UNHCR : Indonesia: Military Documents Reveal Unlawful Spying in Papua

(New York) – Internal military documents that recently came to light expose the Indonesian military’s surveillance of peaceful activists, politicians, and clergy in the easternmost province of Papua, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch urged the Indonesian government to order the military to cease the unlawful monitoring immediately, and to ensure that civilian authorities retain responsibility for basic law enforcement.

The approximately 500 pages of documents, dated 2006 to 2009, include detailed reports of military surveillance of civilians and provide military perspectives on social and political issues in the area. Most are fromIndonesia’s Special Forces (Komando Pasukan Khusus, or Kopassus) and the Cenderawasih military command in Jayapura, the provincial capital. They range from internal briefings, presentations, teaching tools, and intelligence products such as daily and quarterly Kopassus reports, to a paper on the status of Papua under international law. A separate document that came to light recently describes a surveillance operation in 2011, indicating that such surveillance continues.
Surveillance of Nongovernmental Organizations and Civil Society
The Kopassus documents list civil society “opponents,” conflating nonviolent political activity and human rights work with the armed separatist threat. The documents “Anatomy of Papuan Separatists” and “Kopassus Daily Report – Kotaraja” name more than 100 Papuan civilians who are members of various organizations including the Papuan Customary Council, the Papua Customary Government, the Papua Taskforce, the Guardian of the Papuan Land, the 14 Star Group, and the West Papua National Authority, as well as Papuan intellectuals like the Rev. Benny Giay, the Rev. Herman Awom, Fadhal al Hamid, and Albert Kailele, among others.Several people mentioned in the documents have faced arbitrary arrest, harassment, and violence. As access to Papua is highly restricted, it is difficult to verify many claims of abuses or to investigate incidents. Likewise, there may be misreported or unreported human rights violations.For instance, Buchtar Tabuni, the founder of the pro-independence West Papua National Committee (KNPB) who is serving a three-year sentence for “inciting hatred” against the Indonesian government, is mentioned repeatedly throughout the documents. The documents show that he was under surveillance well before he became politically active in protests and formed the KNPB. He was arrested on December 3, 2008, for leading protests against the shooting of one of his relatives, Opinus Tabuni.
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