Case number 12/2016:
Indonesia & President Joko Widodo
HONORABLE JURY OF THE INTERNATIONAL BUDDHIST ETHICS COMMITTEE (IBEC) AND BUDDHIST TRIBUNAL ON HUMAN RIGHTS (BTHR)
P R E S E N T . –
In the presence of the President and Spiritual Guide of IBEC-BTHR Buddhist Master Maitreya and the Executive Secretary of IBEC-BTHR Master Yan Maitri-Shi, it is addressed the case reported by the World Association of Buddhism (WBA) against the Government of Indonesia for the following Charges: ECOCIDE, DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMENS AND RELIGIOUS MINORITIES, SOCIAL OPPRESION, GENOCIDE, ETHNIC CLEANSING, CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY, CRIMES AGAINST PEACE.-
I, Sekkha Dhamma, as Prosecutor of the IBEC and BTHR, recognize the hard and organized work that was done for the comprehensive compilation of Evidence in this case, similarly, I appreciate the contribution of them for the analysis concerning the party I represent. That said, with all due respect I appear to present:
Received the list of digital media that were collected, sorted and also confirmed in their order and context as evidence by the Executive Secretary of IBEC and BTHR Master Yan Maitri-Shi, I give way to the Fourth Stage of the Procedure called “EVALUATION OF EVIDENCE “, which is established in the Constitutive Act of IBEC and BTHR in order to learn, establish, dictate and determine the Responsibility of the Accused for committing the above Charges. This accusation was made by the WORLD ASSOCIATION OF BUDDHISM in the field of Buddhist Ethics, an act that follows below:
EVALUATION OF EVIDENCE
FIRST EVALUATION.- By being the core of this procedural, it is necessary to point out the Means of Proof offered by the Executive Secretary of IBEC and BTHR Master Yan Maitri-Shi and formally present them to the Jury for their knowledge, that are composed of 7 Charges and 14 Evidences validating the motivating Accusation of the current process. The above denounced from the field of Buddhist Ethics. This evidence comes from audiovisual digital media in the public domain (media) which are listed below:
Case 12-2016: Indonesia & President Joko Widodo
Evidence 1: VIOLATIONS OF ANIMALS RIGHTS:
Evidence 2: ECOCIDE DUE TO DEFORESTATION:
Evidence 3: ECOCIDE DUE TO POLLUTION:
Evidence 4: ECOCIDE DUE TO MINING:
Evidence 5: DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMENS AND RELIGIOUS MINORITIES
Evidence 6: VIOLATION ON THE RIGHTS OF PERSONS WITH MENTAL ILLNESS
Evidence 7: POVERTY AND SOCIAL OPPRESION
Evidence 8: GENOCIDE IN WEST PAPUA
Evidence 9: CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY IN WEST PAPUA
Evidence 10: VIOLATION ON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLE
Evidence 11: GENOCIDE IN ACEH
Evidence 12: CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY IN THE MOLUCCAS
Evidence 13: GENOCIDE AGAINST ALLEGED COMMUNIST POPULATION AND ETHNIC CHINESE
Evidence 14: GENOCIDE AND ETHNIC CLEANSING AGAINST EAST TIMOR
Evidence 1: VIOLATIONS OF ANIMALS RIGHTS:
Complicity with the Mistreatment, Torture and Animal Neglect performed by Surabaya Zoo (sentenced in 2015 by the Buddhist Tribunal on Human Rights).
Evidence 2: ECOCIDE DUE TO DEFORESTATION:
Gar Smith, editor emeritus of Earth Island Journal: “The destruction of the rainforest ecosystems of the Amazon and Indonesia, the knowing destabilization of the world’s climate system, and BP’s massive pollution of the Gulf of Mexico should clearly meet the test of ecocide. All of them, after all, have caused great conflict.” http://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/eij/article/ecocide_the_fifth_war_crime/
[Deforestation in Indonesia involves the long-term loss of forests and foliage across much of the country; it has had massive environmental and social impacts. Indonesia is home to some of the most biologically diverse forests in the world and ranks third in number of species behind Brazil and the Democratic Republic of Congo.[1] (…) In 2008, it was estimated that tropical rainforests in Indonesia would be logged out in a decade.[2] (…) Logging and the burning of forests to clear land for cultivation has made Indonesia the world’s third largest emitter of greenhouse gases, behind China and the United States.[3] (…) By 2012 Indonesia had surpassed the rate of deforestation in Brazil,[4] and become the fastest forest clearing nation in the World.[5] (…) In Sumatra tens of thousands of square kilometres of forest have been cleared often under the command of the central government who comply with multi-national companies to remove the forest.[6]] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deforestation_in_Indonesia
[The mass destruction of Indonesia’s rainforests and carbon-rich peatlands for palm oil and paper threatens this and is the main reason why Indonesia is one of the world’s largest emitters of climate changing greenhouse gases. (…) This destruction also threatens our wider world; peatlands are perhaps the world’s most critical carbon stores, and Indonesia’s peatlands are vast, storing about 35 billion tonnes of carbon. When these peatlands are drained, burned and replaced by plantations, carbon dioxide is released and the conditions are set for devastating forest fires, which were responsible, for instance, for Singapore’s ‘haze wave’ in 2013.] http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/forests/asia-pacific/
[Indonesia now has the highest rate of deforestation of any country in the world. (…) A quarter of Indonesia’s forest has been destroyed in the last 25 years alone. That’s a massive 31 million hectares, an area almost the size of Germany. (…) Plantation industries (that’s palm oil and paper companies) are the main drivers of this destruction. Almost 40% of deforestation between 2011 and 2013 happened in land used by these industries. (…) Deforestation is pushing the orangutan closer to the brink of extinction, with 4% of what remains of the animal’s Indonesian habitat lost in just two years (2011 – 2013). (…) Orangutans aren’t even safe in their remaining habitat, with half of this forest opened up for destruction by companies. (…) This destruction shows no signs of stopping, with the Indonesian government identifying around 15 million hectares of forest available for trashing by companies. (…) This year’s forest and peatland blazes highlight how Indonesia’s forest are a global climate emergency, with the fires emitting more greenhouse gases on some days than the entire U.S. (…) Millions of people across South East Asia have been affected by the thick, choking haze emitted from the fires. Over 110,000 people die prematurely each year as a result of this toxic air pollution. (…) These fires threatened a third of the world’s wild orangutans. (…) There’s a clear link between deforestation and Indonesia’s forest fires. Around 36% of fire hotspots detected are located in areas used by palm oil and paper companies.] http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/Blogs/makingwaves/forest-fires-10-shocking-facts/blog/54842/
[Indonesia’s government provides generous subsidies for the industries producing commodities that destroy the country’s forests. (…) On top of all that there’s illegal logging. In 2010, Chatham House estimated that illegal logging represented about 40% of Indonesia’s total timber harvest. (…) The Indonesian government has set a target to increase oil palm production by 60% by 2020. A 2013 report by the US Department of Agriculture estimated the total area of oil palm plantations at almost 11 million hectares. Indonesia: palm oil expansion unaffected by forest moratorium, is the title of the report. An area of 7 million hectares of oil palm concessions has been allocated in currently forested areas. (…) Indonesia has plans to increase domestic biofuel subsidies by more than three times. It is also considering a mandatory 15% biofuel blended into diesel fuel.]
Zenzi Suhadi, a forest campaigner at the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), describes the proposed subsidy as “a big blunder” and says: “This is a wrong strategy taken by the government. Imposing the policy is like opening the gate to palm oil companies to besiege our forests, which have already been destroyed. (…) The policy will stimulate palm oil companies’ expansion into Indonesian forests. This is something we don’t want to happen. Our remaining forests are at stake because of this plan.” http://www.redd-monitor.org/2015/04/30/indonesia-good-news-and-bad-news-on-deforestation/
[(…) tree cover loss increased in 2014 both overall and within Indonesia’s rich primary forests, those most valuable for biodiversity and carbon storage. Riau has the largest concentration of loss, and almost all occurs within oil palm and wood fiber concession areas, particularly on small islands of Pulau Rupat, Pulau Padang and Pulau Tebingtinggi. Large scale clearing of certain areas of forests is still legal in Indonesia, though it is likely some of the clearing is illegal.] http://www.wri.org/blog/2015/09/brazil-and-indonesia-struggling-reduce-deforestation
[In the paper in the journal Nature Climate Change published on Sunday, Margano says primary forest losses totaled 6.02m hectares between 2000 and 2012, increasing by around 47,600 hectares a year over this time. (…) In 2012, she calculates, Indonesia lost 840,000 hectares of its primary forest, compared to 460,000 hectares in Brazil, despite its forest being roughly a quarter the size of the Amazon. This, says Margano, was the most lost by any country. (…) Indonesia is the world’s third-largest producer of greenhouse gases behind China and the US, with 85% of its emissions coming from forest destruction and degradation.] http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jun/29/rate-of-deforestation-in-indonesia-overtakes-brazil-says-study
[The government plans to establish about 1.4 million hectares of new plantations by 2010, according to the Indonesian Palm Oil Commission. The industry group estimates that more than 7 million hectares of plantations have been established, leaving an additional 24.5 million hectares available for future expansion. (…) Such expansion, however, could wipe out the remaining natural habitat of several endangered species. The Center for Orangutan Protection warned last year that the great ape may become extinct in Central Kalimantan, a region of the rapidly developing island of Borneo, if the rate of plantation growth continues for another two or three years.] http://www.worldwatch.org/node/6059
[Indonesia now has the highest rate of deforestation in the world, releasing Brazil from its former title, according to a new report published in the Nature Climate Change journal. (…) Led by researchers at the University of Maryland, the study found that the Southeast Asian nation lost over 6 million hectares of forest between 2000 and 2012.]
