Human Rights and Peace for Papua, the international coalition for Papua of faith-based and civil society organisations is publishing its third report on the human rights situation in Papua together with Franciscans International. The 2013 report has now been published and is available for download at www.humanrightspapua.org. The report covers cases of violations of civil, political, economic, social, cultural as well as indegenous peoples’ rights. It was prepared by a group of human rights organisations in based in Papua, Jakarta and abroad and covers events between October 2011 and March 2013.
Cases of extra-judicial killings, torture and arbitrary arrests documented between October 2011 and March 2013 show an ongoing high level of violence, concerning which the perpetrators – notably members of the security forces, including police and military – are not being held accountable, in the majority of cases. In the remote highland areas such forms of violence are most frequently noted. There, the security forces have continued to conduct raids in villages in order to retaliate concerning conflict violence and to intimidate indigenous village communities, resulting in the displacement of people. The Third Papuan People’s Congress in October 2011 was violently dispersed, persons were killed and peaceful political activists were imprisoned. In 2012, an escalation of violence was noted during which civilians were shot by unknown persons, political activist group leader Mako Tabuni was killed by the security forces and political activists were persecuted with arrests and killings. This, together with the prohibition of demonstrations in the second half of 2012, has resulted in a deterioration of the freedom of assembly and expression in Papua, from which civil society activism has until now not fully recovered despite small improvements in early 2013.
Poor management of human resources in the health-care and education sectors, despite the construction of new facilities and the availability of funds for salaries, have left most health-care centres and schools unattended by health workers and teachers respectively. Due to this, access to education and health-care is often not available, notably in remote areas. Child death rates and HIV/AIDS infection data are at alarming level and rank highest compared to other Indonesian regions, demanding serious reforms of the health sector.
