Previous PageTable Of ContentsNext Page


Recent Reports 
 Support HRW 
About HRW
Site Map

Human Rights Watch - Home Page

VI. RIGHTS VIOLATIONS FOLLOWING FLAG-RAISINGS IN SORONG AND GENYEM

One year after the demonstrations, flag-raisings, and government repression that had given rise to the National Dialogue, thirty-two people were arrested and charged with rebellion or "spreading hatred" against the government after three new flag-raisings.69 The first of these took place in Genyem, a town sixty-two miles west of Jayapura, on July 1, 1999, and the others in Sorong, a city on the eastern tip of the province, on July 5 and September 9.

The Genyem flag-raising was peaceful, but those in Sorong were not. On July 5, police shot and wounded two men, beat two others severely, raided a private home used for political organizing, and conducted brutal sweeps of Papuan neighborhoods. Angry Papuan mobs knifed a Javanese man to death and violently assaulted at least five other non-Papuans. Following the flag-raising on September 9, an eighteen-year-old high school student who had been detained died in police custody: the police said he had suffered an epileptic fit but there was widespread suspicion that he had died due to a beating at the hands of the police.70

These flag-raisings and the repression that followed caused division within the local community, particularly in Sorong. They took place against the advice of Team of 100 leaders, who were anxious about increasing government hostility and the risk of violence,71 leading some to speculate that they might have been covertly encouraged by Indonesian security officials to provide a pretext for further repression. Whether this is true or not, the flag raisings were followed by new arrests which particularly targeted leading local independence advocates who had not been present on the day and had tried to prevent the flag-raisings from taking place.

Genyem

On July 1 in Genyem, the main town in Nimboran subdistrict, about 200 people raised the West Papua flag beneath the Indonesian one outside the local government office (kantor camat) and kept it flying for nine hours. According to newspaper accounts, the flag-raising was ordered by Yance Hembiring, an OPM commander, and Ishak Yapsenang, leader of the National Committee for West Papuan Youth (Komite Nasional Pemuda Papua Barat,hereafter KNPP), which had been formed in Genyem in January 1999, 72 but neither man was actually present.73 (Subsequently, the KNPP was involved in both of the Sorong flag-raisings.) At Genyem, the demonstrators lowered their flag at 5:15 p.m. in response to "persuasive measures" by locally-based soldiers and police, backed by mobile brigate police (brimob) and infantry brought in from Jayapura. District police chief Johny Rory commented positively on the outcome: "Not a single shot was fired," he told reporters.74 In return for their compliance, however, the demonstators later demanded information about the 1969 Act of Free Choice on the grounds that the Indonesian government had never disclosed how it was conducted, or its results.75

Despite the peaceful conclusion, five men, all local farmers, were arrested after the flag-raising, charged under Article 155 of the Indonesian Criminal Code with sowing hatred against the government and brought to trial. In December 1999, the state prosecutor called for the alleged ringleader, Maurits Wouw, to be sentenced to a year in prison, and for his four co-accused, Mesak Waipon, Zadrak Wouw, Marthen Bay, and Agustinus Waipon, to be jailed for four months each. Legal action against the men was halted following Wahid's decree in late December releasing political prisoners in Papua.

Sorong, July 5, 1999

Just before dawn on July 5, 1999, local members of the KNPP raised the West Papua "Morning Star" Flag in a park called Taman Hiburan Rakyat in the center of Sorong, but it was soon pulled down by police who forcibly dispersed the crowd and then began a series of sweeps through the neighbouring areas. Later, at around noon, police raided the headquarters of the Communication Forum for Papuan People and Students (Forum Komunikasi Masyarakat dan Mahasiswa Papua, hereafter Forum), the center of popular pro-independence activity in Sorong.

By the end of the month, eighteen people, including Team of 100 members and Forum leaders Yance Mesak Wabdaron and Yakomina Isir, had been charged with rebellion under Article 106 of the Indonesian penal code. Forum had not been involved in the flag-raising, but it had resisted police orders to disband itself, continued to disseminate information about the National Dialogue, and urged local people to boycott Indonesia's parliamentary elections in June 1999.

