SUMMARY The West Papua Advocacy Team gives its annual John Rumbiak Human Rights Defenders Award to Anne Noonan and Joe Collins and the Australia West Papua Association (Sydney). Detachment 88 forces gunned down leading Papuan activist Mako Tabuni in what witness describe as an extrajudicial killing. Tabuni was a key official of the West Papua National Committee (KNPB), an organization pressing for a referendum on West Papua's status. Indonesia's security forces and Detachment 88, a purportedly anti-terror unit supported by the U.S. and Australian governments, are ratcheting up pressure on KNPB and other Papuan groups at a time of growing tension in the territory. That tension derives in part from an early June assault on the village of Honai Lama by Indonesian military personnel which led to the death of at least one Papuan civilian, the beating of others, and destruction of villagers' homes. The Asian Legal Resource Center warned the UN Human Rights Council of "escalating violence" in West Papua and the failure of Indonesian authorities to arrest the perpetrators of this violence. WPAT urges the U.S. government to suspend support for Detachment 88. WPAT also endorses a Human Right Watch call for the Indonesian government to admit the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions.
 |
| Mako Tabuni. West Papua Media Alerts. |
No comments:
Post a Comment