Yuyun Indradi, forest campaigner at Greenpeace Southeast Asia: “Law enforcement is weak, and even the country’s national parks are being logged — but now is a critical time for action.” http://time.com/2944030/indonesia-now-has-the-highest-rate-of-deforestation-in-the-world/
Rudi Putra, 2013 winner of Future for Nature award: “I live and work in the last place on Earth where endangered orangutans, rhinos, elephants, and tigers still roam together — but it’ll be bulldozed to bits unless our President hears our call and steps in to save this unique habitat. Right now in one of Indonesia’s most pristine and untouched forests, a local Governor wants to let mining and palm oil companies move in to decimate areas the size of a million football fields! And the national Forestry Ministry looks like it might let him unless the President steps in to reject this orangutan-killing plan. (…) We know the President wants to be seen as a keen conservationist, but we need to tell him his green reputation and possible future UN aspirations are on the line to ensure he does the right thing. We need to act fast — sign the urgent petition and tell everyone about this mortal threat to our majestic forest.” http://ecocidealert.com/?p=604
[Recently, a small team from Rainforest Foundation Norway (RFN) travelled to Central Kalimantan to see the consequences of their government’s REDD (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) deal in Indonesia, first hand. (…) They flew in a small plane for over three hours above palm oil plantations – a monoculture dependent on polluting chemical inputs that was once diverse rainforest. (…) In Kalimantan, the destruction of the rainforest had led to the drying-out of the peaty soil, leading to massive fires that release huge amounts of carbon. This is to say nothing of species loss and land-grabs of Indigenous territory. As has been vociferously contended at recent UN COP gatherings, REDD is fundamentally flawed. (…) In terms of Ecocide, if it were to become part of the Rome Statute, Wilmar’s activities would become ‘Crimes Against Peace’ – because of the conflict that is caused due to its operations: conflict that affects Indigenous peoples, natural ecosystems, climate change and its global consequences.] http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/1785528/frontline_online_ecocide_in_action_in_kalimantan_updated.html
[Indonesia’s loss of natural forests has slowed to a decade low – a dramatic change in direction for a country that overtook Brazil as having the world’s highest rate of primary forest loss in 2011, almost doubling the level of Amazon decline (which is four times the size of the archipelago’s rainforests) in 2012. Between 2000 and 2012, Indonesia lost more than 6 million hectares of primary, or old-growth, forest – an area almost the size of Sri Lanka, or roughly comparable to 6 million soccer fields. That is a daily average of about 1370 hectares and an hourly average of 57 hectares. (…) A new report by the Anti Forest-Mafia Coalition and Forest Trends estimates that more than 30 percent of wood used by Indonesia’s industrial forest sector stems from the unreported clear-cutting of natural forests and other illegal sources instead of legal tree plantations and well-managed logging concessions. (…) It found the material used by large mills (those which process more than 6,000 cubic meters of wood per year) exceeded the legal supply by the equivalent of 20 million cubic meters – enough to fill 1.5 million logging trucks. (…) Statistics on wood passing through smaller mills are not fully recorded, indicating the volume of illegal wood consumed may be higher.] http://thediplomat.com/2015/05/saving-indonesias-forests/?utm_content=buffer233dc&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer
[The conversion of tropical forests to palm oil plantations threatened life of lot of plants and animal species, among them, we find an emblematic one: the Orangutan, probably named after “orang hutan”, the indonesian word meaning “person of the forest”[7] (…) Palm oil plantations are also a climate threat with 1.8 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions released each year by the degradation and burning of Indonesia’s peatlands[8] (…) that affects directly neighbouring countries air pollution[9] (…) standard nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (biogeochemicals) are applied regularly to oil palm trees[10] causing disturbance in ecosystems and pollution of ground waters, rivers, lakes and seas and as a results ocean acidification[11]] https://www.endecocide.org/examples/#art_008
Evidence 3: ECOCIDE DUE TO POLLUTION:
[Issues include large-scale deforestation (much of it illegal) and related wildfires causing heavy smog over parts of western Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore; over-exploitation of marine resources; and environmental problems associated with rapid urbanisation and economic development, including air pollution, traffic congestion, garbage management, and reliable water and waste water services.[12] (…) Deforestation and the destruction of peatlands make Indonesia the world’s third largest emitter of greenhouse gases.[13] Habitat destruction threatens the survival of indigenous and endemic species, including 140 species of mammals identified by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) as threatened, and 15 identified as critically endangered, including the Sumatran Orangutan.[14] (…) Fishermen in northern Java experienced marked declines in certain kinds of fish catches and by the mid-1980s saw the worst virtual disappearance of the fish in some areas. Effluent from fertiliser plants in Gresik in northern Java polluted ponds and killed milkfish fry and young shrimp. The pollution of the Strait of Malacca between Malaysia and Sumatra from oil leakage from the Japanese supertanker Showa Maru in January 1975 was a major environmental disaster for the fragile Sumatran coastline. The danger of supertanker accidents also increased in the heavily trafficked strait. (…) The coastal commercial sector suffered from environmental pressures on the mainland, as well. Soil erosion from upland deforestation exacerbated the problem of siltation downstream and into the sea. Silt deposits covered and killed once-lively coral reefs, creating mangrove thickets and making harbour access increasingly difficult, if not impossible, without massive and expensive dredging operations. (…) The 1997 Indonesian forest fires in Kalimantan and Sumatra caused the 1997 Southeast Asian haze. It was a large-scale air quality disaster. The total costs are estimated at US$9 billion to health care, air travel and business. In 2013, the air quality in Singapore sank to its lowest in 15 years due to smoke from Sumatran fires. Singapore urged Indonesia to do more to prevent illegal burning[15] (…) Runoff from pesticides polluted water supplies in some areas and poisoned fish ponds. Although national and local governments appeared to be aware of the problem, the need to balance environmental protection with pressing demands of a hungry population and an electorate eager for economic growth did not diminish. (…) Forest fires destroy carbon sinks in old-growth rainforests and peatlands.] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_issues_in_Indonesia
[For the past four decades, Indonesia’s lax pollution controls have allowed industries to discharge toxic waste into the Citarum with near impunity. West Java’s inadequate waste-disposal infrastructure has made the river the de facto dumpsite for its residents. Huge volumes of rubbish float through its murky waters and accumulate in stinking piles along its banks. Poor sanitation means human waste flows into the river untreated, along with farm slurry and pesticides. (…) In 2009, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) announced a $500m loan to rehabilitate the Citarum, but four years later it has yet to invest any of that money in water rehabilitation. (…) No one bathes in the river anymore, but Entin and her family must still use it to shower, clean their dishes and brush their teeth. They have no other option. (…) Fifteen million people remain directly reliant on the Citarum for drinking and bathing water. (…) Skin irritation is widespread in Majalaya, itching is experienced by most of those who use the water to wash, and many suffer chronic dermatitis. Respiratory problems are also very common. (…) Members of the Elingan Community Group, which represents the interests of Majalaya’s residents, claim to have been threatened for speaking out. Elingan leader Deny Riswandani says he has received so many threats that he has been forced to move to another area and must constantly change his phone number. (…) the river supplies 80 percent of Jakarta’s surface water and it irrigates five percent of the country’s rice farms. (…) the government only regulates 264 chemicals, out of the 100,000 that are used in the global textile industry – and to which 1,500 are added every year. (…) Even if a factory is discharging one of the 45 industrial chemicals banned under Indonesian law, Ahmad says it is an open secret that inspectors can be paid to look the other way (…) According to Greenpeace’s report, tests carried out in May 2012 at the factory, located in Cimahi, 40km from Majalaya, found wastewater from one of the facility’s outflow pipes to be pH14 – the highest possible level of alkalinity, capable of burning human flesh. (…) At the facility’s main outflow pipe they detected nonylphenol, a well-known persistent environmental contaminant with hormone-disrupting properties, together with nonylphenol ethoxylates, tributyl phosphate and high levels of dissolved antimony. (…) All of the substances are internationally known to be damaging to human health and animal and plant life, but none of them are regulated by the Indonesian government (…) The office of Rasio Ridho Sani, deputy minister for hazardous waste, claimed the issue of waste management on the Citarum River fell outside of his responsibility and said to seek comment from M.R. Karliansyah, Deputy Minister of Pollution Control.]
Ibu Entin, a Mahalaya’s citizen injured by pollution of Citarum River: [Since 1976] “The water would go green, black, yellow, brown. When it turned white it smelt especially bad, (…) I never feel clean, (…) I have a reddish mark on my skin, all of my body feels itchy and I struggle to sleep at night. It’s the same for my family. All of the people who live here have skin problems, from top to bottom … Now, if the water colour changes quickly, the itching gets worse. I’m angry, but I don’t know who to get angry at. We talk to the community leaders, and they went to the factories already, but they don’t respond. The only thing that matters to them is to keep the business running, not the villagers’ lives.”
Ahmad Ashov, a toxic campaigner for Greenpeace in Southeast Asia: “Industry is using [the Citarum River] as a kind of testing ground for industrial chemicals, (…) During the tests [on water] I got a couple of tiny splashes on my face (…). It hurt and then was itchy for about a week.” http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/11/pollution-flows-freely-indonesia-rivers-2013112013166643513.html
[Heavy pollution of river water by household and industrial waste in the Indonesian province of West Java is threatening the health of at least five million people living on the riverbanks, say government officials and water experts. (…) Poor sanitation and hygiene cause 50,000 deaths annually in Indonesia, with untreated sewage resulting in over six million tons of human waste being released into inland water bodies, according to an ongoing study by the World Bank. (…) Fishermen on the Ciliwung use blast fishing – bombs made of kerosene and fertilizer to kill fish so they are easier to catch – which has worsened pollution. Nevertheless, [the] community still fishes in the river, with few reported ill effects (…) The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that nationwide more than 20,000 children in this age group die every year from diarrhea. (…) Dengue fever and malaria, both spread by mosquitoes that thrive in stagnant water, account for an additional 3 percent of overall child deaths,]
Ibu Sutria, 53, who suffers from regular bouts of stomach ache and diarrhea: “People use the river for a toilet and children play in it because they have nowhere else to swim.”
Muhammad Rez Sahib, advocacy coordinator of KRuHA, a Jakarta-based coalition of more than 30 Indonesian NGOs focusing on safe water access: “Even the water suppliers in Jakarta don’t use the water here because it is so polluted, (…) Instead, they use water from the Citarum River, which is also heavily polluted. Even after this water is treated it’s still unsafe to drink.” http://www.irinnews.org/report/95343/indonesia-living-with-dirty-water
[nearly one out of two Indonesians lacks access to safe water, and more than 70 percent of the nation’s 220 million people rely on potentially contaminated sources. The country also has undergone significant land-use changes, and deforestation and extractive industries have polluted, altered the landscape, and left many areas more vulnerable to extreme events such as monsoon floods. (…) The country—particularly its urban slums—sorely lacks wastewater treatment, and the basic sanitation infrastructure necessary to prevent human excrement from contaminating water supplies is virtually nonexistent. Roughly 53 percent of Indonesians obtain their water from sources that are contaminated by raw sewage, and this exposure greatly increases human susceptibility to water-related diseases. (…) Pollution and compromised sanitary conditions in much of the country may lead to epidemics and severe health problems, testing institutional capacities.] http://petroswater.com/news/141.html
[The institute and Green Cross Switzerland published a new top 10 list of the “World’s Worst Polluted Places (…) based on more than 2,000 risk assessments at contaminated sites in 49 countries. (…) Newcomers to the 2013 list included Indonesia’s Citarum River Basin in West Java, an area that is home to around nine million people, but also some 2,000 factories. (…) The river, which is used among other things for human consumption and to irrigate rice farms, is contaminated by a wide range of toxins, including aluminium and manganese. (…) Drinking water tests have shown lead at levels more than 1,000 times above US standards (…) Another area of Indonesia —Kalimantan, on the island of Borneo— was also added to the list due to the widespread, artisanal, small-scale gold mining there (…) Most practitioners of this craft use mercury in the extraction process, and contribute to a large portion of global emissions of the hazardous metal each year.] http://jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/two-of-worlds-wost-polluted-places-are-in-indonesia-environmentalists/
[The Ciliwung’s pollution comes at it from everywhere; raw sewage, industrial pollution, agricultural pollution, and household trash. (…) The Ciliwung is 200 miles long and is the main river that runs through the capital of Jakarta. Of the ten million people in Jakarta half live on less than $2 US per day, and a large percentage of those people live along the Ciliwung, which is its main problem. (…) People that live along the Ciliwung use it for everything from washing themselves to cleaning clothes and dishes, for swimming, and regrettably for going to the bathroom. Contamination from human waste is the biggest cause of pollution in the Ciliwung. (…) Fortunately, or unfortunately, people don’t drink from the river anymore because of the pollution. However, for most people the alternative is groundwater, and due to poor sanitation practices 90% of the groundwater is polluted with E coli. (…) Knowing this it’s not surprising that according to the World Health Organization (WHO) 20,000 children under the age of five die from diarrheal diseases a year in Indonesia. An additional 30,000 people die from sanitation and hygiene related illnesses according to the World Bank. (…) Additionally, as is more common around the world the Ciliwung is polluted from agricultural runoff. Nitrates from fertilizers are causing plant growth in the river which is leading to the river flow being impeded in some places. (…) Also, the plants are using up much of the oxygen in the river which is leading to fish not being able to survive. And even though the fish are most likely very polluted they are a main source of food for people living along the river and are therefore needed to survive. (…) Factories along the river deposit all of their waste directly into the water every day leading to heavy metals, among other things, being found in the water.] http://www.hydratelife.org/?p=633
[In this article it is shown high levels of air pollution in the city of Jakarta, Indonesia.] http://www.numbeo.com/pollution/city_result.jsp?country=Indonesia&city=Jakarta
[Indonesia is ranked the world’s sixth biggest producer of greenhouse gas emissions, because of the destruction of its rainforests and carbon-rich peatlands for palm oil and paper plantations. A strong climate promise from the country is critical to fighting global warming. (…) Indonesia, a coal producer, has also been leaning more heavily on coal for energy generation, after China drastically cut imports. (…) Coal now makes up about 35% of domestic electricity, according to Greenpeace. (…) Indonesia committed four years ago to stop opening up new forests and peatlands for plantation expansion – but huge swathes of forest are cut down and burnt each summer to clear land for corporate development or oil palm plantations. (…) Indonesia’s vast swathes of forests and peatlands are one of the most important carbon stores. When these are cut down, or drained and burned, to make way for plantations, carbon dioxide is released.] http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/sep/21/indonesia-promises-to-cut-carbon-emissions-by-29-by-2030
[Indonesia is among the world’s top three greenhouse gas emitters because of deforestation, peatland degradation and forest fires, a report sponsored by the World Bank and Britain’s development arm said. (…) Indonesia’s total annual carbon dioxide emissions stand at 3.014 billion tonnes after the United States, the world’s top emitter with 6.005 billion tonnes followed by China at 5.017 billion tonnes, (…) Indonesia’s neighbors have grown increasingly frustrated with Jakarta’s failure to tackle the dry season fires, which last year triggered fears of a repeat of months of choking haze in 1997-98 that cost the region billions in economic losses.]
Report sponsored by World Bank and Britain’s development arm: “Emissions resulting from deforestation and forest fires are five times those from non-forestry emissions. Emissions from energy and industrial sectors are relatively small, but are growing very rapidly,” http://www.reuters.com/article/environment-climate-indonesia-dc-idUSJAK26206220070604
[Indonesia would need to quantitatively clarify how it intends to reduce emissions across the different sectors to permit a revision of our inadequate assessment. The INDC [Intended Nationally Determined Contribution] does not elaborate as to which sectors Indonesia intends to reduce emissions to achieve its targets. We thus had to make assumptions as to which level of action comes from deforestation, so as to be able to estimate the implications for greenhouse gas emissions excluding deforestation (…) Indonesia is the only main deforestation emitter globally where a continuation of the trends of the last decades from independent estimates would result in a potentially very strong increase from deforestation emissions in the period to 2030. A continuation of present trends would cause a loss of 25% of the current forest area by 2030, driving increasing emissions. Indonesia’s deforestation already contributes to a large share of global deforestation emissions: around 30–40% for the period 2000-2010 (…) Indonesia is also working on the construction of new coal-fired power plants to meet rapidly increasing electricity demand (Enerdata 2015) a development which is likely to bind the country to this carbon-intensive technology for many decades.] http://climateactiontracker.org/countries/indonesia.html
[In this web page one can observe various graphics in which it is shown the Indonesia’s increasing levels of CO2 emissions over the years.] http://www.indexmundi.com/facts/indonesia/co2-emissions
Evidence 4: ECOCIDE DUE TO MINING:
[The report, ‘Revealed: Coal Mines Polluting South Kalimantan’s Water’, details the findings of a nine-month Greenpeace investigation. It shows that hazardous waste from intensive, largely unregulated coal mining activities is contaminating the province’s streams and rivers, in many cases breaching national standards for mine wastewater[16] (…) Greenpeace found that hazardous discharges of acid mine waste containing iron, manganese and aluminium, among others, are reaching South Kalimantan’s water bodies and surrounding environment. Around 3,000 km of South Kalimantan’s rivers – almost 45% of the total – are downstream from coal mines. (…) Twenty-two of the 29 wastewater samples taken by Greenpeace from five coal mining concessions in South Kalimantan were found to be acidic (low pH), well below the standards set by the government. Discharges, leaks and spills from contaminated ponds in coal concessions pose grave dangers to nearby creeks, swamps, and rivers. (…) Companies found to be breaking the law should pay for clean-up operations even if their mining licenses expire or are cancelled, since acid mine drainage (AMD) problems typically persist for many decades.]