Forum had been founded by local students in April 1998, following the example set by students elsewhere in Indonesia.76 As elsewhere in Irian Jaya, the focus was not a change of government in Jakarta but a re-examination of Irian's political status. Forum had helped to organize a mass demonstration in favor of independence in Sorong on July 2, 1998, which led to six people being wounded in clashes with police and the burning of several buildings.77

In August 1998, Forum established its headquarters at the home of Bernard Salosa, a fifty-four-year-old retired sailor, and his niece Yakomina Isir, a thirty-eight-year-old high school teacher, who served as Forum's advisor (pembina).78 As the National Dialogue developed, their home - the "Forum posko," as it became known - was the scene of constant activity and acted as a magnet for local people to come to find things out and to discuss events.79 Often, visitors contributed money, totalling generally about Rp 125,000 (then approximately US$15) per day according toa former treaurer, or in-kind donations, and the organization had fifty-two regional coordinators.80 The extent of it's activities even led the regional military chief, Infantry Colonel TH Sinambela, to accuse Forum of receiving donations from abroad.81

In February 1999,Yakomina Isir and Forum's Coordinator, Yance Mesak Wabdaron, a 27-year old medical student, were chosen to represent Sorong as members of the Team of 10082, and when they returned from Jakarta in March, Forum organized a community meeting as part of its "socialization" activities.83
After the April 17 police order banning "separatist group organizations" and "neighborhood patrols," and calling for the dismantling of all separatist meeting places (posko), Forum stopped calling their headquarters "Forum posko" and began calling it a "Prayer Post" (Pos Pelayanan Doa) - not entirely untrue, as services were held there every Sunday - and erected a sentry post outside. All visitors were required to report their name and business at the post; ordinary police, suspected intelligence agents or provocateurs, and anyone who appeared drunk were turned away. High-ranking visitors like the chief of police were made to wait while their arrival was reported inside. 84

The deadline for dismantling posko, set at seventy-two hours in the April 17 police order, was extended for a full month in Sorong to midnight on May 19. That evening, in a meeting with the regional army commander, Forum leaders argued that the existence of the posko helped to keep the peace in Sorong, not to threaten it, as the police ban implied, because it was used to defuse inflammatory rumors, and to discourage drunkenness and violence.85 But their arguments did not prevail and, as midnight approached, a large crowd gathered in the street outside. Police Commander Sukandono, a Javanese who had worked for many years in Irian Jaya and was well known and respected by local people, then arrived to talk to the Forum leaders, after which he urged people to disperse to their homes. He went withsome students to neighboring areas, successfully urging people to remain calm. The posko was not dismantled, but before the end of June Sukandono had been replaced.86

Forum members also called for Papuans to boycott the Indonesian elections in accordance with the statement delivered by the Team of 100 in Jakarta in February, 1998, and a subsequent appeal circulated by Theys Eluay, a prominent Papuan leader in Jayapura. Thousands of people responded by returning their voter registration cards to the posko. The authorities then arrested three members of Forum and three other activists, charging them with disrupting the electoral process. On June 3, Yakomina Isir met local government and police leaders and, on the understanding that the six would be released, agreed to help "guarantee" the success of the elections. Two days later, 89 percent of eligible voters in Sorong went peacefully to the polls. The six detainees, however, were not released.87

In late June, Forum members heard rumors that a new KNPP branch was planning a flag-raising in Sorong on July 1. Four local residents had been sworn in as KNPP officials at Genyem, a forty-eight hour boat journey away, on May 14, after KNPP leader Ishak Yapsenang had visited Sorong in March to solicit members. Forum itself had discouraged the formation of a new organization in Sorong but in June KNPP held its first public meeting there; the flag-raising was to be its first official activity.88

