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Komnas Ham suspects rights abuses in Papuan student crackdown
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A Papuan student was arrested by the police after he wanted to enter a dormitory on Jl. Kusumanegara in Yogyakarta last week. (JP/Bambang Muryanto)
T
he National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) said on Thursday that human rights abuses might have occurred during a crackdown by the Yogyakarta police on Papuan students accused of promoting separatism.
“The tentative conclusion is that there are indications of human rights abuses. An official statement will soon be released in Jakarta after we collect more evidence,” commissioner Natalius Pigai told Papuan students and pro-democracy activists in Yogyakarta.
Pigai, assigned by the commission to investigate the July 15 incident during which the police and local mass organizations surrounded a dormitory for Papuan students, said the rights abuses included violations to free speech, torture, detainment without due process, hate speech and a failure by the local government to provide security for its citizens.
“After corroborating our data by collecting photos and documentary videos, it is possible that the human rights abuses will cover all the six allegations, or it could turn to five or four,” he said.
Papuan students in Yogyakarta have expressed their support for a bid by a separatist group called the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) to become a permanent member of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG).
Yogyakarta Governor Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono X has asserted that Papuan students are not allowed to voice their support for separatist movements, saying that the province was not a place for separatists. (ary)
