PROMOTING HUMAN RIGHTS, PEACE AND DEMOCRACY IN INDONESIA
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14 December 2001
TAPOL has today written to the Indonesian Minister of Justice and Human Rights calling on him to establish an independent team of investigation into the abduction and assassination of Theys Hiyo Eluay. It told the Minister, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, that it strongly rejects the proposal made yesterday by Komnas HAM, the National Human Rights Commission, for the establishment of an 'independent' team that would include elements from the police, the military and the military police, because such a composition would compromise the team's independence.
Theys Hiyo Eluay, chairman of the Papuan Presidium Council, was abducted on 10 November, minutes after leaving the Tribuana base of the army's elite corps, Kopassus, near Jayapura. His body was discovered the following day; an autopsy concluded that he had died of unnatural causes as the result of being strangled. This criminal act appears to have been part of a systematic endeavour to destabilise the political situation in Papua and prevent dialogue between representatives of the Papuan people and the Indonesian Government and was therefore a crime against humanity.
It called on the Minister of Justice and Human Rights 'to take steps to establish a genuinely independent team of investigation. In our view, such a team should be composed of persons of known integrity in the field of human rights. It should include one or more international experts including someone with forensic expertise and should also include Papuans. We believe that such a team is needed to ensure that the investigations are properly conducted under conditions of transparency and win the confidence of the Papuan people, civil society in Indonesia and the international community.'
It said that the team should be given all the necessary facilities to undertake its investigations while not standing in the way of investigations currently underway by the local police force.
Finally, it said that the team's findings 'should be made public and should be presented to the Indonesian Government for further action by the judicial authorities.'.
ENDS
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