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| Indonesian anti-riot police arresting a West Papuan pro-separatist. Source: AFP |
INDONESIAN security forces
intentionally killed and raped children along with a large number of
civilians at a massacre on the West Papuan island of Biak, a tribunal
has found.
The secret massacre which has been denied for years by Indonesia
was officially detailed by a citizen's tribunal which brought down its
findings in Sydney today.
It found the Indonesian military butchered dozens of West Papuan civilians who had been protesting for freedom in 1998.
They
shot children in their school uniforms, raped women, tortured survivors
and mutilated victims before two Indonesian navy vessels dumped their
bodies out to sea, the tribunal found.
The badly broken corpses,
some missing legs or heads, appeared in fishermen's nets and washed up
on the shore in the days that followed.
Nobody has been prosecuted.
The
Biak Massacre Citizen's Tribunal was conducted at Sydney University in
the manner of a coroner's inquest before jurists Keith Suter and John
Dowd, with former NSW Director of Public Prosecutions Nicholas Cowdery
acting as counsel assisting.
The tribunal heard the events began about 5am on July 2 when Nobel
Peace prize nominee and political prisoner Filep Karma raised the West
Papuan morning star flag at a water tower.
A crowd of about 75 people were singing and dancing, shouting freedom slogans.
Indonesian police and military fired tear gas to disperse the crowd that afternoon, to no effect.
A
police officer then beat an elderly demonstrator and the crowd
retaliated by demolishing a truck belonging to the Indonesian security
forces.
A stand-off ensued for days with the crowd refusing to
lower their flag which has been banned since Indonesia annexed the
province in 1969.
Indonesian security forces surrounded the
protesters at dawn on July 6, gathering in the shape of a giant letter U
before firing into the crowd.
"Bullets were raining down," said a woman who cannot be identified.
"The sky was on fire."
Civilians heard the commotion and rushed to the water tower to see the men and women gunned down.
Survivors were herded towards the harbour where the Indonesian Navy was waiting for them at the wharf.
One survivor named "Sarah" told the tribunal her family followed others with their hands above their heads.
"You could feel the bullets starting to fly … I could see so many children who had been killed. They were shot on the wharf."
Bodies were loaded on two Indonesian navy vessels, the KRI Teluk Berau and the KRI Kakap, before being dumped at sea.
Sarah
said she saw a truck take at least 28 bodies away from the wharf.
Nobody knows where they were taken. A container truck loaded more bodies
later, she said.
Another survivor, Tineke Rumakabu, described how
she was tossed into a truck and taken to a military compound where she
was tortured by Indonesian soldiers.
"I saw a little girl and they raped her and she died."
Ms Rumakabu said out of 12 women in detention with her, eight were killed and only four survived.
The
Tribunal found the Indonesian Government has downplayed the seriousness
of the incident and no action had been taken against those responsible.
It
called on Indonesia to hold an independent judicial inquiry into the
massacre with criminal proceedings brought against those involved and
compensation paid to the survivors and the families of the victims.
The Indonesian Government declined to comment.
President
of International Commission of Jurists Australia John Dowd, one of the
Judicial Members to preside over the tribunal said: "No-one who heard
any of the evidence would ever forget it."
He said particularly
disturbing was the sexual mutilation which appears to be a systemic
feature of the oppression of West Papua.
They intend to present the evidence to the Australian, Indonesian and US governments at a later date.
Source : www.news.com.au
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