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West Papuan students seek repatriation of political prisoners
Institute for Papuan Advocacy & Human Rights Media release - February 10, 2007
Six West Papuan Student activists from the Student and Civil Society Coalition Concerned about Human Rights in Papua (Koalisi Mahasiswa dan Masyarakat Peduli HAM di Papua) were arrested, detained & later released by Indonesian Police during a demonstration of about 60 people outside the front of the Provincial Parliament in Jayapura on Tuesday 6 February 2007.
Student organizer, Marthen Goo, in Jayapura, one of the six detained, said the protesters want West Papuan prisoners currently in jail in Makassar, Sulawesi & Java to be transferred back to Jayapura where they can have contact with family and community.
Marthen Goo asked that, "The Provincial Government in West Papua lobby the Indonesian Government in Jakarta to move all Papuan prisoners back to West Papua."
Marthen Goo also said, "The political prisoners in Makassar are in a poor mental and psychological state after being subjected to intimidation and racist taunts".
The some of the prisoners in Makassar are in jail after being found guilty of involvement in a raid on an arms depot at a military base in Wamena, in the West Papuan highlands in 2003.
About these prisoners detained in Makassar, Marthen Goo said, "The prisoners are highland people who only know about gardening of their subsistence crops. They were arrested and forced to confess to a crime the had nothing to do with."
Marthen Goo and other protest organizers emphasized that, although they believed the Wamena case prisoners in Makassar were innocent, they respected Indonesian law process and were just asking that the prisoners be returned to Papua.
Spokesperson for the Institute for Papuan Advocacy & Human Rights in Australia, Jason McLoud said today.
"We are told by members of the Student and Civil Society Coalition Concerned about Human Rights in Papua that they want all West Papuan prisoners returned to Papua."
"They say that unless prisoners are returned to Papua they are they are unable to get the kind of support from their community which would allow them to survive incarceration in Indonesia's jail system."
"Although it is usually practice throughout Indonesia that local prisoner usually stay in their local province, it is practice that many West Papuan prisoners are interned elsewhere in Indonesia including jails in Makassar and Java."
Jason McLoud went on to say, "The demonstration comes a week after the death in custody of Eko Berotabui in West Papua's capital Jayapura. Berotabui was a student activist jailed for alleged involvement in the killing of policemen during student demonstrations in the capital in March 2006. It is reported that Berotabui was seriously depressed & died from a drug overdose."
Jason McLoud also said, "We hold general concern for West Papuan prisoners in Indonesian jails because of the state of Indonesia's judicial process as many prisoners appear to be wrongfully detailed for alleged crimes or have been sentenced to long terms for non violent political demonstrations such as flag raising. There is also very the serious issue of treatment of prisoners and there are recent reports of very bad treatment and abuse in Jayapura."
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