“If It’s Not Racism, What Is It?”
Discrimination and Other Abuses Against Papuans in Indonesia.
Human Rights Watch
(...) The Indigenous Papuan population of Indonesia has long encountered racial discrimination based on their ethnic origin, including from government agencies and institutions, as well as in laws and regulations. Ever since the Netherlands turned over West Papua to the newly independent government of Indonesia following a deeply flawed United Nations resolution in 1969, many Papuans have sought independence – primarily peacefully but also through the force of arms – from Indonesian rule.
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A member of the Papuan Student Alliance (AMP) holds a placard that reads “End racism against Papuan people” in Indonesian during a demonstration to commemorate the 62nd anniversary of the New York Agreement between the Netherlands and Indonesia in Bandung, West Java, August 16, 2024. © 2024 Dimas Rachmatsyah/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock.
The Indonesian government has responded with numerous grave abuses by the government security forces, the isolation of West Papua from the rest of the world, and the arrest, prosecution, and long prison terms for Papuan activists who have peacefully called for independence or other forms of self-determination. The Indonesian authorities have encouraged tens of thousands of non-Papuan families to work and to settle in West Papua, which has driven many Indigenous Papuans from their land.
The resistance of Papuans and many non-Papuans in Indonesia to discrimination took on a new dimension following an August 17, 2019 attack by security forces on a Papuan student dormitory in Surabaya, Indonesia’s second largest city, in which the students were subjected to racial insults. (...)
Human Rights Watch takes no position on claims for independence in Indonesia or in any other country. We support the right of everyone to peacefully express their political views, including for independence, without fear of arrest or other forms of reprisal. The Indonesian government has legitimate security concerns in West Papua stemming from Papuan militant attacks. But these provide no justification for the government’s failure to uphold international human rights and humanitarian law prohibitions against arbitrary arrest and detention, torture and ill-treatment of persons in custody, and unlawful killings.
This report profiles cases of Papuan activists convicted after the Papuan Lives Matter protests, and also describes ongoing human rights violations rooted in racial discrimination, in particular, the right to education and to the highest attainable standard of health. We also documented recent abuses by security forces and Papuan militants during the ongoing conflict. (...)
Tags: #indonesia #papua #west_papua #human_rights #discrimination #racism #independence #act_of_free_choice #decolonisation #self-determination #Pacific #melanesia