Arif Fiyanto, Greenpeace Indonesia Climate and Energy Campaigner: “People in neighbouring and downstream communities are using potentially contaminated water to bathe, wash, and farm. They face unacceptable risks from coal mining activities. The government must act to safeguard their health and livelihood” http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/press/releases/Coal-mining-causing-widespread-contamination-of-Indonesian-provinces-freshwater/
[Due to weak awareness, weak compliance to rules and weak law enforcement domestic and industrial waste is continuously being discharged into rivers, causing that most river water in Indonesia is polluted. The growing population and industrialization only exacerbates the situation. For example, rivers near mining sites contain an increasing level of mercury, causing that the water in at least six major rivers on Java does not meet drinking water requirements.] http://www.indonesia-investments.com/business/business-columns/water-pollution-in-indonesia-causes-higher-demand-for-water-purifiers/item5782
[In Kalimantan, Indonesia, local people extract gold using mercury, which is a poisonous, potent neurotoxin (…) Blacksmith has gone into those homes and measured mercury levels 350 times higher than what is considered safe (…) This directly affects the health of 10-15 million people]
Bret Ericson, senior project director of the Blacksmith Institute: “They do this processing inside their homes, not realising the danger (…) It is also a huge source of mercury pollution worldwide.” http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2013/nov/08/toxic-towns-poisoned-rivers-byproduct-industry
[New research led by the University of Adelaide hopes to close the debate on whether a major mud volcano disaster in Indonesia was triggered by an earthquake or had man-made origins. (…) A mud volcano suddenly opened up in the city of Sidoarjo in East Java, Indonesia, in May 2006. Nine years later the eruption continues – having buried more than 6.5km2 of the city in up to 40m of mud and displacing almost 40,000 people. Costs of the disaster are estimated at over US$2.7 billion. (…) Results of new research published today in correspondence in the journal Nature Geoscience directly address the ongoing controversy over the cause of the disaster (…) The study by Adjunct Associate Professor Tingay and colleagues in the US (Portland University; University of California, Berkeley) and UK (Newcastle University) is the first to use actual physical data collected in the days before and after the earthquake, rather than models and comparisons]
Dr Mark Tingay, Adjunct Associate Professor with the University of Adelaide’s Australian School of Petroleum, said: “Some researchers argue that the volcano was man-made and resulted from a drilling accident (a blowout) in a nearby gas well. Others have argued that it was a natural event that was remotely triggered by a large earthquake that occurred 250km away and two days previously. (…) Our new research essentially disproves all existing earthquake-triggering models and, in my opinion, puts the matter to rest (…) The earthquake-trigger theory proposes that seismic shaking induced liquefaction of a clay layer at the disaster location. Clay liquefaction is always associated with extensive gas release, and it is this large gas release that has been argued to have helped the mud flow upwards and erupt on the surface. However, we examined precise and continuous subsurface gas measurements from the adjacent well and show that there was no gas release following the earthquake, (…) The rocks showed no response to the earthquake, indicating that the earthquake could not have been responsible for the mud flow disaster. Furthermore, the measurements highlight that the onset of underground activity preceding the mud eruption only started when the drilling ‘kick’ occurred, strongly suggesting that the disaster was initiated by a drilling accident. (…) We also use gas signatures from different rocks and the mud eruption itself to ‘fingerprint’ the initial source of erupting fluids. We demonstrate that erupting fluids were initially sourced from a deep formation, which is only predicted to occur in the drilling-trigger hypothesis. Taken together, our data strongly supports a man-made trigger. We hope this closes the debate on whether an earthquake caused this unique disaster,” http://phys.org/news/2015-06-earthquake-blame-indonesian-mud-volcano.html http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/06/150629123431.htm
[Indonesia’s extraordinary geological disaster, the Lusi mud volcano, was not a natural event but was triggered by drilling in a nearby natural gas well, an international group of scientists says. (…) Mud started to engulf the city of Sidoarjo in May 2006. Nine years of continuous (though diminishing) eruption have buried more than 6.5 sq km in mud up to 40m deep and displaced 39,700 people. Costs are estimated at $2.7bn. (…) The authors say their analysis is the first to use hard physical data, such as gas readings collected from the BJP-1 gas well and its surroundings, rather than computer modelling and comparisons with previous events elsewhere. Their conclusion is clear: the drilling triggered the upwelling of water under high pressure from a natural reservoir deep underground. As the water rose through the local Kalibeng clays, these liquefied and turned to mud. (…) The alternative explanation, that the Yogyakarta earthquake caused the liquefaction, does not stack up because this would have involved a large release of gas — and measurements showed no increase in gas or rock displacement in the area for two days following the distant quake. On the other hand, the underground activity that preceded the mud eruption started when high-pressure fluid kicked into the BJP-1 bore hole. (…) The molecular signatures of gas from rocks and from the eruption provide further evidence, because they come from a deep formation —consistent with the drilling trigger hypothesis.] http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/0feca3d2-24e6-11e5-9c4e-a775d2b173ca.html
[On 29 May 2006, a new mud volcano erupted in the Sidoarjo regency of East Java, Indonesia, eventually burying villages and farmland in an area of nearly six square kilometres. Fourteen people were killed and around 40,000 people lost their homes in the immediate aftermath. (…) At its peak it was spewing 180,000 cubic metres of mud a day, equivalent to 50 Olympic-sized swimming pools. (…) LUSI is unlike other mud volcanoes in that it erupts with a continuous high flow of mud, expelled at high temperatures. The discharged mud now covers an area of 5.6km2 and is being confined by man-made earth embankments that surround the volcano on all sides. To the south of LUSI, some of the mud is also being pumped into the adjacent Porong River. (…) The majority view is that LUSI erupted as a result of a blow-out of a gas exploration well that was being drilled at the time. The contrasting opinion is that it was due to an earthquake that occurred a few days before the eruption started. What is clear, however, is that almost seven years after the initial eruption, LUSI continues to emit a mixture of steam, water, mud and gas, and remains an ever present risk to communities in the surrounding area. Until May 2011, LUSI was erupting between 100,000m3 and 180,000m3 of mud per day, however this has now dropped to between 10,000m3 and 26,000 m3 per day. (…) Geologists estimate that the volcano could continue to erupt for a further 20 to 100 years –possibly more.] http://www.atkinsglobal.com/en-gb/media-centre/features/lusi-mud-volcano
[Nine years ago, a rice paddy in eastern Java suddenly cleaved open and began spewing steaming mud. Before long, it covered an area twice the size of Central Park; roads, factories and homes disappeared under a tide of reeking muck. Twenty lives were lost and nearly 40,000 people displaced, with damages topping $2.7 billion. (…) Such eruptions occur around the world, but Lusi is the biggest and most damaging known. (…) Researchers largely relied on computer models and comparisons with other earthquakes and mud volcano eruptions. But recently scientists in Australia, the United States and Britain uncovered a previously overlooked set of gas readings collected at the drilling site by Lapindo Brantas, a natural gas and oil company, in the days before the mudflow began. (…) In a report in the journal Nature Geoscience, the researchers said that the new data proves the company caused the disaster. (…) Eight hours after the earthquake, the engineers hit what seemed to be their target carbonate formation. Immediately, something went wrong. Fluid used to maintain pressure in the drill hole suddenly disappeared; hours later, liquid from the formation rushed back into the borehole. (…) According to Dr. Tingay, the pressure eventually became so great as to induce its own uncontrolled version of fracking, cracking the surrounding rock and finding release nearby. The day after the well was sealed — two days after the earthquake — mud gurgled up about 500 feet from the drilling site. (…) Lapindo has insisted that it followed industry safety regulations at the Sidoarjo well. But Dr. Tingay said that the company failed to fully line the borehole with casings, a standard precaution to prevent fractures. (…) Since the eruption, cases of respiratory infection in the area have more than doubled, and the Porong River, which receives diverted mud, is now polluted with cadmium and lead, as are fish caught and raised there. In 2007, the Indonesian government decreed that Lapindo must compensate people affected in the core disaster area (…) Detailed drilling records might resolve the causation question once and for all, Dr. Tingay said, but Lapindo has declined or ignored recent requests for that data.]
Mark Tingay, earth scientist at the University of Adelaide: “We’re now 99 percent confident that the drilling hypothesis is valid (…) This almost certainly could have been prevented if proper safety procedures had been taken”
Evidence 5: DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMENS AND RELIGIOUS MINORITIES
[The Indonesian government continues to waver in its response to violence and discrimination against minorities, despite the president’s claim of strong religious freedom and tolerance (…) Indonesian authorities, both national and local, have done little against violation of human rights (…) and cases of churches being demolished and minority religious groups forced from their homes were reported nationwide. (…) HRW (Human Rights Watch) noted that violations against minorities occurred on many fronts, including freedom of expression, women’s rights, freedom of worship, military impunity, and official policies regarding refugees and asylum seekers. (…) The World Report 2014 also stated that militant Sunni Islamist groups, such as the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), had frequently threatened or attacked religious minority communities with impunity. (…) According to the Setara Institute, a think tank that advocates religious and democratic freedom, there were 292 reported attacks on religious minorities in 2013, up from 264 attacks in 2012. (…) According to the National Commission on Violence Against Women, 60 new discriminatory regulations were passed by national and local governments by August 2013. There are already 342 such discriminatory regulations, including 79 local bylaws requiring women to wear the Islamic hijab, or head scarf. (…) The women’s commission also reported that there were 35 reported cases of sexual abuse of women each day. (…) In addition to successfully passing bylaws in 2013, local authorities tried to propose a virginity test for girls entering high school, saying that the test would prevent youths from engaging in premarital sex and prostitution. (…) the 1965 Blasphemy Law (…) has long proved controversial but galvanized international outrage in 2012 when it was used to imprison a man in West Sumatra who had renounced his Muslim faith on Facebook. (…) One of the leading candidates, according to polls, is Prabowo Subianto, a former commander of the Army Special Forces, or Kopassus, linked to rights abuses during Indonesia’s occupation of East Timor and accused of the abduction of student protesters during the unrest that led to longtime ruler Suharto stepping down in 1998. (…) Wiranto, another presidential hopeful and the last military chief under Suharto, has also been linked to the 1998 violence.] http://jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/hrw-indonesia-still-weak-on-human-rights/
[The United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHR Committee) has demanded that the Indonesian government fulfill its promise of submitting a long-overdue report on the state of the country’s human rights. (…) During the review session, members of the UNHR Committee questioned Indonesia’s commitment to resolving human rights abuses, protecting religious minorities and curbing the use of excessive force, after which the UNHR Committee issued a list of recommendations for the government to act upon. (…) The four urgent recommendations from the UNHR Committee are the abolition of the death penalty, the repeal of Law No. 1/1965 on defamation of religion, the abolition of female genital mutilation practices and the prosecution of cases involving past human rights violations, including the murder of prominent human rights activist Munir Said Thalib in 2004. (…) The government also still had a lot of work to do in eradicating discrimination against minorities in the country (…) Rodrigues-Rescia gave an example of how fatwa or edicts issued by the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) could sometimes be used as a basis for discrimination. (…) The latest legal edict issued by the MUI was late last year on homosexual acts, which the fatwa considered a sexual crime.]
