Wednesday, October 23, 2013

1) New report claims Indonesia responsible for Papua genocide


1) New report claims Indonesia responsible for Papua genocide
2) Helicopters supplied to Indonesia by Australia used in military operations amounting to genocide: Report


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http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-24/anpapuan-genocide-claim/5042036


1) New report claims Indonesia responsible for Papua genocide

Updated 3 hours 52 minutes ago
An extensive new report has been released, containing graphic detail of the alleged murder, rape and torture of more than 4,000 Papuans by Indonesian military in the late 1970s.
The report, by the Hong-Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission (AHCR), names numerous Indonesian military commanders, including the late Indonesian President, General Suharto, as those responsible for ordering or failing to stop the violence, and says they should be tried by a human rights court.
The report "The Neglected Genocide - Human Rights abuses against Papuans in the Central Highlands, 1977 - 1978" attempts to document violence that occurred when Indonesia launched several military operations around Wamena, in response to independence uprisings after general elections in 1977.
The AHRC conducted field visits, interviewed witnesses and examined historical records.

It has collected the names of 4,146 people it believes were killed by the Indonesian military and claims the total number of victims who died from torture, disease and hunger as a result of the violence could be well over 10,000.
The report says Papuans in the Central Highlands were victims of napalm bombing and indiscriminate shooting from the air, sometimes from aircraft supplied to the Indonesian military by Australia and the US.
In one reported incident, villagers in the Bolakme area were told they would be receiving aerial aid from Australia, only to be bombed by American-supplied planes.
The report also contains details of independence supporters being burned alive, boiled alive, and being forced to perform sexual acts in public.
In other incidents, the report claims women and children were targetted: children's heads were cut off, women were raped and had their breasts cut off and internal organs pulled out.
The report names 10 Indonesian commanders and senior military leaders it says were responsible for either ordering or failing to prevent the violence perpetrated by various battalions.
Among those resposible, according to the report, is the former President Suharto, as Supreme Commander of the Indonesian military.
A spokesman for the Asian Human Rights Commission Basil Fernando says some of those named in the report are still in positions of power within the Indonesian military.
The report calls for an ad hoc human rights court to be set up to hear the allegations and try those responsible, as well as the establishment of a truth commission.
The AHRC is calling on the international community to demand the Indonesian government be held to account for human rights violations in Papua.
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http://www.smh.com.au/national/helicopters-supplied-to-indonesia-by-australia-used-in-military-operations-amounting-to-genocide-report-20131023-2w1n4.html

2) Helicopters supplied to Indonesia by Australia used in military operations amounting to genocide: Report
October 23, 2013 - 7:28PM
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Jenny Denton

Research to be released Thursday into one of the most violent episodes in the history of West Papua claims that helicopters provided to Indonesia by the Australian government were used in military operations in the 1970s that amounted to genocide.
According to a report by the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), two Iroquois helicopters supplied by Australia were amongst aircraft used by the regional military command in West Papua in operations in the Central Highlands in 1977 and 1978 which killed thousands of civilians.
The AHRC report, The Neglected Geno-cide: Human rights abuses against Papuans in the Central Highlands, 1977–1978, details mass killings by aerial strafing and bombings—using both napalm and cluster bombs—in and around the Baliem Valley, where support for the OPM separatist movement was strong and tensions had escalated in the lead-up to national elections in 1977.
In one incident described in the research, villagers were bombed with napalm from American-supplied OV-10 Bronco attack aircraft as they waited for planes they had been told would deliver aid from Australia.

The report, which has been three years in development, collected witness interviews from survivors of the military operations in 15 affected communities and used the accounts, together with information from historical records, to compile a list of the names of 4146 identified victims of killings.
In addition to aerial bombardment and indiscriminate shootings, the report describes a range of “unspeakable atrocities” inflicted on indigenous Papuans by Indonesian soldiers in the Central Highlands operations.
Villagers were sliced with razors, forced to eat soldiers' faeces, thrown into wells, drowned, buried, burnt and boiled alive, according to the report.
The researchers collected accounts of women being raped, having their breasts cut off and their internal organs pulled out, having penises cut from the bodies of dead men forced into their mouths and heated iron rods forced into their mouths and rectums until they died.
According to various accounts babies and young children had been shot, beheaded and burnt to death.
The Indonesian government has never recognised that mass killings and atrocities took place in the Central Highlands military operations and has denied ever using napalm or cluster bombs in Papua.
Director of policy and programs at the Asian Human Rights Centre, Basil Fernando, said thousands of people in West Papua remember the events described in the report and information about them was easy to obtain.
“What is most shocking is that for all these years there has hardly been any investigation into this large number of killings, and the basic political issues remain unresolved,” Mr Fernando said.
The report's authors state their research is “consistent with estimates” of a death toll from the 1977–78 operations numbering at between 5000 and “tens of thousands”.
They argue that “the pattern of mass violence” involved constitutes the crime of genocide.
The Asian Human Rights Commission is calling for an apology, legal redress and a process of dialogue from the Indonesian government as a “necessary step” towards providing justice and achieving reconciliation.
A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said the department did not have “any information to hand” about allegations that Australian aircraft were used in the operations.

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