West Papua Report for November 2010

Read West Papua Report November 2010

Photos of  recent destruction of a village in West Papua can be seen here

Summary: A video of Indonesian security forces torturing Papuan civilians again revealed the routine violence employed by these forces to terrorize the Papuan people. Calls for a genuinely independent and credible investigation of the incidents appear to be in vain as the Indonesian Government has stated that the security forces will investigate themselves. Within days of the video's release a massive cyber attack took down many of the international NGO websites which had posted the torture video footage. Analysts assessed that the cyber attack's sophistication and coordination indicated that it was the work of a govern. While international NGO's condemned the torture unequivocally and demanded a credible investigation of the incidents, the U.S. sought to downplay the matter, commending the Indonesian security forces for acknowledging that their personnel were implicated. In a separate incident, video revealed that Indonesian security forces burned a Papuan village. The passing of Asmara Nababan removes a courageous and articulate human rights advocate from the Indonesian scene. In separate comments WPAT criticizes the U.S. administration for its "limp" response to the evidence of security force torture and for resisting calls to make an end to such abuses, real accountability for their perpetrators, and genuine reform a sine qua non for U.S. military-to-military assistance. WPAT also notes that cyber attack against websites that posted the torture video footage is consistent with the Indonesian Government's long-standing efforts to prevent international monitoring of developments in West Papua.