Victor Manuel Rodrigues-Rescia, UNHR Committee member: “Any kind of fatwa that leads to discrimination or persecution is unacceptable. When a religion criticizes or condemns a person because of his or her sexual orientation, then there’s discrimination according to human rights,” http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/01/17/un-presses-indonesia-human-rights-progress-report.html
[On May 29, Islamist militants carrying wooden bats and iron sticks attacked the home of book publisher Julius Felicianus in Yogyakarta while his family conducted an evening Christian prayer meeting. The attack resulted in injuries to seven participants, including fractures and head wounds. Police arrested the leader of the attack but later released him after local authorities pressured Felicianus to drop charges on the basis of religious harmony. (…) On June 1, Islamist militants attacked a building in Pangukan village in Sleman, Central Java, in which residents had been conducting Pentacostal services. Police arrested the leader of the attack, but also filed criminal charges against pastor Nico Lomboan, the owner of the property, for violating a 2012 government ban against using private residences for religious services. (…) While Yudhoyono condemned sectarian violence by the extremist Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, he downplayed the harassment, intimidation, and violence committed by Islamist militants against Indonesia’s religious minorities, claiming it is understandable that sometimes there will be conflict between different groups. (…) In July, Minister of Religious Affairs Lukman Saifuddin publicly expressed support for allowing followers of the Bahai faith to receive national identification cards, marriage certificates, and other official documents that identify them as Bahai. But Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi rejected Saifuddin’s proposal, arguing that he could only legally issue documents listing one of Indonesia’s six officially recognized religions: Islam, Protestanism, Catholism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. Fauzi suggested Bahai members choose one of these instead. (…) Indonesia has a total of 279 discriminatory local regulations targeting women. A total of 90 of those rules require girls and women, mostly students and civil servants, to wear the hijab. The mandatory hijab is also imposed on Christian girls in some areas. (…)In October, Human Rights Watch released a short report documenting the National Police requirement that female police applicants take an abusive virginity test. (…) As of May 2014, there were approximately 10,509 refugees and asylum seekers in Indonesia, all living in legal limbo because Indonesia lacks an asylum law. This number includes 331 migrant children detained in immigration centers, of which 110 were unaccompanied minors. (…) Conditions are particularly horrific for the tens of thousands of Indonesians with psychosocial disabilities who spend their lives shackled (pasung) instead of receiving community-based mental health care.] https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2015/country-chapters/indonesia
[Widodo made commitments on religious freedom, but religious minorities face harassment, intimidation, and violence by Islamist militants. Islamic bylaws violate the rights of women, LGBT people, and religious minorities. Widodo announced that Papua would be open to foreign journalists, though military and civilian bureaucracies keep placing conditions on reporting. Large numbers of political prisoners convicted for peaceful expression have yet to be released, including in Papua and the Moluccas. Widodo shocked many by implementing the death penalty on a widespread basis against convicted drug traffickers.] https://www.hrw.org/asia/indonesia
Dr Irawati Harsono, Graduate School of Police Sciences: “Speaking as a retired policewoman, this virginity test is very discriminatory because women are treated differently from male police applicants.” [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHyNwLKf2xI]
[Indonesia assumed the chair of ASEAN and in May was elected to the UN Human Rights Council for a third consecutive term. The government strengthened the national police commission but police accountability mechanisms remained inadequate. The security forces faced persistent allegations of human rights violations, including torture and other ill-treatment and use of unnecessary and excessive force. Provincial authorities in Aceh increasingly used caning as a judicial punishment. Peaceful political activities continued to be criminalized in Papua and Maluku. Religious minorities suffered discrimination, including intimidation and physical attacks. Barriers to sexual and reproductive rights continued to affect women and girls.[17] (…) Major human rights problems included instances of arbitrary and unlawful killings by security forces and others in Papua and West Papua provinces, societal abuse against certain minority religious groups, and abridgement of the rights of particular religious minorities to freely practice their religion by regional and local governments. Official corruption, including within the judiciary, was a major problem, although the Anti-corruption Commission (KPK) took some concrete steps to address this. Other human rights problems included: occasionally harsh prison conditions; some narrow and specific limitations on freedom of expression; trafficking in persons; child labour; and failure to enforce labour standards and worker rights. The government attempted to punish officials who committed abuses, but judicial sentencing often was not commensurate with the severity of offences, as was true in other types of crimes as well. Separatist guerillas in Papua killed members of the security forces in several attacks and injured others. Non-government actors engaged in politically related violence, including murder, in Aceh Province. (…) Security forces faced repeated allegations of torturing and otherwise ill-treating detainees, particularly peaceful political activists in areas with a history of independence movements such as Papua and Maluku. Independent investigations into such allegations were rare. (…) In January, three soldiers who had been filmed kicking and verbally abusing Papuans were sentenced by a military court to between eight and 10 months’ imprisonment for disobeying orders. A senior Indonesian government official described the abuse as a minor violation. (…) There were no investigations into allegations of torture and other ill-treatment of 21 peaceful political activists by Special Detachment-88 (Densus-88), a police counter-terrorism unit. The 21 had been tortured during arrest, detention and interrogation in Maluku in August 2010. (…) Caning was increasingly used as a form of judicial punishment in Aceh. At least 72 people were caned for various offences, including drinking alcohol, being alone with someone of the opposite sex who was not a marriage partner or relative (khalwat), and for gambling. The Acehnese authorities passed a series of by-laws governing the implementation of Sharia after the enactment of the province’s Special Autonomy Law in 2001.[18] (…) In April, police in Papua shot Dominokus Auwe in the chest and head, killing him, and wounded two others in front of the Moanemani sub-district police station. The three men had approached the station peacefully to inquire about money the police had seized from Auwe earlier that day. (…) Attacks and intimidation against religious minorities persisted. The Ahmadiyya community was increasingly targeted and at least four provinces issued new regional regulations restricting Ahmadiyya activities. By the end of the year, at least 18 Christian churches had been attacked or forced to close down. In many cases the police failed to adequately protect religious and other minority groups from such attacks.] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_Indonesia
Yan Maitri-Shi: On this video, a man who denominates himself as an Atheist is in jail because of his statements through Facebook. At that time, he is waiting to leave prison, but at the same time is afraid because when this happens he might be attacked by religious fanatics, since people have threatened him. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKo_3p2y2Fw
Yan Maitri-Shi: In this video it is addressed the subject of Indonesia’s inequality regarding women and other human rights violations such as the practice of female circumcision, which is a very rooted cultural and religious custom, the violence against woman, etc. There are testimonies of women who were raped and then suffered the social and cultural humiliation that it implies there in Indonesia; there is a case of a 15 years-old girl who was accused of being a teenage prostitute but she claimed that it was a lie, yet she ended committing suicide because of the huge humiliation it represented for her and for her family. Her family is still very shocked and sad about it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9h0cq9uAAo
Evidence 6: VIOLATION ON THE RIGHTS OF PERSONS WITH MENTAL ILLNESS
[In countries like Indonesia, more than 57,000 people (…) with mental health conditions ranging from depression to schizophrenia, have been chained or locked in confined spaces at least once in their lives for months, if not years –despite a national ban on shackling in Indonesia since 1977. Due to the lack of availability and access to mental health care, prevalent stigma, and belief that mental health conditions are a result of evil spirits, families believe they have no option but to chain their relatives.] https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/12/10/dispatches-shackling-no-answer-people-disabilities
[All around a compound at the Galuh Foundation there are men and women lying on wooden platforms that are doubling up as makeshift beds. (…) Many of them have been chained to their beds. (…) Galuh is a home for Indonesia’s mentally ill. (…) When you enter, it’s like walking back into the dark ages (…) The people who work at Galuh say at any given time about 10% of the 280 residents here are shackled – but they say it’s for their own good. (…) The stench in Galuh is overwhelming, a mixture of human urine and faeces. As lunch is served, one of the workers sprays away the human waste with a hose, and inevitably people are hit by the splashes of the dirty water. (…) In the middle of the compound, there is a giant cage with huge metal grilles. (…) The cage is locked. Inside, there are about 30 or 40 people – many of them also chained, and without any clothes on. It is a depressing, disturbing place. (…) But it is also a place that is supported by the Indonesian government. (…) Galuh gets $10,000 in funding every year from the social welfare ministry, but the people who work here say that money covers fewer than half of the patients here. (…) Many uneducated Indonesians who live in rural areas believe that these ailments are a result of being the victim of a curse, or black magic. (…) With little or no education about mental illnesses, many resort to the practice of shackling, despite the fact that it’s been banned for decades. (…) Faith alone cannot help the likes of the people at Galuh. (…) Stripped of their dignity, they’re locked up and caged like animals]
Suhanda [Mulatip], who runs the place: “We treat them with herbal concoctions made of leaves and then we mix it with coconut water. It makes them calm (…) Doctors use sleeping pills, we use this – we don’t depend on medication.”
Nina Mardiana, Galuh’s secretary: “None of our workers have any medical training. We just diagnose people based on what we think is wrong with them.”
Yan Maitri-Shi: In this article, there is also a video where the facilities and mental ill patients are shown. http://www.bbc.com/news/health-22076563
[Pasung is the Indonesian term for restraints or restrained. It is used to refer to shackles, but can also refer to being locked in a room or confined in a shed or animal pen. (…) From January 2011 through the end of 2012, I spent time photographing people in Indonesia being held in homes, shelters, schools and hospitals. Many had not been seen by a psychiatrist or diagnosed with mental illness, stress or a physical condition that might explain symptoms or behaviors they exhibited. (…) Pasung, banned in 1977, is the widespread traditional response to mental disturbances like these. People resort to pasung when they cannot afford care, fear medications, want to avoid the stigma attached to a diagnosis of mental illness, or most commonly, feel it is necessary to protect family, community and the disturbed individual. (…) Indonesia’s local and regional officials recognize the important role existing private and licensed shelters can play, despite their current inadequacies.]
http://time.com/3801916/disorder-indonesias-mental-health-facilities-by-andrea-star-reese/
Yan Maitri-Shi: In this article one can see more images like the ones below:
Picture 1- These men are in Galuh Foundation, in Jakarta.
Picture 2- The girl in the picture above has been living at Bina Lestari Foundation
Picture 3- “Agus, Liana and Jarmoko live in cages at Jasono Alternative Treatment Center.”
Picture 4- “Maftukhah is suffering from depression. After her husband left her to marry another woman, her family brought her to Yayasin Bina Lestari, a small foundation under the Brebes Department of Religion.”
Picture 5- “Anne’s father believes she does not need much to eat. Her family is distressed by the lack of improvement in her condition.”
Picture 6- “Agus is housed in a cell to ensure he can not run away. He is being held at Jasono Alternative Treatment, a small private shelter in Cilicap, Central Java.”
Yan Maitri-Shi: These pictures were compiled from http://time.com/3801916/disorder-indonesias-mental-health-facilities-by-andrea-star-reese/
Evidence 7: POVERTY AND SOCIAL OPPRESION
[Labourers will rally across the country on Thursday pushing for a 50 percent hike in the minimum wage. (…) The union members gathered as a warm up for the general strike on Thursday and Friday, when an estimated two million workers will walk out of factories nationwide. (…) Despite being on the higher rate, Marhasan says rising prices, including a 30 percent hike on fuel in June, means he still cannot afford to send his two young children to school. (…) But Indonesian bosses see the demands of union leaders like Iqbal as unrealistic and counterproductive. They say that the ability of the unions to demand and receive large annual pay increases is deterring investors and slowing growth. There are concerns that Indonesia will lose out to its regional manufacturing rivals. (…) [Sofyan Wanandi, Chairman of the Indonesian Employer’s Association] claims that the worker’s demands are counter-productive: if employers cannot afford to pay the wages, then businesses will close and jobs will be lost.]
Marhasan, a 32-year-old fridge assembly worker: “Workers are no longer isolated anymore. We are united and we are standing up for our rights (…) We’ve not been able to pay for the last couple of months. We’ve had a verbal warning from the school [of his children] and I don’t know how much longer we will get away with it (…) Our wages might have gone up, but I don’t feel like our quality of life has really changed”
Said Iqbal, outspoken union boss: “Why do we want to increase the minimum wage 50 percent? Indonesia has the second highest level of economic growth after China. It’s one of the most important G20 countries. But the government and employer’s association still have low-wage policies (…) Indonesia has three times the GDP of Thailand, but our minimum wage is lower. (…) If you work for 15 to 30 years and you’re still poor then this is unjust, this is not equal. We need justice and equality”
Evidence 8: GENOCIDE AGAINST WEST PAPUA
[Ever since the invasion of West Papua over fifty years ago, the Indonesian security forces have committed a never ending catalogue of extreme human rights violations. (…) Over 500,000 civilians have been killed in a genocide against the indigenous population. Thousands more have been raped, tortured, imprisoned or ‘disappeared’ after being detained. Basic human rights such as freedom of speech are denied and Papuans live in a constant state of fear and intimidation. (…) A paper prepared by the Yale Law School for the Indonesian Human Rights Campaign in 2004 found in the available evidence a strong indication that the Indonesian government has committed genocide against the West Papuans. (…) A further study carried out by the University of Sydney claims that the continuation of current practices in West Papua may pose serious threats to the survival of the indigenous people of the Indonesian province of Papua. (…) Many towns and villages have witnessed wholesale massacres of their people. One such example was the ‘Biak Massacre‘ in 1998, where over 200 people including women and children were rounded up by the Indonesian military, loaded onto vessels, taken to sea and thrown overboard. (…) Sexual assault and rape has been repeatedly used as a weapon by the Indonesian military and police. (…) The basic rights to freedom of expression are almost completely denied in West Papua. Anyone expressing any criticism of Indonesian rule and in particular aspirations for West Papuan independence can expect to be persecuted by the police and imprisoned. (…) Yusak Pakage, sentenced to 10 years in prison for attending a West Papua flag raising ceremony. (…) There are currently hundreds of West Papuan political prisoners being held in West Papua and across Indonesia. Many are serving long prison terms for peacefully protesting against Indonesian rule or for being members of organisations calling for West Papuan independence. (…) Filep Karma is a particular case in point, serving a 15 year jail sentence simply for raising the West Papuan national flag. He is an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience. Conditions in the prisons are often very poor and maltreatment of prisoners is common with many being beaten and tortured while detained. Prisoners have often developed severe health problems and been denied access to medical care. (…) Under the pretence of looking for insurgents, the military have repeatedly swept through entire rural areas killing arbitrarily and burning whole villages to the ground, destroying subsistence food crops and livestock and forcing people to flee into the forests where they are prone to starvation and disease. (…) Indonesian special army force (KOPASSUS) has committed widespread human rights abuses in West Papua. (…) West Papua is currently off limits to international journalists. If discovered without permission they are arrested and deported by the Indonesian authorities. Some have even been attacked and imprisoned. (…) It is clear that Indonesian authorities will stop at nothing to keep the ongoing genocide they are directing in West Papua out of the international media agenda. West Papua has also become impossible to operate in for many NGOs. In 2010 the International Red Cross were expelled, and in 2012 Peace Brigades International were forced to leave. International human rights organisations such as Amnesty and Human Rights Watch are also denied access to West Papua.]
Amnesty International: “Impunity for human rights violations is commonplace. Accountability mechanisms to deal with police abuse remain weak, and reports of torture by members of the security forces often go unchecked and unpunished. Many victims of past human rights violations in Papua are still awaiting justice.” http://ipwp.org/human-rights-in-west-papua/
[The United States Government, through the US State Department has recently published it’s 2014 Human Rights report on Indonesia in which gross and persistent human rights violations by the Indonesian authorities in West Papua, have been exposed in detail and heavily condemned. (…) The US State Department listed several high profile killings of West Papuans by the Indonesian authorities including the 2012 killings of Tejoli Weya and Mako Tabuni; the former Chairperson of the active and peaceful pro-independence West Papua National Committee (KNPB). (…) The report also mentioned how two peaceful pro-independence activists were killed during a prayer service and flag raising ceremony in Sorong, West Papua and that at least 3 members of the Papuan People’s Congress in 2011 by the Indonesian Security Forces. They also tortured or otherwise injured 90 other West Papuans just for attending the same peaceful Congress. (…) Throughout the report there were consistent references to cases of West Papuans being killed, suppressed and detained just for expressing their desires to be free including by raising the West Papuan national flag. Independence leaders Victor Yeimo, Isak Klaibin and many others including 5 people jailed after the Papuan People’s Congress were all listed as examples of this; West Papuans having their freedom of expression suppressed by being jailed simply calling for self-determination and independence. All these cases were also used as examples of obstacles to accountability due to The lack of transparent investigations. (…) An example in the report of this heavy journalist restriction was French journalists Thomas Dandois and Valentine Bourrat who were arrested and jailed last year just for reporting on the genocide and illegal occupation of West Papua.]
