapura that was being tightly guarded by anti-riot forces of the mobile police brigade. Parliament members refused to meet them, saying their demands for self-determination were political, and they could not respond. In support of their demands, the demonstrators pointed to the May 22 letter from U.S. congressmen noted above. Just after midnight, the anti-riot forces forced the demonstrators to disperse. About one hundred returned the next morning, July 2, but anti-riot troops blocked their way to the parliament building. Clashes broke out between stone-throwing youths and troops who reportedly used nightsticks to beat up anyone they could reach. Blocked from getting to the parliament, the youths began going after a local store, Toko Soni, and other buildings. Three people were detained. A second clash took place around noon near the Overtoom bridge in Jayapura, in which ten people were injured, none seriously, and three more people detained. Around 2 p.m., the demonstrators, with the agreement of the police, sent five people to meet with the Jayapura police commander, but when they did not return, their friends assumed they had been arrested and further clashes broke out. Demonstraters stoned several more buildings, including a savings bank and the provincial office of the Ministry of Communications. Any non-Papuan who approached was taunted, stoned, or beaten, according to one account. By the end of the day, forty-one people had been detained.

On July 2, thousands of young people calling themselves Reform Forum of Students and the People of Sorong (Forum Reformasi Mahasiswa dan Masyarakat Sorong Irian Jaya) took part in a pro-independence demonstration in front of the district council of Sorong. They presented nine demands to the council in a document called "Political Position Statement." The nine included support for the proclamation of the independence of West Papua in July 1971; the granting of independence to West Papua as quickly as possible by President Habibie; immediate release of West Papuan political prisoners detained in Kalisosok Prison, Surabaya, Pamekasan Prison, Madura, and Cipinang Prison, Jakarta; withdrawal of Indonesian troops and all Indonesian people from West Papua; observance of the Rome promises made by former President Soeharto; attention to the letter from American senators dated May 22, 1998 and appeal dated May 26, 1998 from the U.S. Senate to the government of Indonesia regarding self-determination for the people of West Papua; review of the U.N.-supervised "Act of Free Choice" undertaken in 1969 in West Irian; cancelling of all political statements from Irian Jaya that indicate that West Papua is under Indonesian adminstration; and the immediate dispatch of a team from the National Human Rights Commission to meet with the demonstrators in Sorong. When their appeals went unheeded, they began using violence, burning the district council building and several stores as well as the car belonging to the district head. As troops arrived, five people were reportedly shot; the crowd then attacked the district military commander, Lt. Col. Nico Obaja Woru, who had to be hospitalized.

The demonstration that led to the shootings of the two students on July 3 began as students from Cenderawasih University held an "open forum" (mimbar bebas) on the campus in Abepura, a suburb of Jayapura. Trouble broke out after students spotted an intelligence agent from the local police sitting under a tree. According to reports, a group of students grabbed his identity card, confirmed that he was from intelligence, and began beating him up. They also took his pistol. The agent, Sgt. Dahlan (given as Dadang in the Jayapura papers) was initially listed in critical condition in a Jayapura hospital, and one newspaper reported he had died on Saturday. As word of the beating reached security forces, trucks full of anti-riot and regular army troops came into Abepura. Demonstrators were massed outside the campus on the main road and began throwing stones at the trucks. It was at this point that troops fired warning shots, according to the regional military commander. Soldiers then apparently opened fire into the crowd. A law student, Steven Suripatti, and a high school student, Corina Ruth Onim, were seriously wounded. Suripati appeared to have been hit in the head by a regular bullet, although the military maintained they were using only blanks and rubber bullets; he was in critical condition in a Jayapura hospital. Ms. Onim, who was shot in the knees, was expected to recover. Suripatti was reportedly on the Cenderawasih campus when he was hit; Corina Onim was on the campus of the Iskijne Technical High School nearby.

On July 5, Major General Sembiring, the regional military commander, apologized for the shootings and promised to investigate them; he said he did not know who fired the actual shots.

On July 6, the military opened fire on demonstrators in Biak. On July 2, they had raised the "Morning Star" flag, the symbol of West Papua, over a water tower near the harbor in Biak where it remained for the next three days, guarded by some 700 demonstrators. At about 5:30 a.m. on July 6, two navy vessels unloaded marines at Biak harbor and about 130 troops from the 733rd infantry battalion of the regional military command were dropped by Hercules helicopter. The circumstances under which the troops opened fire is not clear; Biak has been all but closed off by the military for the last three days. Human rights defenders in Jayapura reported that families of those wounded were having great difficulty getting news of their relatives, let alone access to them. Hundreds were said to have been detained.

Irian Jaya constitutes the western half of the island of New Guinea. As part of the Dutch East Indies, the territory was known as West Irian and was claimed as part of Indonesia by Indonesian nationalists in their war against the Dutch. Unlike the rest of the former Dutch East Indies, however, West Irian remained under Dutch control after Indonesia secured its independence in 1949, and the Dutch prepared the territory to become a separate state. In 1961, a West Papuan Council was elected, a national anthem composed, and a flag designed, and 1970 was set as the date for independence. On October 1, 1962, however, after heavy U.S. pressure, the Dutch turned West Irian over to an interim U.N. administration. Indonesia sent troops into the territory in 1963 and, in what many regarded as a brutal military operation, laid the groundwork for a farcical "Act of Free Choice" in 1969 that was anything but free, and in which 1,026 "elders" were selected to vote on the territory's political status under heavy Indonesian military surveillance. The resulting vote to become part of Indonesia was formalized when West Irian became the province of Irian Jaya on September 10, 1969.

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