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crimes against humanity

TAPOL calls on the UK Government to apologise for its role on 1960s massacre in Indonesia

Media Statement

London, 3 November 2021

UK Government should apologise for encouraging 1960s massacres of alleged leftists in Indonesia and appoint independent counsel to investigate 

On 17 and 24 October, the Observer newspaper published new research undertaken by academics and journalists, disclosing the existence in 1965 of a covert unit in the UK Foreign Office. The unit spread disinformation purporting to be from Indonesian ‘patriots’ living outside Indonesia, encouraging massacres. 

Committing Crimes Against Humanity is Not for Celebration

 

President Widodo Should Revoke Award for Human Rights Violator 

Committing Crimes Against Humanity is Not for Celebration

London, New York, Berlin 

Saturday 14 August, 2021

TAPOL, ETAN and Watch Indonesia! strongly condemn President Joko Widodo’s decision to grant ‘Bintang Jasa Utama’, one the highest national awards, to Eurico Guterres on Thursday, 12 August 2021. 

Press Release: Gross human rights violation in Wasior, 17 years on and still looking for justice

Press Release: Gross human rights violation: Wasior, 17 years on and still looking for justice

13 June, 2018

"Bloody Wasior" is an unresolved case of gross human rights violations caused by the Indonesian State between April and October 2001 primarily in the area of Wasior district, West Papua province. It started with protest of local communities who demanded compensation from PT Dharma Mukti Persada (PT DMP), a logging company operating in Wasior district, who had illegally occupied community customary land and harvested timber resources.

Fifty Years on: A Personal Story

It was early in the morning of 1 October 1965, that my family and I woke up to the deafening sound of army trucks driving up and down outside our house in Menteng, Jakarta. One of our close neighbours was General Nasution who had apparently been one of the targets of an attempt early that morning by a group of soldiers to overthrow the government of President Sukarno.

The Eyes of the Papuans: A video advocacy process

Thirty years later, I have still not forgotten. It happened in the south of the Indonesian province of West Papua, a journey of two days from the “big city” of Merauke. Life in the small village of Yodom centered around trips to and from the ubiquitous, generous forest, provider of every need. The arrival of a South Korean lumber company brutally intruded on the traditional way of life. Workers started to fell trees. Word had it that a plantation of palm oil trees was to take their place.

Press Release: 12 Years After Wamena 4 April 2003

On 4 April 2003, a crime against humanity was committed which is known as the 'Bloody Wamena' incident. On that day, Papuan people in the vicinity were celebrating Easter. They were shocked when sweepings began against 25 kampungs in Wamena Town, Napua, Okilik, Walesi , Hoele, Pyramid, Tiom, Kwiyawage and several other kampungs nearby, Laurem, Wupaga, Negeyagin, Geneya, Mume and Timine.

'Sulawesi Testifies' to 1965 massacres

A new book sheds further light on the harrowing experiences of the survivors of the 1965 mass murders in Indonesia. Edited by former political prisoner, writer and film-maker, Putu Oka Sukanta, ‘Sulawesi Bersaksi’ (‘Sulawesi Testifies’) is based on interviews with survivors and their families and an accomplice to the murders of four detainees on the island of Sulawesi. Sulawesi Berkasi was sponsored by TAPOL and launched at the Goethe Institute in Jakarta in October 2013.

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