Report of US Government: “Police violently broke up the event, resulting in at least three deaths and 90 injuries. (…) International NGOs estimated at least 69 political prisoners remained incarcerated, most from the restive Papua and West Papua provinces. Most were prosecuted under treason and conspiracy statutes for actions related to the display of banned separatist symbols, and many were serving lengthy sentences. (…) The security forces and intelligence agencies tended to regard with suspicion foreign human rights organizations, particularly those operating in Papua and West Papua, and restricted their movement in these areas. (…) Indigenous persons, most notably in Papua, remained subject to discrimination, and there was little improvement in respect for their traditional land rights. Mining and logging activities, many of them illegal, posed significant social, economic, and logistical problems to indigenous communities. The government failed to prevent companies, often in collusion with the local military and police, from encroaching on indigenous peoples’ land. In Papua and West Papua, tensions continued between indigenous Papuans and migrants from other provinces. Melanesians in Papua cited endemic racism and discrimination as drivers of violence and economic inequality in the region.” http://freewestpapua.org/2015/07/13/us-condemns-indonesian-human-rights-abuses-in-west-papua/
[In this video, it can be seen a compilation of images, where many victims of the cruelty by the Indonesian military is shown. This brief documentary is about West Papua genocide and exploitation on natural resources.] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlyHGjnuo4Y
[In this video, one can see images where Indonesian military are beating prisoners and they are falsely accusing them. In addition, it is shown the gold exploitation, the USA complicity in genocide and there are also pictures of the people killed or seriously wounded.]
Testimony of a West Papuan man who is a refugee: “How many more of us must die before the world help us? We are refugees in our own land now, unable to go to our villages… because the Indonesian military are killing so many of us. What have we done to deserve this? I stand here shedding the tears of our people’s and land’s suffering.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDTwMl7N8pk
[This video called Executions: Indonesia kills over 500.000 Papuans during an ongoing silent genocide 2015, shows many pictures with dead bodies of West Papuans and also shows some pictures with women being raped or dead because of rapes and torture.]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9sqo-oYn0g
[This video shows testimonies of the Grisly Biak Massacre in West Papua.] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbbndM9U4Fs
Evidence 9: CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY IN WEST PAPUA
[Since Indonesia secured control over West Papua in 1963, and established formal sovereignty over the territory in 1969 trough the so-called Act of Free Choice, West Papuans have lived as second-class citizens in their own land, deprived of their right to self-determination and subjected to serious human rights abuses at the hands of Indonesian authorities. Violent military campaigns and extrajudicial killings have claimed the lives of thousands of West Papuans. Thousands more have been subjected to torture, disappearance, arbitrary detention, rape, or other forms of serious mental and bodily harm. The government of Indonesia has forced West Papuans off of their land, exploited their resources, destroyed their property and crops, denigrated and attacked their culture, and excluded them from the upper levels of government, business, and education. (…) even if the human rights violations committed by the Indonesian government against West Papuans do not meet the criteria for genocide as defined by the Genocide Convention, they likely constitute crimes against humanity and warrant international action. (…) in April 1969 (…) Various insurgencies sprouted up in Waghete and in Enarotali, where locals dug holes in runways at a nearby airstrip to prevent Indonesian planes from landing. The April uprisings were characterized by an undertone of nationalism, with the Morning Star flag becoming a rallying symbol for protesters at Enarotali. In response to one of the uprisings in Paniai, the Indonesian military conducted machine-gun strafing runs from the air on protestors, killing dozens and forcing thousands into the wilderness, where heavily armed Indonesian paratroopers followed. (…) Indonesian military (…) overpowered and captured a number of resistance fighters and imprisoned them in military camps in what have been described as “barbaric” conditions. (…) In response to a surge in anti-government sentiment, Indonesian military leaders began making public threats against Papuan leaders who voted (or advocated voting) for West Papuan independence, vowing to shoot them on the spot if they did not vote for Indonesian control. (…)The military evicted many native Papuans from their land by trickery or at gunpoint in order to allow settlers from other parts of Indonesia, often ex-military men and their families, to move onto the land (…) In May 1970, a unit of the Indonesian Armed Forces (“ABRI”) Udayana Division shot dead Maria Bonsapia, a pregnant villager, before a crowd of 80 women and children. The soldiers cut the fetus out of her body and dissected the baby. A group of soldiers also raped and killed her sister.[19] The soldiers then informed the gathered crowd that their military colleagues had recently massacred 500 West Papuans in the Lereh district.[20] (…) In june 1970 (…) The Indonesian soldiers encircled two villages on the shore, Wusdori and Kridori. They forced all villagers out into an open space between the two villages and killed all the men, fifty-five in total, in front of the women and children.[21] (…) The next day, the soldiers captured thirty Papuan men from neighboring villages. They forced the captives into the boats of those killed the day before, tied stones around their necks, and threw them overboard. These men all drowned.[22] (…)The military arrested and detained local Papuans, many for months. According to Amnesty International, the army used steel containers to incarcerate thirty men in total darkness for three months in the Freeport mining site, where night temperatures approached the freezing point.[23] (…) The soldiers also used bayonets to pierce pregnant women through the vagina and tear them open to the chest. They cut unborn babies into halves.[24] (…) Eliezer Bonay, a former governor of West Papua, placed the death toll around 3,000 when he testified before the Tribunal on Human Rights in West Papua (…) [T]he Baliem River was so full of corpses that for a month and a half, . . . people could not bring themselves to eat fish. (…) In 1981, the military launched Operation Clean Sweep, which sought to undermine support for the Papuan resistance by persecuting relatives of OPM members. Soldiers raped, assaulted, and killed the wives of known rebels and sacked villages suspected of lending support to the OPM. Survivors reported brutal murders in the Jayapura district, claiming that whole families had been bayoneted to death and their bodies left to rot. (…) Troops used napalm and chemical weapons against the villagers and killed at least 2,500; some estimates put the death toll as high as 13,000.[25] (…) Indonesian officials commonly subjected political prisoners to torture, including electric shocks, beating, pistol-whipping, deprivation of toilet facilities, and water torture, in which the prisoner was placed in a bunker nearly filled with water. Many former prisoners also claimed that detainees died after being poisoned by prison guards. Amnesty International documented the experiences of eight West Papuans who were detained in the late 1980s after returning to West Papua from Papua New Guinea, where they had been living as refugees. The eight men were subjected to repeated beatings during their detention; during one session, an Indonesian soldier ordered one of the men, weak from the beating, to climb a tree and recite the five articles of the State ideology. (…) By the middle of 1986, 27.726 families had been moved into West Papua, a total of nearly 140,000 people since the end of the 1970s. (…) one report estimated that between 1998 and 2000, there were 80 cases of summary execution and 500 cases of arbitrary detention and torture of West Papuans by the Indonesian government or military in West Papua. (…) More recent examples, including the Indonesian military operations in the Central Highlands (Mapnduma, Bela, Alama and Jila) and the October 2000 Wamena massacre that resulted in 32 deaths, demonstrate the continuity and widespread nature of such acts even in the current stage of Indonesian control of West Papua. (…) The Indonesian military and KOPKAMTIB have been responsible for the assassinations of numerous political and village leaders in an effort to wear down the West Papua resistance movement. These extrajudicial killings fall within the “killing” category of acts that can constitute genocide. (…) these political killings are deliberate and planned. (…) The result of Indonesia’s actions—the deaths of thousands of indigenous Papuans over the course of Indonesia’s forty-year rule—is the same whether those actions were based on development goals or the government’s intent was to exterminate Papuans outright. (…) Through the economic development efforts that it has sponsored, the Indonesian government has caused widespread and devastating pollution and other environmental damage, which, in turn, have led to the further obliteration or forced relocation of numerous West Papuan groups. (…) Indeed, throughout the past forty years, the Indonesian government has shown a callous disregard for—and, at times, an intentional and specific malevolence toward—the basic human rights and dignity of the people of West Papua. (…) Since Indonesia gained control of West Papua, the West Papuan people have suffered persistent and horrible abuses at the hands of the government. The Indonesian military and security forces have engaged in widespread violence and extrajudicial killings in West Papua. They have subjected Papuan men and women to acts of torture, disappearance, rape, and sexual violence, thus causing serious bodily and mental harm. Systematic resource exploitation, the destruction of Papuan resources and crops, compulsory (and often uncompensated) labor, transmigration schemes, and forced relocation have caused pervasive environmental harm to the region, undermined traditional subsistence practices, and led to widespread disease, malnutrition and death among West Papuans.]
Report of the Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women: [In 1998, in order to disrupt a pro-independence demonstration, the Indonesian navy used force on the participants.] “It is alleged that women were taken out to sea on Indonesian navy ships, where they were raped, sexually mutilated and thrown overboard. Women’s corpses reportedly washed up on the Biak coast. Some of them showed signs of sexual mutilation; breasts had been removed.”
In its 2001 report on Indonesia, the U.S. Department of State noted: “Security forces were responsible for numerous instances of, at times indiscriminate, shooting of civilians, torture, rape, beatings and other abuse, and arbitrary detention in . . . Papua . . . . Security forces in Papua assaulted, tortured, and killed persons during search operations for members of militant groups. The security forces inconsistently enforced a no-tolerance policy against flying the Papuan flag, tearing down and destroying flags and flag poles, and killing eight persons, and beating others who tried to raise or protect the flag….”