This caused concern within Forum, which, following Team of 100 policy, opposed new flag-raisings. On June 30, Yakomina Isir and other Forum representatives met representatives of KNPP to discourage them from going ahead. Yance Mesak Wabdaron alerted the police to the plan and went on radio publicly to discourage Papuans from participating. The July 1 flag-raising was cancelled but KNPP leaders felt they had lost face with their followers and quietly began planning another one.89
This took place on July 5, when a few dozen KNPP members slipped into the Taman Hiburan Rakyat park in Sorong just before dawn and raised the West Papua "Morning Star" flag on a pole erected earlier in the night. At about 6 a.m., the demonstrators stood in three rings around the flagpole, surrounded by police, and began singing the Papuan National Anthem, as hundreds of people gathered in nearby streets to watch. Before they could finish singing, police fired into the air and ordered the demonstrators to disperse. When they did not, police started to push them away with plastic shields and hit them with gun butts and bamboo staves.90
Until then, according to eyewitnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch, including a former government official who lives across the street from the park, the demonstrators, who were unarmed, had been peaceful.91 But as demonstrators were knocked down and handcuffed, the situation rapidly descended into violence. Some of the protestors threw stones at police, one was cut on the hand by a police bayonet, and another, Martin Manutunai, was shot in the thigh by police. Police pulled down the flag and, according to some accounts, trod on it. Within an hour, only police remained in the park but angry crowds were moving through the city.92 Half a mile west of the park, one group taunted a police officer passing by on a motorcycle. He drew his gun and shot one of the group, twenty-six-year old student Frans Isir, who was then taken into police custody with a badly bleeding wound. Tensions escalated further amid rumors that he had been killed.93

Meanwhile, in the Kelurahan Malanu neighborhood east of the park, angry youths attacked and killed a Javanese motorcycle-taxi (ojek) driver, broke shop windows, burned a jeep, and threatened two other motorcyclists.94 Sporadic gunfire could be heard until about 11:30 a.m., by which time police and soldiers had reasserted control of the city.

Security forces then decided to raid Forum headquarters, and shortly after noon sealed the neighborhood behind Yohan Supermarket in East Sorong. They first targeted a gapura, an archway used to mark neighborhood boundaries, that Forum members had erected at the entrance to Jalan Tanjung. On it were painted the words "Papuan Students and People Alliance Post," images of a Papuan flag, and United Nations and Amnesty International logos. Police tied one end of a rope to a truck borrowed from a construction company, and the other to the gapura, and dragged it down.95 After the police had moved down the street, two non-Papuan motorcyclists passed through the intersection, where an angry crowd had congregated. Members of the crowd attacked the motorcyclists; one managed to escape, but the other fell from his motorcycle and was badly beaten.96

Meanwhile, police surrounded Bernard Salosa's home, where Forum had made it's headquarters, and broke in the door and windows and ransacked the place. Salosa and his family had already taken refuge in a neighbor's house. Twice more within the following twenty-four hours, police and soldiers returned to search the house, and then set up a round the clock sentry post only a block away in the office of the neighborhood administrator (lurah). This was still being manned in late August when a Human Rights Watch researcher visited the area: a dozen police officers were in the post at midday, and at night armed soldiers were patrolling the street. Bernard Salosa eventually returned to his home on August 7 but found many of his possessions ruined or missing.97

After raiding Salosa's house, police conducted a sweep through the adjacent neighborhood looking for people who might have been involved in the flag-raising or violence. This led to at least twenty-five people being wounded by police, according to a student group who interviewed victims and witnesses over a two week period.98

Shortly after noon, police kicked in the door of an outhouse in Worot neighborhood and pointed their guns at a shocked housewife with her hands up and her skirt around her ankles. They then broke in the door of her house with rifle butts, searched the house, and made her children come out from under beds where they were hiding. Next door, where two young men in cap and gown were celebrating their graduation earlier that morning, they reportedly kicked a guest in the shins and shot into a wardrobe.99

