96 assaulted at Papuan Congress, says Komnas HAM

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta Thu, 11/03/2011 10:17 PM


The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) reported on Thursday that it had found that 96 out of 387 participants at the third Papuan Peoples Congress had been assaulted by police officers.

“We interviewed the participants at the congress and found out that 96 of them were assaulted. There were maybe more,” said Komnas HAM Papua chairman Julles Ongge as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.

The commission’s investigation found that police officers had seized millions of rupiah from participants, four cars and several pieces of electronic equipment. According to the investigation, police officers also destroyed seven motorbikes.

The commission reported that participants had also lost 50 cellular phones. Julles said that the commission had urged the Papua Police to return any property belonging to the participants.

“Police officers say that participants can take their property back, but they [participants] are afraid of more assaults,” said Julles.

“We will use the findings to produce a report detailing possible human rights violations that took place during the congress,” he said.

Julles reported that the police had denied accusations that they shot at six civilians who were participating in the congress. “However, we have an eye witness who testified that the officers shot at the participants,” he said.

Komnas HAM recorded several deaths, including James Gobay, 25, Yosaphat Yogi, 28, Daniel Kadepa, 25 and Maxsasa Yewi, 35. The commission also reported that Ana Adi, 40, Miler Hubi, 22, and Matias Maidepa were among those injured.

Papua Police spokesman Sr. Commr. Wachyono denied accusations that officers had killed the participants. “The shootings were not directed toward participants but in the air,” he said.

The police named congress leaders Forkorus Yaboseimbut and Edison Waromi as suspects and charged them with treason.



(“The shootings were not directed toward participants but in the air,” the man said, Tjonge, I must admit there would be a lot of air between the end of the barrel of the gun and the body of the participant!) siK.