https://www.law.yale.edu/system/files/documents/pdf/Intellectual_Life/West_Papua_final_report.pdf
[Head of state and government: Joko Widodo (replaced Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in October) (…) Security forces faced persistent allegations of human rights violations, including torture and other ill-treatment. Political activists from the Papua region and Maluku province continued to be arrested and imprisoned for their peaceful political expression and at least 60 prisoners of conscience remained imprisoned. Intimidation and attacks against religious minorities continued. A new Islamic Criminal Code by-law in Aceh province, passed in September, increased offences punishable by caning. There was a lack of progress in ensuring truth, justice and reparations for victims of past human rights violations. No executions were reported (…) Reports continued of serious human rights violations by the police and military, including unlawful killings, unnecessary or excessive use of force, torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and enforced disappearance. (…) In March, eight men from the Suku Anak Dalam Indigenous community of Bungku village, Batanghari district, Jambi province, were tortured or otherwise ill-treated after protesting against the operation of a palm oil company near their village. Puji Hartono died from his injuries after his hands were tied behind his back with a rope and he was beaten by military personnel and company security guards. Titus Simanjuntak was stripped and beaten by military personnel and forced to lick his blood stains on the floor while being stepped on. Police officers watched as the abuses took place. (…) In December, at least four men were killed and over a dozen injured when security forces, both police and military, allegedly opened fire on a crowd that was protesting at the Karel Gobai field near the Paniai District Military Command in Papua province. The crowd was protesting against soldiers from the Special Team Battalion 753 who had allegedly beaten a child from Ipakije village. No one had been held accountable for the attack by the end of the year. (…) At least nine people remained detained or imprisoned under blasphemy laws solely for their religious views or the manifestation of their beliefs, or for the lawful exercise of their right to freedom of expression[26] (…) Harassment, intimidation and attacks against religious minorities persisted, fuelled by discriminatory laws and regulations at both national and local levels. (…) Victims of past human rights violations and abuses continued to demand justice, truth and reparation for crimes under international law which occurred under the rule of former President Suharto (1965-1998) and during the subsequent period. These included unlawful killings, rape and other crimes of sexual violence, enforced disappearances, and torture and other ill-treatment. No progress was reported on numerous cases of alleged gross violations of human rights that were submitted by the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) to the Attorney General’s office after a preliminary pro-justice inquiry was conducted by the Commission. (…) Former President Yudhoyono failed to act on certain recommendations by Parliament from 2009: to bring to justice those involved in the enforced disappearance of 13 pro-democracy activists in 1997 and 1998, to conduct an immediate search for activists who had disappeared, and to provide rehabilitation and compensation to their families. (…) The government failed to implement recommendations made by the bilateral Indonesia-Timor Commission of Truth and Friendship, in particular to establish a commission for disappeared persons tasked with identifying the whereabouts of all children from Timor who were separated from their parents around the 1999 independence referendum. (…) At least two death sentences were handed down during the year and at least 140 people remained under sentence of death.] https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/asia-and-the-pacific/indonesia/report-indonesia/
[Indonesian police arrested French journalists Valentine Bourrat and Thomas Dandois on August 6 in Wamena on charges of working illegally without a journalist visa while filming a documentary for Franco-German Arte TV. Areki Wanimbo, the Lanny Jaya tribal chief, whom the journalists had interviewed, was also arrested. A police spokesman initially said that the journalists would be charged with subversion for allegedly filming OPM members, but the two ultimately were charged with and convicted of abusive use of entry visas on October 24. They left Papua three days later, having served the requisite time in custody. Wanimbo, however, was still being held at time of writing, charged with subversion without a clear factual basis, and facing trial. (…) On August 26, Martinus Yohame, leader of the West Papua National Committee in Sorong, was found dead inside a sack in the sea, a week after he went missing in the lead-up to President Yudhoyono’s visit to Sorong. Yohame had also talked to the French journalists. (…) On August 15, police detained journalist Aprila Wayar of Jubi, a Papuan news service, for photographing police beating nine student protesters with rifle butts at Cenderawasih University in Jayapura, Papua. Police released Wayar, along with the photos she had taken, after several hours. (…) Security forces responsible for serious violations of human rights continue to enjoy impunity. (…) No progress was made on accountability for serious security force abuses during the 32-year rule of President Suharto, including the mass killings of 1965-66, atrocities in counterinsurgency operations in Aceh, East Timor, and Papua, killings in Kalimantan, Lampung, Tanjung priok, and other prominent cases. https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2015/country-chapters/indonesia
Louis Tz Nousy, Spokesman of the National Government of the Republic of West Papua/Organisasi Papua Merdeka: “In 1964 I was (…) in Serui. The Indonesian militants under Joris Than, now known as Joris Rawejai, attacked us and beat us at our dormitory calling us “black Dutch”. He is now a member of parliament in Papua. In February 1965 I was beaten by military officers in Serui whilst transporting benches from the girls’ dormitory to the church in Serui. I lost my teeth and suffered from back injuries having been kicked by the soldiers. (…) By continuing the occupation of West Papua, Indonesia operating in contradiction of the spirit and the letter of its constitution, which in the first and second line of its preamble states: Whereas independence is the inalienable right of all nations, therefore, all colonialism must be abolished in this world as it is not in conformity with humanity and justice.” (…) Violations of basic rights are a common feature of the behaviour of the Indonesian occupation authorities in West Papua. Of the estimated 200,000 young men and women who have been arrested at one time or another, between 20 and 25% disappeared whilst nearly 80% underwent some form of torture. Women under arrest as well as those living in the villages are victims of sexual abuse perpetrated in the most inhuman forms. Freedom of movement is severely restricted. Exercising the right of assembly and of speaking out is regarded as a crime against the state of Indonesia. The people of West Papua are the victims of reprisals by the Indonesia Armed Forces (ABRI). These reprisals can take the most violent forms, in flagrant conflict with civilized practices. (…) Any attempt to popularize the specific culture of the Melanesian people in keeping with Indonesia’s slogan of Bhineka Tunggal Ika (Unity in Diversity) is considered a crime against the Indonesian state. An example is that of Arnold Ap, a West Papuan anthropologist and curator of the Museum of Anthropology of West Papua who was murdered on 26 April 1984 because of his services to science. Other West Papuan students and scholars, devotees of the special song and dance forms of West Papuan culture, were also killed at the same time. (…) Julianus Sapioper’s experience in Indonesian prisons is the same as that of many West Papuan political prisoners. Indonesian soldiers beat the prisoners until they bleed. The prisoners sleep on the floor without mats. There are too many prisoners in one room. They have to lie with their bodies on the floor and their legs up against the wall in order to sleep. Sometimes they were soaked in the toilets for hours. Military officers have used barbed wire on the bodies of the prisoners, have beaten their knees and their heads with military boots or the butt of their weapons. Most West Papuan prisoners became paralyzed or crippled, as in the example of John Tanawani in Serui after being released from Kalisosok prison in Java. (…) There are currently around 10,400 West Papuan refugees living in East Awin and in the border camps in Papua New Guinea. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Papua New Guinea government recognizes those in East Awin as refugees. More than 7,000 living in border camps are not recognized as refugees and therefore they cannot receive medical assistance. The only outside help is from the Kiunga Catholic mission and from some Australian non-government organizations. (…) The largest exodus took place in 1984, when over 13,000 sought asylum in Papua New Guinea, most of whom remain in the refugee camps until today.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEVtJCbEIlo http://www.unpo.org/downloads/841.pdf
http://www.unpo.org/downloads/845.pdf
[Human rights violations by Indonesian security forces, Papuans urge them to withdraw.] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axzgT4CEXIg
Evidence 10: VIOLATION ON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLE
[Indonesia’s indigenous population has suffered a long history of human rights violations says a report to be released by the country’s National Commission on Human Rights in May. (…) AMAN [Indigenous Peoples’ Alliance of The Archipelago] represents 15 million people belonging to 2,244 indigenous communities throughout Indonesia—a number of whom have been arrested for resisting efforts to block their community’s access to lands they have depended upon for generations. (…) AMAN is calling for a presidential task force to re-examine over 150 cases of indigenous leaders who have been incarcerated unfairly while acting in defense of their constitutional rights. Although the constitutional court ruled in 2013 that customary use forests should not be classified as state forests, local officials often ignore the ruling and issue conflicting development permits.]
Sandra Moniaga, commissioner and researcher involved in the first National Inquiry on the Violations of Indigenous Peoples Rights within Forest Zones: “We are finding violations of the right to property, to live, to a fair trial, to feel safe, to an adequate standard of living, (…) We are seeing a lack of legal certainty for the recognition of indigenous peoples in Indonesia, (…) There is no effort being made to designate the boundaries of their territories on official maps and documents; they face legal obstacles in their efforts to claim legitimacy; indigenous women face discrimination on multiple levels; government agencies (including the police) and the military have been working for the private sector, and not for the indigenous communities, and there is no ministerial level institution with the mandate to resolve the prolonged land conflicts.”
Abdon Nababan, Secretary General of AMAN: “Indigenous peoples are very easy to criminalize (…) They often do not have legal protections, or they don’t know their rights. This is an unacceptable situation.”
Evidence 11: GENOCIDE IN ACEH
[Momentum grows for an accounting of alleged human rights abuses carried out by Indonesia’s armed forces over a period of years in the province of Aceh.
In recent weeks, fresh evidence has been coming to light of the brutal excesses of the army, sent to Aceh to put down a Muslim separatist movement. But it was not just rebels who suffered at the hands of the military – APTV travelled to the village of Cot Keng, now known as the village of widows. In the small village, survivors of years of brutality spoke for the first time of their ordeal. On the road to Cot Keng, a visitor might notice something odd – there are few young men. In much of rural Indonesia, young men have had to leave to find work in the cities. But in the village, it is hard to find any. In the village of 200 souls, life continues at a slow pace. In a typical scene of rural life, women gather with their children near the communal well to carry out their day’s chores. But scratch the surface – and Cot Keng soon seems far from normal. The reason for the absence of young men is not economic – but something far more sinister. Kasmawati stands in the doorway of her house, telling a story all too common in the village. Fatimah, her 10-year-old daughter, has heard it all before – even so, every time the girl hears the story, she breaks down in tears. Her mother explains why Cot Keng is known as the village of widows. Kasmawati claims the military repeatedly came to the village, looking for suspected Muslim separatists or sympathisers.
By the time they left, 26 men were dead – including her husband. (…) The Indonesian military has long been accused of arbitrary killing and torture in Aceh, a strongly Muslim province about 11-hundred miles northwest of Jakarta. Some human rights groups claim thousands of people have been killed – many of them
during the most active period of the armed separatist movement in 1990-91.]
Kasmawati, a widow from Kot Ken village, told: “It was during Ramadan (Muslim festival), the 27th, at night. My husband was taken by a group of soldiers, he still hadn’t returned five days later. (…) Then one day someone told me that he found my husband’s dead body in front of the shop with a bullet in his head. Later they told me that my husband was shot by the army.”
Rufiadi, lawyer, Legal Aid Foundation: “People right now are traumatised, very frightened, especially when faced with strangers or newcomers. So far, they just choose to be silent because if they were not, tomorrow they could just disappear.”
Harlimah, Alleged Rape Victim: “Suddenly the door was smashed open and two soldiers burst in, grabbed me and strangled me. They dragged me onto the bed, I screamed for help, but they just raised my skirt and raped me in front of the children.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-Q789ZDQ7I;
For more information or stories like these please see also: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/a5c3493d0b5e4c3cefdd34b39a1ca9dd
Yusuf Daud, Vice Chairman, Acheh Sumatra National Liberation Front (ASNLF): “The atrocities perpetrated through these years have no equal in the history of Acheh fighting against any colonial powers in the past. An estimation of about 40,000 innocent Achehnese lost their lives in military custody, in hidden mass graves, or in secret concentration camps.” (…) “After a decade of these brutalities and the downfall of Suharto in May 1998, the DOM [Military Operational Area is called DOM] was lifted. President BJ. Habibie and General Wiranto took the helm of the country and came to Acheh to apologize for the excesses committed by their soldiers. At long last, democracy came to Indonesia in 1999 and the era of reformation began. But unfortunately these changes did not extend to Acheh. For the people of Acheh, the year 1999 was the worst year in our history, the year of massacres. The reformist administration then introduced Operasi Wibawa 99, Assert Authority Operation, a joint military – police operation. Its brutalities surpassed those of the DOM. (…) Throughout this year a number of massacres had been taking place in Acheh, such as: the Kandang Massacre in North Ache, the Idi Cut Massacre in East Acheh, the Dewantara Massacre at Simpang KKA, North Acheh, the Beutong Ateueh massacre, West Acheh and many other unloathful killings that had cost over a thousand Achehnese lives – just in one single year. Under the reformation era. These military operations continued unabated until Ache was devastated by the Indian Ocean tsunami on the boxing day [the day after Christmas] of 2004, killing over two hundred thousand Achehnese lives. This natural disaster coupled with a prolonged war had brought the warring parties, the Republic of Indonesia and the Free Acheh Movement (GAM) to Helsinki, Finland, and signed a peace accord known as Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). One of the many provisions of the MoU is the establishment of two human rights institutions: Trust and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and the Human Rights Court (HRC). Sixteen years later since the lifting of DOM and fifteen years after the 1999 Massacres, not a single perpetrator of these gross violations of human rights against innocent Achehnese has been brought to justice. Almost nine years after the Helsinki accord signed, nothing has changed with regard to protecting of human rights and resolving the past abuses by security forces. (…) One should wonder why and how this tragedy has been played and performed and the perpetrators have escaped justice for the last 64 years?”
Human Right Watch: “violations in Acheh were too serious to be addressed only by the truth commission, which cannot impose criminal penalties. States have an obligation under international law to prosecute serious abuses of human rights and war crimes.”
Brad Adam, the former Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in 2006: “The military leaders who committed crimes in Acheh have been rewarded, not punished.” (…) “The international community has pursued justice for past abuses in East Timor, as well as in Rwanda, Sierra Leone and the former Yogoslavia.” (…) “Why should Acheh be treated any differently?”