In Kampung Nenas, five policemen burst into the home of a fifty-two-year old civil servant who subsequently told Human Rights Watch that he had not heard about the flag-raising and was taking a nap after coming home from work. Though he did not resist, he was hit in the arm and kicked in the small of the back. Together with twenty others, he was put in a truck, driven to the police station, struck with bamboo staves, and ordered to strip to his underwear. He was treated more leniently than others at the station, he said, which he attributed to his age and the fact that his work often brought him in contact with the public, and police therefore recognized him. He was released the following day and ordered to report to the police every morning for two weeks. He was never shown any warrant for his arrest.100

In all, eighteen people were detained in connection with the July 5 flag-raising, including Yance Mesak Wabdaron and Yakomina Isir of Forum. The former, learning of the flag-raising on the morning of July 5, had gone with his brother, Sampaek Wabdaron, to find out what was happening101, but at about 1.30 p.m. the two were stopped by police. They made Sampaek Wabdaron dismount from his motorcycle and get into a military truck while Yance Wabdaron, with a police officer sitting behind him, was told to drive to Yohan Supermarket. There, police seized the motorcycle, assaulted Yance Wabdaron and threw him into the back of a truck. He was taken to a police station, where he was again assaulted with fists and bamboo staves, made to strip to his underwear, and placed in a solitary cell reserved for political prisoners. Sampaek Wabdaron was also assaulted by police, sustaining a wound to the face, and then a further beating with bamboo staves in the night and by having his toes burned with cigarettes until he passed out. He was then released on the afternoon of July 6.

Yance Wabdaron's family were not allowed to visit him until the fourth day of his incarceration, and were allowed to take him to a doctor, who set his right leg in plaster, only after one week. The police then brought in a police doctor for a second opinion: he confirmed that Yance Wabdaron had sustained a fracture of the right leg, a cracked skull, and extensive bruising to his body. His relatives subsequently told HRW that they had had to spend more than half a million rupiah (US$60) on medical treatment as a result of his beating by police.102

The two KNPP leaders, Yoab Safle and Hans Kambuayu, remained at large. On July 14, a police Sargeant Wisnu told Forum General Secretary Yohanes Sakof that Wabdaron would be released once KNPP's leaders had been arrested. On July 21, Sakof led police to Safle's house where Safle was arrested, but Sakof himself was also incarcerated overnight.103

Sorong, September 9

It was widely rumored that further pro-independence incidents would occur across Irian Jaya on September 9, due to the unusual combination of numbers in the date 9/9/99, but nothing occurred except in Sorong. There, KNPP members led by twenty-three-year-old Richard Rumbarar, the senior KNPP official still at large, again hoisted the West Papua flag, this time in front of the local parliament building.104 Again, the demonstrators, numbering about 90, wereforcibly dispersed by police using firearms. Three protestors, including Arnold Imbir, who was shot in the arm, sustained gunshot wounds and ten people were detained for questioning.105 One of these, Denis Yowen, an eighteen-year-old high school student, died in police custody next day. Police said he had suffered an epileptic fit106, but other detainees said they had seen him collapse while being beaten within the police station by men not wearing uniforms. Petrus Yowen, the victim's father, said his son had not previously suffered from epilepsy and that he was told of the death three hours after he was summoned to the police station at 2 p.m. on September 10.107

An autopsy was said to have been carried out but Lieutenant Colonel Charles Sitorus, Sorong's chief of police, refused to disclose its findings either to the victim's family or to the public, though he said he would make them available in the event of a trial. According to the police chief, some of the flag-raisers had been armed with machetes and other weapons when police dispersed them.108

69 For a list of those arrested see Appendix II. 70 "Saya yakin Denis dipukul aparat," Cenderawasih Post, September 11, 1999. 71 The suspicion was articulated by human rights activists in Jayapura in August 1999. For the Team of 100's position on flag-raisings, see "Bintang Kejora Berkibar, Bukan Perintah Tim 100," Tifa Irian, July 26-31, 1999, and "Tom Beanal Bicara Tuntutan Merdeka dan Insiden Sorong: Pengibar Bintang Kejora Hanya Provokator," Cenderawasih Pos, September 11, 1999.

