PROMOTING HUMAN RIGHTS, PEACE AND DEMOCRACY IN INDONESIA

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Email tapol@gn.apc.org Website http://www.tapol.org

< NEWS & STATEMENTS

30 December 2002

Mike O'Brien,
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State,
Foreign and Commonwealth Office,
London SW1A 2AH

Dear Mr O'Brien,

Human Rights Defenders in West Papua At Grave Risk

I am writing to draw your attention to a serious shooting incident in West Papua on 28 December in which three women were injured when fired upon near the border with Papua New Guinea.

The three women are Else Rumbiak, the wife of Johannes Bonay, executive director of ELSHAM, the leading human rights organisation in West Papua, their daughter, Marlin Bonay, and a colleague Yeni Ireuw Meraundje. The women were shot at in the car in which they were travelling. The car had just turned back from an immigration post on the border with PNG, because the post was closed and they decided not to proceed with their journey. Else Rumbiak and Yeni Ireuw Meraundje sustained serious injuries in their legs while Marlin Bonay was hit in the shoulder. All were taken to hospital; Yeni Ireuw Meraundje was flown to Jakarta to be treated in St Carolus Hospital because of the gravity of her injuries.

The three women were on their way to Vanimo to visit relatives. Johannes Bonay had intended to travel with them but withdrew at the last minute. It is feared that the unknown assailants had reason to believe that the human rights activist was also travelling in the car and that he was the intended target. In the past few weeks he has been the target of harassment. On one occasion, the tires of his car were slashed, and subsequently the Bonay's phone was cut.

ELSHAM activists have been receiving threats and harassment ever since members of their staff announced, following on the spot investigations, that it was very likely that members of the army's special forces, Kopassus, were responsible for a shooting incident on 31 August this year near the Freeport copper and gold mine in Timika when two Americans and an Indonesian were shot dead. Since then, ELSHAM has been threatened with legal action by the army because of these allegations.

TAPOL herewith calls upon the British government to make immediate representations to the Indonesian government to undertake a thorough investigation into Saturday's incident and to ensure that those found responsible be brought to justice and punished accordingly. We also urge the government to express concern over the threats to which staff members of ELSHAM have recently been subjected. We further urge the government to raise this matter with the European Commission with a request for similar action on behalf of the European Union. The Indonesian authorities should be made aware, in no uncertain terms, that such threats will not go unheeded by governments around the world.

We hope that the British government will agree that human rights defenders are entitled to international support and that any threats against them should bring forth an immediate response.

Yours sincerely,

Carmel Budiardjo
For TAPOL

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