Marta Meijer, independent human rights advisor: “There are violation on what they call integrity rights: and that is a right to life, there are arbitrary executions of people suspected of crimes before they are even trialed. There are disappearances in Indonesia and last year Indonesia has reiterated executions of people under the death penalty. There is torture, the police and the military need confessions and therefore they have to torture suspects (…) The right to a fair trial is violated very often and judiciary mafia justice is really completely for sale everywhere. Even the Chair person of the Constitutional Court has been arrested a few months ago for suspected corruption. The testimony shows to that direction that he really is guilty. (…) In conclusion, in many ways human rights in Indonesia are being violated, people are individually and as groups repressed and intimidated, and there is a situation of impunity: the perpetrators of violations are not held accountable or brought to Court. And that is continuing.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEVtJCbEIlo http://www.unpo.org/downloads/841.pdf
http://www.unpo.org/downloads/845.pdf
Evidence 12: CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY IN THE MOLUCCAS
Willem Sopacua, representative of the Republic of South Moluccas: “The Republic of Indonesia has been grossly, intentionally and structurally violating numerous Human Rights in the Moluccas between 1950 and 2014. The brutal violation of these rights -committed by army and police units –has always been a reaction to the aspirations of our people to exercise our inalienable right to self-determination and is an action to break their resistance against the illegal occupation of their homeland. (…) The Human Rights violations of the Republic of Indonesia range from the flagrant violation of our Political and Civil Rights such as the right to self-determination, the freedom of Speech, the freedom of Expression and assembly to the violation of our Social and Economic Rights. For example: natural resources like fluid gas in the MASELA-area and ancestral lands on the island of ARU, in south-east Maluku, are brutally taken for economic profit by multinationals like The Royal Dutch SHELL, the Japanese company INPEX and the Indonesian MENARA GROUP, assisted by the government in Jakarta, without giving any compensation to the rightful owners. (…) It is sad to see that a state, who calls herself democratic, uses state instruments like military police anti-terror police, Special Forces and even militias to oppress the Human Rights of its citizens and thus degrading these state instruments to be nothing less than instruments to carry out state sponsored terrorism. (…) The first case is the case of the flag-raising action on April the 25th, the anniversary of the Republic of the South Moluccas. (…) a group of RMS-activists, in the villages of Nolloth and Itawaka on the island of Saparua, carry out, what is seen by the Indonesian authorities as an ‘illegal’, flag-raising action. (…) On the video-footage we will see how these men were brutally beaten, kicked in the back, slapped in their faces and humiliated in front of their wives, children and other villagers. They were forced to undress and lay on the ground in their underwear. Even while lying on the ground they were kicked on their heads. We will see in the video that the group included a crippled man. He was also forced to undress, to walk in his underwear and to crawl on the ground. We can hear him begging for mercy because he is crippled but the police and Special Forces became even more furious and forced him to stay on the ground and to crawl like the others. (…) We will see that the activists were brutally mistreated, including the crippled man. The torture and ill-treatment was physical as well as psychological. (…) I would like to tell you now about the second case which concerns a peaceful protest in 2007 and which was initially punished with life-imprisonment. (…) On the 29th of June 2007 the Indonesian president Yudhoyono attended the festivities in the Moluccan capital Ambon at Independence Square celebrating the National Holiday called ‘Family Day’ (…) President Yudhoyono however was unpleasantly surprised when an unscheduled performance of a cultural group of dancers suddenly showed the forbidden flag of the Republic of the South Moluccas right in front of him and all his foreign guests. This was an explicit demonstration towards the Indonesian government and to the world community that Moluccans wanted their freedom. This incident was seen as a complete humiliation for the Indonesian president. The president immediately gave orders to the military and the police to arrest all of them and to punish them severely. (…) The leader of this peaceful protest was Johan Teterissa, a primary school teacher. He was arrested with 21 activists. During this arrest and the first few weeks of detention, Johan Teterissa was tortured by the police. For example: during interrogation a policeman puts a hand grenade in his mouth and he was also severely beaten with an electric cable as he told later to a reporter from Al Jazeera. Despite being seriously injured, no adequate medical treatment was provided at the time and he continues to suffer from the injuries he sustained. Other prisoners experienced the same ill-treatment. Johan Teterissa is now serving a 15 year sentence for executing this peaceful protest. Two activists have already died as result of the torture and the deprivation of medical care. (…) In the case of these 22 dancers, the response from the authorities was a clear violation of the international human rights standards set out in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and the convention against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The flag-raising event was peaceful and did not advocate or incite violence; and the force deployed by police and military was unnecessary and excessive. Moreover, not only were these 22 peaceful political activists arbitrarily arrested and detained, but the courts sentenced them to long term imprisonment after unfair trials. In addition, according to a variety of credible sources, police subjected them to torture and other ill-treatment during arrest and detention. Our information map includes a reference to those reports. (…) What do we ask and expect from the United Nations, from the Indonesian Government and from the Western countries who are responsible for the funding, training and equipping of the Indonesian military and police? What do we ask and expect from the international community and from all of you, present here in this room today? (…) We ask the Western countries like Australia and the United States to stop training, arming, equipping and financing these instruments of State Terror. Because after their training these units are not used to combat against foreign threats or to protect democracy, but to combat and torture citizens who exercise their civil rights in a peaceful way.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEVtJCbEIlo http://www.unpo.org/downloads/841.pdf
http://www.unpo.org/downloads/845.pdf
Evidence 13: GENOCIDE AGAINST ALLEGED COMMUNIST POPULATION AND ETHNIC CHINESE:
[Indonesia’s former dictator General Suharto has died in bed and not in jail, escaping justice for his numerous crimes in East Timor and throughout the Indonesian archipelago. One of the worst mass murderers of the 20th century, his death tolls still shock: 500,000 to over a million Indonesians in the aftermath of his 1965 seizure of power; 200,000 in East Timor, which his troops illegally invaded and committed genocide in 1975; 100,000 in West Papua; tens of thousands more in Aceh and elsewhere. (…) Backlands army units are reported to have executed thousands of Communists after interrogation in remote jails… Armed with wide-blade knives called parangs, Moslem bands crept at night into the homes of Communists, killing entire families and burying the bodies in shallow graves…The murder campaign became so brazen in part of rural East Java that Moslem bands placed the heads of victims on poles and paraded them through villages. The killings have been on such a scale that the disposal of the corpses has created a serious sanitation problem in East Java and Northern Sumatra, where the humid air bears the reek of decayed flesh. Travelers from these areas tell of small rivers and streams that have been literally clogged with bodies; river transportation has at places been seriously impeded.]
[This video shows the numbers of victims of the genocide in 1965-1966 where 1.000.000 communists or alleged communists died; the genocide of the invasion to East Timor with 200.000 people killed and the genocide of West Papua from 1963 until present where 500.000 people are still being killed. It is also shown Indonesia’s annual military budget and the economic support that countries such as USA and Australia provides to it. In addition, it shows that 100 Indonesian soldiers are trained in Australia every year.] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcfzkTvbV9k
“In the late 1940s, US government and corporate leaders decided to support Indonesian independence over the continuing instability of Dutch rule (as mentioned above). To their chagrin, however, the new Indonesian government became highly nationalistic, anti-imperialist and non-aligned. Worried that the area might move beyond its control, Washington began (in the 1950s) to curry favor with the Indonesian army, through military assistance and training programs.(…) The US soon reaped the benefits of this policy. In 1965, using an alleged Communist plot to overthrow the government as an excuse, pro-US General Suharto assumed control of the military and launched one of the great slaughters of our time. Hundreds of thousands of Indonesians were killed, mostly landless peasants and members of the Communist Party of Indonesia (many of whose names had been supplied to the army by the US Embassy in Jakarta). (…) Under Suharto, Indonesia has developed into a major center for international business operations. Extensive mining, logging and oil extraction takes place there, as does manufacturing by a wide variety of US companies, including Nike and Levi Strauss.” http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/US_ThirdWorld/genocide_Odon.html
Laksmi Pamuntjak, wrote in an article which commemorated 50th anniversary of the Indonesia Genocide on 1965-1968: “250 million Indonesians face up to the 50th anniversary of one of the most crushing episodes of our nation’s history – the massacre of up to 500,000 or more alleged Communists between 1965 and 1968 by the Suharto regime (…) That new disappointment is our president Joko Widodo’s stance on 1965 – as the tragedy is commonly referred to. In a statement in front of the leaders of the Muhammadiyah, the country’s second largest Muslim organisation, he has refused to apologise to the victims of 1965. And so ended the campaign promises he made –hollow ones to start with, of giving priority to the country’s unresolved cases of human rights violations, including 1965 – that earned him the people’s votes. (…) At school, my generation was taught categorically – with no room for other interpretations – that all Communists were atheists and the enemy of the Indonesian state, and that the defeat of the Indonesian Communist party was crucial to the survival of the nation. (…) Absurdly, not only has this steady propaganda produced a generation schooled in silence and apathy; it has also given birth to successive generations that are wholly ignorant of that period of history. A survey published by the Jakarta Globe in 2009 showed that more than half of the respondents comprising university students in Jakarta had never even heard of the mass killings of 1965-1966. Never mind the fact that it happened to be, as stated by a CIA report, one of the worst mass murders of the 20th century, along with the Soviet purges of the 1930s, the Nazi mass murders during the second world war, and the Maoist bloodbath of the early 1950s. (…) there were the occasional hitches that often seemed like a huge setback: the blatant rejection by a cabinet minister, last year, of the findings of the National Human Rights Committee because he believed that the mass killings were necessary at the time; the recent naming of a Suhartoist known for leading the purge, as a national hero; the odious crackdown on a gathering of the families of 1965 survivors, most of them elderly, in Padang Pariaman, West Sumatra. All such insults, on top of the president’s flip-flopping, coalesce to sharpen our fear of the limit of what is truly achievable. (…) For while it is impossible to speak of unveiling the truth as though there is only one truth, it is no longer possible to deny that a systematic, politically-charged pogrom in fact took place and that it was, in the simplest possible terms, a crime against humanity.” http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/sep/30/it-is-50-years-since-the-indonesian-genocide-of-1965-but-we-cannot-look-away
[In the course of little more than five months from late 1965 to early 1966, anti-communist Indonesians killed about half a million of their fellow citizens. Nearly all the victims were associated with Indonesia’s Left, especially with the Communist Party (PKI) that had risen to unprecedented national prominence under President Sukarno’s Guided Democracy. (…)The killings followed a coup which took place in Jakarta on the morning of 1 October 1965 in which six senior army generals were killed and a revolutionary council was formed, seizing power from Sukarno. For the whole of the New Order period, Indonesian authorities portrayed these events as a communist grab for power, which was to be followed by the wholesale slaughter of their opponents.]
http://www.insideindonesia.org/the-killings-of-1965-66
[A number of NGOs and independent research groups such as ELSAM, Kontras, the National Commission on Women’s Rights, and Institut Sejarah Sosial Indonesia (ISSI – Institute for Indonesian Social History) began to research the mass violence of 1965-66. ISSI has collected oral histories of over two hundred people affected by the violence of 1965 and published a collection of these stories (Roosa, Ratih and Farid, 2004)] http://www.massviolence.org/the-indonesian-killings-of-1965-1966
[During the escalating Cold War, Indonesia of the 1960s saw intensifying political tension under Indonesia’s founding president Sukarno, a PKI sympathiser. Sukarno integrated communism with religion and nationalism into his governing ideals in 1960. (…) The rise of communism alarmed the United States and the CIA kept close watch. The rupture unleashed by the September 30 events turned communists from a formidable political power to an enemy to be exterminated. (…) What the official history omits is the extent of what ensued: how the army and civilian squads rounded up, killed, and tortured not only communist party members, but anyone accused of ties to the political left. (…) Government-sanctioned school textbooks directly link PKI to the failed coup and killing of the generals. (…) An attempt to revise that – the 2004 school curriculum removed references to PKI when detailing the September 30 events – was short-lived. In 2007, the attorney general’s office banned textbooks that do not represent historical truth, leading officials to burn thousands of textbooks that failed to mention PKI. (…) In Indonesia, anti-communist rhetoric is still widely used both to legitimise the current establishment and as a malleable scapegoat for the country’s problems.] http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2015/09/revisiting-indonesian-massacre-50-years-150930055803832.html
[It was one of the bloodiest massacres of the 20th century, well hidden from the outside world – the systematic killing of communists or alleged communists in Indonesia in 1965 and 1966. Researchers estimate that between one and three million people died. (…) Never before have the executioners spoken out in as much detail as in the recently-released documentary The Act of Killing. In this film, killers in North Sumatra give horrifying accounts of their executions, and even re-enact them. (…)The killers have always considered themselves heroes because their acts were supported by the government and large parts of society. Many executions were directly committed by the military. (…) In the years that followed, Indonesians were bombarded with anti-communist propaganda and, until today, most people do not know what really happened.] http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/101east/2012/12/2012121874846805636.html?utm=from_old_mobile
[By 1965, Indonesia’s Communist Party (PKI) had 3.5 million members and 20 million supporters in trade unions, youth and women’s movements and artist, scholar and veteran organizations. It was the third largest Communist Party in the world. Indonesia had around twelve political parties but the PKI was the largest and the most disciplined. Its leaders expected their party to be on top in the next general election. Tactically the party presented itself as sympathetic to religion, ignoring the atheism of Marx and Lenin. Some members were moderate Muslims. Some were Christians. The party appealed to the patriotism of Indonesia’s recent struggle for independence –the PKI presenting itself as anti-imperialist. The party spoke against the tactics of violence in seeking political objectives. The Communists spoke up for democracy, which coincided with the freedom that President Sukarno had been offering the young republic. (…) Indonesia had anti-Communists in its military, and there had been talk among them that China was smuggling arms to the Communists. Sukarno worried about his military. He had announced in January 1965 that he was embracing Indonesia’s armed peasants and workers as a political force –a Communist force– to defend democracy. Sukarno’s relationship with his Minister of Defense, General Abdul Haris Nasution, had turned cold. Nasution had become a symbol of the army’s hostility toward Communists, Nasution wanting no place for Communists in Indonesia’s political power distribution. (…) In the United States many were unhappy with Sukarno. The Johnson administration was pursuing a war against Communism in Vietnam and concerned about China’s support for North Vietnam. Indonesia was the sixth most populous nation in the world and would have been a loss too great to accept for those concerned about the spread of Communism. (…) One of Indonesia’s anti-Communist army officers in contact with Americans was Haji Mohammad Suharto. He had quietly established contacts also with the British and Japanese. He was one of the military officers who had participated in smuggling, or was at least accused of it. In 1959 he had been transferred to the army Staff College in Bandung, West Java. He was involved with a shipping company operated by an army division in central Java. He was shrewd and ambitious but not recognized as having any special influence among the anti-Communist generals, but it was he who was destined to be Sukarno’s successor. (…) On 21 August 1965, a report circulated among Indonesia’s Communist Party leaders of an impending coup by Indonesia’s anti-Communist generals against President Sukarno. On September 30 a group of military officers led by Lieutenant Colonel Untung, a member of Sukarno’s palace guard, moved troops against what they claimed was an impending coup supported by the CIA. (…) In Indonesia, a murderous campaign against Communists had begun. (…) Through November a slaughter took place across much of Indonesia, including the capture and execution of the Communist leader, Aidit. Army officers in league with Untung were executed. Bands of Muslim young men roamed about killing people, sometimes by beheading. (…) Names were read from lists, and they were described as Communists, atheists and people not certified as members of any religion. The named were roped together. Those not roped-off were told that those within the ropes were their enemies. They were given machetes or other crude weapons and told to fight for their religion. Hindus and Buddhists among them were exempted because of prohibitions by their religions against taking life. In other places, people were transported in military vehicles a short distance from their village and shot down with automatic weapons. In places victims were ordered to dig their own mass graves. (…) In early 1966, the US ambassador to Indonesia, Andrew Gilchrist, put the slaughter total at 400,000. A Swedish colleague described this as a very serious under-estimate. Those killed have been estimated at more than one million, with some others imprisoned. (…) On March 12, 1967, Indonesia’s provincial parliament took away Sukarno’s presidential title. Sukarno was put under house arrest, where he would remained until his death in 1970. General Suharto, on 12 March 1967, was named Acting President. He would be sworn in as president on 27 March 1968. Suharto described his regime as a New Order. He built a political party, Golkar, that won elections beginning in 1973. The military has been described as ruthlessly maintaining domestic security. By 1969, 70 percent of Indonesia’s provincial governors and more than half of its district chiefs were active military officers.]