72 Komite Nasional Pemuda Papua Barat: Anggaran Dasar dan Anggaran Rumah Tangga. Genyem, May 1, 1999.

73 Bintang Kejora Berkibar di Nimboran," Cenderawasih Pos, July 2, 1999 and "Separatist rebels hoist independence flag in Irian Jaya," Associated Press, July 1, 1999.

74 "Bintang Kejora Berkibar di Nimboran," Cenderawasih Pos, July 2, 1999; "Separatists: West Papua Flag Lowered," Antara, July 1, 1999.

75 "Irianese demand referendum results," Jakarta Post, July 3, 1999.

76 Human Rights Watch interview, Sorong, August 23, 1999.

77 See "Indonesia: Human Rights and Pro-Independence Actions in Irian Jaya," December, 1998. At the time the group was called Reform Forum of Students and People of Sorong; it changed its name to Communication Forum for Papuan People and Students in August 1998.

78 Human Rights Watch interview, Sorong, August 24, 1999.

79 Human Rights Watch interview, Sorong, August 25, 1999.

80 Human Rights Watch interview, Sorong, August 24, 1999.

81 "2 pimpinan Separatis Papua Barat Undurkan Diri," Suara Pembaruan, June 18, 1999.

82 Other members from Sorong were Hans Mobalen, a priest, and Hans Kambu.

83 Human Rights Watch interview, Sorong, August 23, 1999.

84 Human Rights Watch interviews, Sorong, August 23, 24 and 25, 1999.

85 An example of the false information that activists said was commonplace in Irian Jaya were a series of anonymous midnight calls received by an NGO leader in mid August 1999, saying that an OPM group was planning to attack Abepura, where Cenderawasih University is located, on the eve of Indonesian Independence Day, August 17. The calls gained credence on August 16, when a police officer visited a different NGO in Abepura and told its director that an armed OPM group was camped nearby. No attack occurred.

Human Rights Watch also obtained a copy of an inflammatory letter circulating in Jayapura in August 1999. The letter either reflected or exploited the cargo cult phenomenon found among some tribes in Irian Jaya and Papua New Guinea, who believe that deliverance will come in the form of returning ancestors disguised as foreigners and bearing material goods. It said: "I, Jeck Kenedi and Mr. Tom Beanal of West Papua (Timika) met in America (USA) to discuss the freeing of West Papua, which has been continually postponed by the savage peoples of Indonesia. I, Jeck Kenedi, agree 100% to assist West Papua, in accordance with the agreement made by my father, former American President John Kenedy, on December 1, 1963 in New York, for the transfer of West Papua from the Netherlands and Indonesia. Therefore I, Jeck Kenedi, Commander of the Seventh Armada, will assist West Papua with the aforenamed Armada, which consists of 5,000 personnel, and will request an audience with the United Nation sometime this year, probably June to August 1999.
The Armada has been ready at the island of Guam, north of the Island of Biak, since March 27, 1999, some 25 kilometres from the cities of Biak and Serui in West Papua. The Armada has been purchased by Mr. Tom Beanal, candidate for the president of West Papua. Weapons already prepared by Mr. Tom Beanal are as follows: Three hundred Super Power Type combat jets, three hundred Electiger Type helicopters, twenty B 25 Bombers, five hundred amphibious tanks, fifty submarines, three hundred destroyers, one aircraft carrier with forty guided nuclear missiles, and three thousand other weapons from Australia.
I hope that the sons of Papua are prepared to leave for Guam, ready, willing and disciplined to undertake the tasks before them, to free the land of the Bird of Paradise (West Papua) from its suffering. And I am waiting for a list of their names, which has not yet arrived. I am sending this letter to Navy Captain Egmaden, wherever he may be, so that names will be sent soon, as we are waiting to receive them, but personnel have yet to be prepared..." According to activists in Jayapura, such phonecalls and letters were commonplace.

