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AKARTA: Leaders of London-based human rights NGO Amnesty International met with the Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister, Djoko Suyanto, on Tuesday, to discuss human rights issues in Papua.

Sam Zarifi, Amnesty’s Asia-Pacific Program Director, said that Djoko expressed the government’s
commitment to ensure account-ability for human rights violations allegedly committed by security forces.

“But Amnesty criticized the use of lenient administrative penalties or closed-door trials in response to human rights violations involving members of the security forces,” Sam Zarifi said in a statement.

The NGO has previously slammed the National Police for giving light punishment to police officers involved in the violent breaking up of the Papuan Congress in Abepura, Papua, in October, calling it a “failure of human rights accountability”.

Tensions have escalated in Papua since the incident, with several cases of unidentified gunmen shooting civilians and security force personnel.

Dozens of people have been killed, including four police officers, during the past two months. The meeting was initiated by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who had assigned Djoko to talk to Amnesty following reports about Papuans’ demands that the Indonesian government free all prisoners who were detained after violence broke out between police and participants at the Third Papuan People’s Congress.

In the meeting, the NGO also urged the government to free all those who are detained in Papua and Maluku for peacefully expressing their views, including through raising pro-independence flags.

At least 90 people are currently incarcerated in Papua and Maluku for peaceful, pro-independence activities, according to Amnesty.