THE 2019 WEST PAPUA UPRISING: FULL REPORT
London, 30 September 2020
TAPOL, in collaboration with human rights lawyer Veronica Koman, has today published an extensive report on the 2019 West Papua Uprising ('the Uprising') on the anniversary of its last day in 2019. The written report is supplemented with a short video.
(London, 17 June 2020) TAPOL regrets the sentencing of seven West Papuan political prisoners today in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan province. The Seven were arrested in early September 2019 and accused of being the masterminds behind the ‘West Papua Uprising’, mass anti-racism protests in August and September last year. Prosecutors demanded that harsh prison sentences should be handed to the Seven, which has caused a rise in tensions in recent weeks in West Papua. However, judges took a different view and displayed more leniency:
Join TAPOL and ETAN in a LIVE WEBINAR exploring the consequences of a racist justice system for political activists in West Papua. Please see the invitation attached for details about how to join!
About the Webinar
TAPOL condemns the demand by Prosecutors seeking seventeen and five years imprisonment respectively, for West Papuan activists Buchtar Tabuni and Irwanus Uropmabin.
This briefing paper provides an analytical overview of data on political arrests in West Papua from 2012 to 2014. It includes analysis of emerging trends in human rights violations associated with these political arrests.
Our analysis shows that during the three-year period of this report, the majority of those detained were arrested because of their participation in demonstrations or other types of peaceful political activity. 2013 was a particularly bad year, with a record high of 548 arrests. The data also showed that most of those detained were male (95%).
Today, Papuan political detainee Areki Wanimbo was acquitted of conspiracy to commit treason and released from prison, after spending over nine months in detention in West Papua, Indonesia. Mr Wanimbo, an indigenous tribal leader and local teacher was arrested in Wamena in the Central Highlands of West Papua, alongside two French journalists who had travelled to the resource-rich region to investigate one of the world’s longest-running conflicts.
TAPOL would like to express deep sorrow at the reprehensible execution of eight people in Indonesia at 00:00 on 29 April 2015. Eight prisoners were executed by a police mobile brigades (Brimob) firing squad at Nusakambangan Prison, Java for alleged drug-related offences.
Filep Karma, born in 1959, lived his entire adult life under the shadow of the Indonesian military. In one of the darkest chapters of West Papua’s dark history since 1962– the Biak Massacre of 6 July 1998 – Karma was the key player in peacefully confronting the Indonesian state and demanding independence. His philosophy and practice of non-violence protest were met with extreme violence by the Indonesian military.
Today on the 10th anniversary of his incarceration, political prisoner Filep Karma publishes his new book ‘As If We’re Half Animals,’ a powerful and damning account of repression, racism and resistance.
Today five men were released from Abepura prison in Papua, after each spending two years and nine months in detention. Imprisoned for a peaceful political event which declared Papua’s ‘independence’ from Indonesia, authorities and the Indonesian justice system have branded the men as treacherous criminals. International human rights groups such as Amnesty International instead label the men as prisoners of conscience, imprisoned for their political and ideological beliefs.