West Papuan Human Rights defender and his family forced out of home village by Indonesian military

Report by Revd Socratez Sofyan Yoman
President of the Fellowship of West Papuan Baptist Churches
17 July 2008
News has just emerged that on 8 October 2007 in Kweel village, Merauke - West Papua, Indonesian Special Forces (Kopassus) chased away West Papuan human rights defender, Nicolaus Yeem, from his home village, together with his wife and three children.
Nicolaus is a human rights defender. During the 2nd West Papuan Congress in 2000 he worked for the West Papuan Task Force which ensured the safety of the delegates attending the Congress.
TNI and Kopassus personnel ordered the local Papuan Customary Council (DAP) to expel Nicolaus, his wife and three children from their home village.
This was a human tragedy which deeply hurt the native Papuans because the TNI and Kopassus forcefully chased away native Papuans, the owners of the Land of Papua, from their own land.
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Richard Samuelson
Free West Papua Campaign, Oxford, UK.
www.freewestpapua.org