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No amnesty for Papua armed criminal groups, minister insists

The amnesty plan first surfaced last month, when Law Minister Supratman Andi Agtas announced after a meeting with President Prabowo Subianto an idea to pardon some 44,000 prisoners nationwide on humanitarian grounds and to help relieve the country’s overcrowded prisons.

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No amnesty for Papua armed criminal groups, minister insists Residents of Tembagapura district in Mimika regency, Papua wait to be evacuated by the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the National Police on March 8, 2020. Thousands of residents in the area were displaced from their homes due to armed conflict between security forces and armed criminal groups. (Antara/Sevianto Pakiding)

The plan to pardon tens of thousands of prisoners to relieve the country’s overcrowded jails will not cover detained members of armed criminal groups (KKB) in Papua, ministers have reasserted, as human rights group pushed the government to proceed with the plan for amnesty as a means to address the armed conflict in Indonesia’s easternmost regions.

The amnesty plan first surfaced last month, when Law Minister Supratman Andi Agtas announced after a meeting with President Prabowo Subianto an idea to pardon some 44,000 prisoners nationwide on humanitarian grounds and to help relieve the country’s overcrowded prisons.

Among the pardoned prisoners would be people jailed for criticizing the government or staging protests in Papua, with Supratman then calling the plan part of reconciling with “our friends in Papua” and an effort to make the restive regions “more peaceful”.

Since then, pressure has grown on the government to also include people jailed for their involvement in KKB in Papua in the pardon list, with rights groups arguing that it may help resolve the decades-long conflict in the country’s easternmost regions.

But the suggestion was rejected by Supratman, who said recently that no amnesty would be granted to any convicted KKB members.

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“The armed criminals won’t receive amnesty. It will only be granted to activists expressing their views on Papua without engaging in armed movements,” the law minister said in Jakarta on Wednesday, as quoted by kompas.com.

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