Jakarta,

Indonesian police routinely torture, rape and kill with impunity in West Papua and risk fanning separatism there, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report released on July 5.

The 93-page report, Out of Sight: Endemic Abuse and Impunity in Papua’s Central Highlands, documents daily abuses by police officers and other security forces. A key finding of the report is that the police, particularly the paramilitary Mobile Brigade (Brimob), are responsible for the most serious violations although brutal treatment by the TNI (Indonesian military) also continue.

HRW documented 14 cases of abuse — in which only one security officer was prosecuted and jailed for eight months — and the report contains graphic first-hand accounts from the victims.

“I wanted to scream but he had his hand over my mouth and then he forced me. I resisted but he still forced me”, a 16-year-old rape victim said. “Then he carried out the act on me. I couldn’t walk. I was in so much pain. After that he ordered me that if I told anyone what had happened he would come and kill me”, said the woman, whose village chief advised her not report the attack saying it would cause trouble with the military.

Another man described what happened when Brimob officers arrested him and some friends for a peaceful independence flag raising: “My teeth fell out. Blood flowed out. I was hit. I was kicked twice and then in the stomach twice again. I was kicked in the nose, the mouth and the teeth. More kicks were ordered and this was repeated. I could not count the number of times. I saw all my friends given the same treatment.”

A similar story was related by a man who reported being beaten by the police while witnessing the arrest of another person: “I was beaten with the end of a gun on my back, and with fists to my face. My mouth and eyes were smashed and bleeding. I felt dizzy and fell. Straight away I was kicked by five members of the police and Brimob.

“They were all wearing complete official uniforms with guns … I was barely conscious when five members of the police took me into the car. As they were taking me, they punched me to the back three times with rifle butts and then in the car I was beaten with a truncheon.”

HRW said that the head of the police and military in the region did not respond to requests for information on the cases the group documented. “No one is being prosecuted for the crimes we documented … The police are acting as a law unto themselves”, Joseph Saunders, HRW’s deputy program director, said in a statement.

Following the release of the report Indonesian police chief Sutanto said the claims will be investigated. “Please give us the information because we want the Indonesian police to protect the people”, Sutanto told Agence France Presse on July 6.

In February, HRW released a report titled Protest and Punishment: Political Prisoners in Papua that documented severe restrictions on freedom of expression, assembly and association in Papua.

HRW called on the Indonesian government to open West Papua to independent observers in order to increase the amount and quality of information about conditions there and to allow independent and transparent investigations to take place. “The lack of reliable factual accounts means that unfounded rumours circulate with much the same potency as accurate accounts”, the report said.

Indonesia won sovereignty over Papua, formerly a Dutch colony in the western half of the island of New Guinea, in 1969 after a referendum widely seen as a sham. A poorly armed separatist group, the Free Papua Movement, has conducted a low-profile armed resistance since the 1960s.

The report follows a visit to the province by UN Special Representative for Human Rights Affairs Hina Jilani on June 9, which was greeted by pro-independence demonstrations. Jilani concluded her visit by calling for better protection for activists in West Papua and saying she was concerned about military harassment.

On July 2 the Indonesian government refused to give permission to Eni Faleomavaega, a Democrat member of the US Congress, to attend a conference of the Papuan Traditional Council in the provincial capital of Jayapura, saying his presence could “spark riots and encourage violence”.

* Out of Sight: Endemic Abuse and Impunity in Papua’s Central Highlands can be viewed at http://hrw.org