Mass killings alleged in Irian Java

Press, 30 May 1981, Page 8

Mass killings alleged in Irian Java

CHRISTOPHER LEE,

By (

of AAP, through NZPA Port Moresby ■ Tens of thousands of people were murdered and many more tortured, raped, or summarily detained by Indonesian forces in Irian Jaya, refugees have told the “South Pacific Human Rights Tribunal” set up by students at the University of Papua New Guinea.

Eleven refugees have given the tribunal details of dates, times, village names, and the names of people they say were killed, tortured, or imprisoned without trial.

Some details from the bloody testimony: “My estimation is that during the period preceding the act of free choice: there were at least 30,000 Papua people that were killed,” — a former Indonesian-appointed Governor of Irian Jaya.

“They told me about the beatings they received and the use of electric shock treatment by the military. They said they had electric shock treatment through their heads, toes, fingers, and their sexual organs. I saw black , marks on their toes and the palms of their hands.” — a young refugee who visited three, friends in an Indonesian military prison.

“When they fired, first off both men dropped dead. But the soldiers kept on firing at the bodies for about an hour or two and later we had to pick up pieces of their flesh to be taken away and buried.” —a former oil worker in Irian Jaya. “He was sitting in his village square when the soldiers approached him and soon after someone pulled the trigger and what was left was only his body. His head disappeared.” — the same' man.

: “I saw the woman at the hospital. There were about 60 soldiers,who arrested her but I do not >know how-many of the 60 soldiers had actually raped her. I heard from some other people who witnessed the incident that the woman’s legs were tied to a post when the soldiers raped her.” — the same man. In an overflowing 600-seat

university hall for two nights this week the self-appointed six-person tribunal listened to such testimony and much more.

Yet it seemed that grisly impact was not the main aim of the exercise. There were no revolutionary slogans, no clenched fists, no thumping of the tables.

Each of the eleven gave his evidence to the tribunal members matter-of-factly, almost hesitantly, and hour by hour a picture was formed of two decades of colonialism by the Indonesian authorities in what each witness called “West Papua.” The tribunal did not hear impassioned claims of hearsay atrocities. There were dates, times, names, village names, victims’ names: a challenge to the Indonesian government to refute the evidence if it wishes and if it can.

As well the tribunal members were not undergraduate hotheads. The only student on the panel was the only woman on the panel, the university’s S.R.C. vice-presi-dent, Dorothy Tekwie.

The others were seasoned, highly respected members of the Papua New Guinea establishment: former Judge Bernard Narakobi, who has just announced his intention to enter the national Parliament; a national parliamentarian, Mr Tony Bais; Mr Moi Avei, chairman of the P.N.G. National Cultural Council and one of the prime movers behind last year’s South Pacific Festival of Arts; the Reverend Dick Avi, chairman of the Melanesian Council of Churches; and Mr Kumalau Twali, a churchman, writer and poet. At the start, former judge Narakobi made it clear that the tribunal was a hearing that intended to have its bona fides respected. “We are not going to have a mock trial,” he said. “This is a real tribunal. We are a referral tribunal: we do not decide guilt or innocence," he said, adding that the tribunal's findings would be sent to the United Nation’s Secretary General “for his further reference to the appropriate For the next two nights a mixed array of Irian Jay-

anese refugees were paraded before the tribunal, giving their damning testimony against . the Indonesian Government’s policies in their former homeland. The tribunal’s aim was clearly not merely to spotlight some of the more spectacular abuses of civil rights in Irian Jaya but to call into question the legitimacy of Jakarta’s hold over the former Dutch colony. History shows that the Dutch withdrew from what was then Dutch New Guinea in August, 1962, after threats from Indonesia’s President Sukarno. The United States diplomat, Mr Ellsworth Bunker, had hurried on to the scene to mediate between the Dutch and the Indonesians and The Netherlands finally agreed to hand Dutch New Guinea over to Indonesia. There was a short period of United Nations administration before full responsibility went over to the Indonesian Government. The outflanked Dutch had, however, insisted that a plebiscite on self-determination be held among the West Papuan people before 1970. Indonesian legitimacy over Irian Jaya rests firstly upon the United Nations decision to hand over the country to Jakarta and secondly on the fact that in 1969 a plebiscite was held which showed the Irian Jaya people to be in favour of remaining part of Indonesia. Witnesses to the tribunal who had held high-ranking positions in the early 1960 s limes of crisis insist however that both these Indonesian justifications for domination can be legitimately challenged. According to the most senior of the eleven witnesses, Mr Eli Bonay. a former Governor of Irian Jaya, who was appointed to the job by the Indonesians in 1963, the Dutch authorities in the years leading up to the 1962 “Bunker plan," had organised a concrete programme of withdrawal, leading to full independence for “West Papua” by 1970. This aim, he said, had been frustrated by the Bunker plan and discarded altogether by the Indonesians.