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| the water tower that Papuans raised the national flag above |
December 17, 2013
Indonesia is facing calls to investigate the killing, raping, and
torture of more than 150 civilians on the West Papuan island of Biak 15
years ago.
A Sydney University citizen’s tribunal presided over by former NSW
attorney-general John Dowd, now the president of the International
Commission of Jurists, today found that “large numbers” of West Papuans
had been tortured and mutilated.
The tribunal urged Indonesia to bring those responsible for the “crimes against humanity” to justice.
It is estimated more than 150 people were killed and their bodies
dumped at sea after a West Papuan protest which raised the banned West
Papuan Morning Star in Biak in June, 1998.
Indonesia has never admitted the massacre, claiming only one person
was killed, and blaming the bodies washed ashore on a subsequent
tsunami.
The action was strongly supported by the then-head of Indonesia’s military, General Wiranto.
‘I saw many killed by the military’ says young refugee
Women and children were loaded onto military vessels like this and thrown overboard at sea
Yudha Korwa, who was 17 at the time of the massacre, was at the protest with a friend.
He has since been granted political asylum after escaping to Australia on a wooden boat six years ago.
“I saw so many people getting killed by the military. I saw little
boy killed, old people, pregnant women and the little girl,” he said.
“One of the army hit me with a gun and my face filled with blood and I
was really sacred so I pretend to die. [I heard] people yelling ‘Help
me, help me’.”
His skull cracked and stabbed, Mr Korwa was one of the few to escape. He limped away and hid for two days in a road culvert.
UNSW anthropologist Dr Eben Kirksey was a young American undergraduate then passing through Biak.
“As everyone was singing the troops started shooting into the crowds
and in those initial moments people were mowed down, started falling –
others started running,” he said.
“The people who survived were herded onto the harbour and as they
were put on ships they could see the dead and dying from initial assault
were being loaded onto trucks.”
Woman raped, mutilated after seeing friend beheaded
Earlier this year at the University of Sydney, a citizen’s tribunal took evidence of what happened at Biak 15 years ago.
Memorial flowers left by protestors outside the Indonesian Embassy in London
Testifying for the first time, Tineke Rumakabu said she saw her friend beheaded. She herself was tortured horribly.
Former NSW crown prosecutor Nicholas Cowdery was Counsel Assisting at the tribunal.
“She was burnt, she was mutilated – genitally mutilated – raped,
treated in the most brutal and degrading fashion by Indonesian police,”
he said of Ms Rumakabu.
Mr Cowdery said a special prosecutor should conduct investigations in Indonesia.
“There is the opportunity for Indonesians to provide compensation to people.”
Tribunal calls for action and says Australia should demand answers
A few months later Indonesia launched a military crackdown in East
Timor – one that ultimately failed, despite similar proven atrocities
against unarmed civilians.
But while world attention focused on East Timor, the Biak attack was never investigated.
The tribunal has now called on Indonesia to do just that.
“The specific mutilations of the females was a specific terror
policy. It’s hard to believe human beings can behave like these
soldiers,” Mr Dowd said.
General Wiranto is now running for the Indonesian Presidency in 2014
Sumber : www.freewestpapua.org/
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