86 Human Rights Watch interview, Sorong, August 25, 1999.

87 Human Rights Watch interviews, Sorong, August 23, 1999.

88 Papuan critics of KNPP charge it with being a tool of the military. Human Rights Watch was not able to investigate such charges. We did learn, however, that both Forum and KNPP were financially supported by a wealthy immigrant businessman. The businessman told HRW that he provided both Forum and KNPP leaders with several million rupiah and cell phones, explaining that he wanted to protect his assets in case of violence or an eventual independent state in Irian Jaya. He said that he had initially supported Forum but, shortly after the formation of KNPP, decided that Forum members were indeed mismanaging his donations, withdrew his support, and began funding the new group instead. He also said that to pacify the police, he had agreed, with KNPP members' knowledge, to act as an informant about their activities, although he restricted his informing to "unessential information." The businessman claimed that it was he who had notified police on the morning of July 5 that a separatist flag had been raised in Taman Hiburan Rakyat.
Another insight into the position taken by non-Papuan businessmen vis-a-vis the independence movement was revealed in proceedings stemming from a the flag-raising in Biak in 1998. In a deposition given August 11, 1998, demonstration leader Filip Karma said that during the four-day flag-raising, a gas station employee approached him with one million rupiah, saying that in return for the money the gas station's owner requested a "security guarantee." Karma said he considered the money a bribe and gave it to a church official. See Berkas Perkara: Tersangka Atas Nama Drs. Filip Yakob Semuel Karma Alias Yoppi Melakukan Tindak Pidana Kejahatan Terhadap Keamanan Negara Atau Makar, Polri Daerah Irian Jaya Resort Biak Numfor.

89 Human Rights Watch interviews, Sorong, August 23 and 24, 1999. Members of both groups separately described the attempts by Forum to discourage KNPP fromcarrying out the flag-raising ceremony.

90 Human Rights Watch interview, Sorong, August 24, 1999; Semy Latunussa, Laporan Hasil Investigasi Pengibaran Bendera Bintang Kejora Dan Pelanggaran HAM oleh Aparat Militer di Kabupaten Saerah Tingkat II Sorong, Tanggal 11 - 17 Juli 1999.

91 Human Rights Watch interview, Sorong, August 24, 1999.

92 Ibid.

93 Human Rights Watch interview, Sorong, August 27, 1999.

94 Human Rights Watch interview, Sorong, August 27, 1999; Latunussa, Laporan Hasil Investigasi Pengibaran Bendera Bintang Kejora.

95 Human Rights Watch interviews, Sorong, August 24 and 25, 1999.

96 Many residents of Sorong and other parts of Irian Jaya suspect ojek drivers of being intelligence agents. There is no hard evidence to prove the suspicions.

97 Salosa reported to the Legal Aid Institute of Jayapura and later told Human Rights Watch that five million rupiah in cash, a piece of gold weighing ten kilograms, thirty textiles, a Seiko watch, three plastic wardrobes, eight pairs of shoes, four traditional knives, a stone axe and a telephone were missing; three cabinets, two buvet, an amplifier, chairs, a gas stove, a tambourine, a bass guitar, and eight buckets had been ruined; and television, refrigerator and satellite dish cables had been cut.

98 The group, Mahasiswa Peduli Tragedi Sorong Juli 5, 1999, included students from as far away as Jayapura. Its members sought and received permission from military and government officials, including the governor, to conduct a two-week investigation in Sorong in the end of July.

99 Human Rights Watch interview, Sorong, August 27, 1999.

100 Human Rights Watch interview, Sorong, August 27, 1999.

101 Human Rights Watch interview, Sorong, August 23, 1999; Latunussa, Laporan Hasil Investigasi Pengibaran Bendera Bintang Kejora.

102 Ibid.

103 Human Rights Watch interviews, August 23 and 24, 1999.

104 Report of the Institute for Human Rights Study and Advocacy in Jayapura, September 9, 1999, and private correspondence, September 10, 1999.

105 Ibid.

106 "Saya yakin Denis dipukul aparat," Cenderawasih Post, September 11, 1999.

107 Ibid.

108 Ibid.

Previous PageTable Of ContentsNext Page