Home > South-East Asia >> West Papua

Who is responsible for 2 year-old Nona's death?

Free West Papua Campaign press release - February 14, 2005

We have just received a tragic message from a Papuan contact (copied below), letting us know that three more Papuans have died in just one of the many refugee camps in the jungles of West Papua near the town of Wunin: a 45 year old woman called Nomanugwe, a 50 year old man called Nununggen... and a 2 year old little Papuan girl whose name was Nona.

We did not know them personally, but Nomanugwe, Nununggen and Nona were real people. Through no fault of their own, these innocent people are now dead. Somewhere hiding in those jungles, Nomanugwe, Nununggen and Nona's families are weeping for their loved ones. Their grief is combined with fear because they know that Indonesian soldiers are seraching for them and hunger because the only food the have is what little they can find in the jungle around them. Maybe other members of their families are also sick. Maybe they will have the agony of helplessly watching them slowly die in front of them, just like they had to endure the slow deaths of Nomanugwe, Nununggen and little Nona. Without any medical supplies, they know that there is absolutely nothing they can do to save them.

A few weeks ago, Nona's village was attacked by heavily-armed Indonesian soldiers. It was a typical highland Papuan village in a jungle clearing. Nona's home was one of a scattering of small thatched houses surrounding a little wooden church. A 21 Century army attacked unarmed civilians in their homes, firing their automatic rifles at random and screaming racist abuse. This is the so-called "bravery" and "honour" of the proud Indonesian military which ordinary unarmed civilians in East Timor, Aceh and all across West Papua have witnessed for over 40 years.

This is the same Indonesian military to which the UK Government continues to sell arms, and with which the US Government is desperate to resume close links.

As they stormed through the village, the Indonesian soldiers set light to Nona's home and all the other houses in the village. Not even the church was sacrosact. The Indonesian soldiers torched that too. Then the village's vital and only food supply for the coming year, the crops in the fields and gardens, were set alight or trampled by the soldiers. Finally, the Indonesian soldiers stole and sold for cash the villagers' most valuable assets, their livestock.

In their blind panic, surrounded by gun fire, flames, smoke and shouting, Nona's family would have tried desperately to save her and her brothers and sisters, grabbing the children under their arms and running for their lives. Maybe Nona's elderly grandparents were with them, too old to run. Maybe someone was strong enough to carry them on their shoulders as they all fled into the jungle. Maybe they were screaming with fear, or maybe they were too stunned even to utter a sound.

Eventually, exhausted and terror stricken, Nona and her family found themselves deep in the jungle, safe, at least for the time being, from the Indonesian soldiers, but without food, medicines and shelter.

As we now know, tragically sometime after she arrived in the jungle, Nona became sick and she died last Thursday, 10th February 2005. She was 2 years old. Somewhere in that jungle is a very small freshly dug grave in which her body is now resting in peace.

So who is responsible for Nona's death? Those directly responsible for her death are the Indonesian soldiers who attacked her village and forced her into the jungle, but the Indonesian military commanders who gave the orders are also responsible. One day they will be brought before a court and tried for their crimes against humanity.

However, the President of Indonesia, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, as Head of the Indonesian military, must also bear his share of the responsibility for Nona's and her fellow villagers' deaths.

For all his fine words since becoming President four months ago about seeking to resolve conflicts by purely peaceful means, brutal attacks by his military personnel against unarmed Papuan civilians have actually increased during his time in power. At the very least, President Yudhoyono has failed in his duty to prevent his soldiers from committing war crimes. At worst, he gave the orders himself to attack Nona's village and hundreds of other villages across West Papua.

We cannot know whether the President of Indonesia is fully aware of the crimes his notoriously uncontrollable military are committing in the remote Papuan Highlands, thousands of miles from the Presidential palace in Jakarta. Neither he nor his Government have made any public statements about what is happening.

However, what we do know is that his Government is deliberately preventing access to the thousands of Papuan refugees who are now spread out in small groups across the Papuan jungles. As a direct result of this policy, no humanitarian aid workers were able to reach Nona with the medicines and food she needed to stay alive. No human rights observers could visit her village to see the result of the attack. No journalist can photograph her grave.

We know that there are countless other Papuan children like Nona and older people such as Nomanugwe and Nununggen who will die very soon if the Indonesian Government continues to deny access to the refugees for international humanitarian NGO's, human rights observers and foreign journalists.

The Free West Papua Campaign, Oxford, UK, in solidarity with the people of West Papua, is therefore calling on President Yudhoyono's Government to allow immediate access to the Papuan refugees and we call on the UK Government and all other governments who maintain friendly relations with Indonesia to support us in this request in every way they can.

We have been making this same request for access since September 2004. Are we really asking for so much to help save the lives of more innocent Papuans like Nona Kogoya?

Nona Kogoya 2003-2005. May she rest in peace

Richard Samuelson
Free West Papua Campaign Oxford, UK