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Jakarta, Papua conflict escalates as report shows victims mostly women, children
In a press conference at the Amnesty International Indonesia office in Jakarta, the team reported that at least 69 men, 21 women, and 92 children had died between December 2018 and July this year.
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Indonesian Military personnel prepare to board a helicopter in Wamena in Papua on Wednesday to retrieve the bodies of the construction workers killed in Nduga. The soldiers hunted for rebels suspected of killing 19 construction workers and one soldier in the restive province of Papua, as an eyewitness account supplied by the military described a grisly mass execution. (AFP/Anyong)
T
he latest death of a police brigadier in Puncak regency, Papua, blamed on Papuan armed rebels, has prompted Vice President Jusuf Kalla to suggest a “counterattack” against the armed group, while a civil society team verifying the victims in Nduga claimed they had confirmed the death of 182 people in the regency, mostly women and children.
On Tuesday at the palace, Kalla said the counterattack should not be considered a “human rights violation.” “This won’t be a human rights violation, because we have to see who violated human rights first. Sometimes people, especially [those in] foreign countries, consider all of these to be human rights violations,” Kalla said on Wednesday. “What if the dead ones were from the Indonesian Military [TNI] and the National Police.”
The police reported that they had found the body of First Brig. Hedar on Monday. He was shot in the back of the head, the police claimed. Earlier, Hedar’s friend, Brig. Alfonso said a group of men abducted Hedar while they were traveling by motorcycle to investigate a crime.
On Wednesday, the joint team, called the Nduga Solidarity Civil Society Coalition, presented a report from on-the-ground verification on the number of deaths due to prolonged conflicts between the TNI and the armed rebels in the region. They claimed they had managed to verify 182 deaths among civilians, a number the government called “a hoax”.
The team consists of — among others — officials from the Nduga regency administration, members of the local legislative council, church leaders, human rights activists and students.
‘Mostly women and children’
In a press conference at the Amnesty International Indonesia office in Jakarta, the team reported that at least 69 men, 21 women, and 92 children had died between December 2018 and July this year. Many of the victims died of hunger while seeking refuge in forests to avoid conflict-ridden areas, while some others died allegedly at the hands of the security forces.
