West Papua Report July 2012: escalating violence, rights award, Detachment 88

West Papua Report July 2012

Mako Tabuni ( Wakil Ketua KNPB)

This is the 99th in a series of monthly reports that focus on developments affecting Papuans. This series is produced by the non-profit West Papua Advocacy Team (WPAT) drawing on media accounts, other NGO assessments, and analysis and reporting from sources within West Papua. This report is co-published with the East Timor and Indonesia ActionNetwork (ETAN). 

Back issues are posted online at http://www.etan.org/issues/wpapua/default.htm Questions regarding this report can be addressed to Edmund McWilliams at edmcw @msn.com. If you wish to receive the report via e-mail, send a note to etan@etan.org.

SUMMARY
 

The West Papua Advocacy Team gives its annual John Rumbiak Human Rights Defenders Award to Anne Noonan and Joe Collins and the Australia West Papua Association (Sydney). Detachment 88 forces gunned down leading Papuan activist Mako Tabuni in what witness describe as an extrajudicial killing. Tabuni was a key official of the West Papua National Committee (KNPB), an organization pressing for a referendum on West Papua's status. Indonesia's security forces and Detachment 88, a purportedly anti-terror unit supported by the U.S. and Australian governments, are ratcheting up pressure on KNPB and other Papuan groups at a time of growing tension in the territory. 

That tension derives in part from an early June assault on the village of Honai Lama by Indonesian military personnel which led to the death of at least one Papuan civilian, the beating of others, and destruction of villagers' homes. The Asian Legal Resource Center warned the UN Human Rights Council of "escalating violence" in West Papua and the failure of Indonesian authorities to arrest the perpetrators of this violence. 

 

WPAT urges the U.S. government to suspend support for Detachment 88. WPAT also endorses a Human Right Watch call for the Indonesian government to admit the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions.

 

Full Report : http://etan.org/