http://www.fsmitha.com/h2/ch26-indo23.htm
Testimony of Syarina Hasibuan: “After I watched it [documentary The Act of Killing] I felt shocked, confused and betrayed. Shocked to find out how horrible the situation was at that time – with people living in fear and killings taking place everywhere, every day. Confused because I did not know what to think of Anwar Congo, the executioner in the film. Somehow I did not hate him because I saw him as an uneducated man, brainwashed by the government into believing that he was doing the right thing by killing all those people. It was clear that his actions haunted him for life. I felt betrayed because the government never told us the real story when I was growing up. They lied to us. (…) As an Indonesian who grew up during President Suharto’s ‘New Order’ regime, I was taught that the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), which was one of the biggest political parties in 1965, was violent and that its members did not believe in God. When I was a child, if we hated someone we used to call him or her a communist – meaning that we thought the person was evil. That is how brainwashed I was. (…) In elementary school every year on September 30, teachers would ask us to watch a three-and-a-half hour long government sponsored film about how the Communist Party had planned to topple the government. The film showed how, on one day in 1965, the PKI had kidnapped seven top military men in the middle of the night, killed one of them in front of his wife and children, and brought the others to a rubber plantation, where they tortured and mutilated them. Throughout it all, they were singing, dancing and shouting “Kill! Kill! Kill!”. Then they threw the dead bodies into a well. (…) Many of the scenes in that film were too violent for elementary school students to watch. But I guess the aim was to brainwash the younger generation, to imprint the most gruesome parts of that film onto our brains so that whenever we heard of the PKI we thought of evil. And, for a long time, it worked. (…) I grew up not understanding what actually happened in 1965; I did not know that maybe up to three million people had been killed because they were accused of being involved in the PKI. (…) After the military accused the PKI of being behind the murder of the seven military men, PKI members all over Indonesia were hunted down, put in prison without trial, tortured or killed. Civilians and students from religious boarding schools were used as executioners. And the military released some of the most violent criminals from prisons and ordered them to carry out executions. Hundreds of dead bodies were found floating in rivers every day. (…) Ndoren is an old man who (…) was an executioner. We went with him to Luweng Tikus, or the Rat hole as local people call it – the location where soldiers forced him to kill more than 40 people, some of whom he knew personally. (…) The alleged communists were brought in by the military after walking in the dark for hours, with their hands tied. They were lined up in front of the hole. Then, one by one, Ndoren hit each of them on the back of the head with a crowbar and threw them into the hole. He said they hardly struggled, as if they had already accepted that they were going to die. (…) The hole was covered until 2002 when human rights activists opened it up and found human bones and skulls inside.” http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/101east/2012/12/2012121874846805636.html?utm=from_old_mobile
Documentary “The Act of Killing”: [The Act of Killing is a documentary film made by Joshua Oppenheimer. It is intended to show the other side of the history regarding the Indonesian killings of communists or alleged communists and ethnic Chinese in 1965-1966. This documentary has the executioners of the mass killings as its main characters, telling facts in a bizarre and sadistic way about how they perpetrated those killings and tortures toward people accused of being communists. In the film, one can figure the high level of impunity these men still enjoy. And they openly affirm they were supported and encouraged by the government in order to do such things. They believe they’re heroes and proudly call themselves gangsters. The film shows the rawness with which these men performed and remember the horrible acts and violations they have done. It is also shown that Indonesia’s political climate -in its majority- still remains in favor of such a cruel persecution. Along the film, it can be observed that one of its main characters, Anwar Congo, who was an executioner in 1965, is incessantly tormented by the past and he seems to be repented for what he has done to people he tortured.]
Yusuf Kalla, Vice president of Indonesia: “The spirit of Pancasila Youth, which people accuse of being gangsters… Gangsters are people who work outside the system… not for the government. The word ‘gangster’ comes from ‘free men’. This nation needs ‘free men’! If everyone works for the government we’d be a nation of bureaucrats… We wouldn’t get anywhere. We need gangsters to open the way for the rest of us… Men who are free, private to open the way. Use your muscles! Muscles are not for beating people up… Even though beating people up is sometimes needed.”
Sakhyan Asmara, Indonesia Deputy Minister of Youth and Sport: “now I’m speaking as a leader of the paramilitaries… When we fight we shouldn’t look brutal, like we want to drink their blood. That’s dangerous for our organization’s image. We have to exterminate the communists, we want them totally wiped out… but in a more human way. (…) This is the true story. That’s what we all want, isn’t it? … about what we just filmed… don’t erase it! Use it to show how ferocious we can be! (…) In fact, we can even be worse! So think of it as a simulation of the paramilitaries’ rage if our nation is disturbed.”
Adi Sulkadry, Executioner in 1965: “We shoved wood in their anus until they died… We crushed their necks with wood… We hung them… We strangled them with wire… We cut off their heads… We ran them over with cars… We were allowed to do it… and the proof is, we murdered people and were never punished. The people we killed… There’s nothing to be done about it. They have to accept it.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEYjkPZTk6o
Evidence 14: GENOCIDE AND ETHNIC CLEANSING AGAINST EAST TIMOR:
[American-backed Genocide in East Timor (…) Estimated civilian deaths: 200,000 out of a population of 600,000 (…) After the independence from Portuguese colonialism, East Timor was invaded by the anti-communist regime of Indonesian General Suharto, on orders of American and Australian imperialism and with the support of Soviet and Chinese social-imperialism (the seas of Timor are immensely rich in oil). (…) During the Indonesian invasion of Timor, Suharto’s reign of terror eliminated one-third of the entire population (from 600.000 to 400.000) in what amounts to one of the proportionally greatest and harsh genocides in human history. (…) The United States and Britain were also key allies supporting Suharto’s December 1975 invasion of East Timor. The day before the attack, while visiting the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, secretary of state Henry Kissinger and president Gerald Ford gave Suharto the green light to invade. (…) In the pursuit of realpolitik, U.S. administration after administration, fully aware of his many crimes, provided military assistance and hardware, training and equipping Suharto’s killers. The Indonesian dictator sought and received U.S. approval before he launched his invasion of East Timor; ninety percent of the weapons used in this illegal attack came from the U.S. (…) Limited investigations dealing with Suharto-era crimes have added some information to the public record, but the few trials that have occurred have largely failed, as defendants have lied, intimidated or bribed their way to acquittals, crushing the hopes of the victims and their families for justice or even an apology.]
FRETILIN radio sent the following broadcast at the start of the occupation: “The Indonesian forces are killing indiscriminately. Women and children are being shot in the streets. We are all going to be killed…. This is an appeal for international help. Please do something to stop this invasion.” One Timorese refugee told later of “rape [and] cold-blooded assassinations of women and children and Chinese shop owners”. Dili’s bishop at the time, Martinho da Costa Lopes: “The soldiers who landed started killing everyone they could find. There were many dead bodies in the streets — all we could see were the soldiers killing, killing, killing.”
Philip Liechty, CIA desk officer in Jakarta at the time of the invasión: “We sent the Indonesian generals everything that you need to fight a major war against somebody who doesn’t have any guns. We sent them rifles, ammunition, mortars, grenades, food, helicopters. You name it; they got it. And they got it direct… No one cared. No one gave a damn. It is something that I will be forever ashamed of. The only justification I ever heard for what we were doing was there was concern that East Timor was on the verge of being accepted as a new member of the United Nations and there was a chance that the country was going to be either leftist or neutralist and not likely to vote [with the United States] at the UN.”
US reporter Allan Nairn happened to witness, and narrowly survived, one massacre of unarmed protestors in the East Timor capital, Dili, in November 1991: “The soldiers marched straight up to us [Western journalists]. They never broke their stride. We were enveloped by the troops, and when they got a few yards past us, within a dozen yards of the Timorese, they raised their rifles to their shoulders all at once, and they opened fire. The Timorese, in an instant, were down, just torn apart by the bullets. The street was covered with bodies covered with blood. And the soldiers just kept on coming. They poured in, one rank after another. They leaped over the bodies of those who were down. They were aiming and shooting people in the back. I could see their limbs being torn, their bodies exploding. There was blood spurting out into the air. The pop of the bullets, everywhere. And it was very organized, very systematic. The soldiers did not stop. They just kept on shooting until no one was left standing.”
http://espressostalinist.com/genocide/indonesia-east-timor/
[On 7 December 1975, Indonesian forces invaded East Timor[27] (…) On 10 December, a second invasion resulted in the capture of the second biggest town, Baucau, and on Christmas Day, around 10,000 to 15,000 troops landed at Liquisa and Maubara. By April 1976 Indonesia had some 35,000 soldiers in East Timor, with another 10,000 standing by in Indonesian West Timor. A large proportion of these troops were from Indonesia’s elite commands. By the end of the year, 10,000 troops occupied Dili and another 20,000 had been deployed throughout East Timor.[28] (…) In the cities, Indonesian troops began killing East Timorese[29]] (…) The ‘final solution’ campaigns involved two primary tactics: The ‘encirclement and annihilation’ campaign involved bombing villages and mountain areas from aeroplanes, causing famine and defoliation of ground cover. When surviving villagers came down to lower-lying regions to surrender, the military would simply shoot them. Other survivors were placed in resettlement camps where they were prevented from travelling or cultivating farmland. In early 1978, the entire civilian population of Arsaibai village, near the Indonesian border, was killed for supporting Fretilin [Frente Revolucionária de Timor-Leste Independente] after being bombarded and starved.[30] (…) The success of the ‘encirclement and annihilation’ campaign led to the ‘final cleansing campaign’, in which children and men from resettlement camps would be forced to hold hands and march in front of Indonesian units searching for Fretilin members. When Fretilin members were found, the members would be forced to surrender or to fire on their own people.[31] (…) In March 1976, UDT (Timor Democratic Union) leader Lopes da Cruz reported that 60,000 Timorese had been killed during the invasion.[32] A delegation of Indonesian relief workers agreed with this statistic[33] (…) In an interview on 5 April 1977 with the Sydney Morning Herald, Indonesian Foreign Minister Adam Malik said the number of dead was “50,000 people or perhaps 80,000.[34] (…) Amnesty International estimated that one third of East Timor’s population, or 200,000 in total, died from military action, starvation and disease from 1975 to 1999. (…) The UN’s Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor estimated the number of deaths during the occupation from famine and violence to be between 90,800 and 202,600 including between 17,600 and 19,600 violent deaths or disappearances, out of a 1999 population of approximately 823,386. The truth commission held Indonesian forces responsible for about 70% of the violent killings.[35] [36] [37] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesian_invasion_of_East_Timor
[On 20 January 2006, Juwono Sudarsono, the Indonesian Defence Minister, responded to the CAVR (Comissao de Acolhimento, Verdade e Reconciliacao) Report by saying: “This is a war of numbers and data about things that never happened…”] http://www.cavr-timorleste.org/updateFiles/english/CONFLICT-RELATED%20DEATHS.pdf
[US President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger were in Jakarta visiting Indonesian President Suharto the two days before the invasion. There’s little doubt that Ford gave Suharto the green light to invade. Kissinger told reporters in Jakarta that the US understands Indonesia’s position on the question of East Timor, and Ford said that, given a choice between East Timor and Indonesia, the US had to be on the side of Indonesia. (US support for the invasion was important to Suharto because ABRI (the Indonesian military) relied heavily on US weaponry, which US law states can only be used for defensive purposes.) (…) Indonesia, with its fertile soils, wealth of natural resources and strategic location, is certainly an important area to control or rely on. In a 1965 speech in Asia, Richard Nixon argued in favor of bombing North Vietnam to protect the immense mineral potential of Indonesia, which he later referred to as by far the greatest prize in the southeast Asian area. (…) Support for Indonesia’s actions in East Timor and elsewhere is a small price to pay for the investment opportunities (and political support) Indonesia offers. So the US not only refused to condemn the invasion, but sharply increased aid to Indonesia since then. (…) Indonesia’s occupation was described (in a report to the Australian parliament) as “indiscriminate killing on a scale unprecedented in post-World War II history”]http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/US_ThirdWorld/genocide_Odon.html
Amy Goodman, journalist from Pacifica Radio: “In 1975, Indonesian military regime under Suharto, the dictator, (and we mustn’t confuse the Indonesian people with the Indonesian military), the Indonesian military invaded East Timor. East Timor is a small country about 300 miles north of Australia, it had been occupied by Portugal for more than 400 years. Portugal went through a democratic revolution in 1974, was disbanding its empire in Africa as well as East Timor and East Timor was going through a decolonization process. At the end of November 1975, they declared independence. And then on December 7, 1975, just more than a week later, Indonesia, the fourth largest country in the world, invaded East Timor. (…) Indonesia invaded by land, by air, by sea, East Timor. First, they went after the capital Dili and thousands of people who lived there dragging thousands of people down to the sea and shooting them into it as their loved ones counted them off. (…) Just before the invasion there were six journalists who were covering the events leading up to the invasion as the Indonesians came over from West Timor, the military and then ultimately had their full scale invasion on December 7th, and there were five journalist in a small town called Balibo and they lined them up against a house and they executed them. They cut off their genitals, shoved them in their mouths and they suffocated to death as they shot them. Indonesia full well knows how serious it is when word gets out and so they tried very hard not to let word get out about what was happening. In fact, after the invasion of December 7th 1975, they closed East Timor to the outside world for more than a decade as they killed the Timorese inside, killing more than a third of the population. One of the worst genocides in the late 20th century, proportionately worse than Cambodia. (…) But, in the case of Indonesia, Indonesia was an official ally of the United States and so Ford, and then Carter, Reagan, Bush and then Clinton are not going to speak about the atrocities that Indonesia has committed in East Timor. And because they didn’t and because the U.S. corporate media rarely diverges from the Washington agenda, the U.S. media hardly covered it at all. One report, the day after the invasion, by Walter Cronkite, for 40 seconds, announced that Indonesia had invaded East Timor. And then in the corporate press in the broadcast networks NBC, ABC, CBS, even PBS there was not a mention of East Timor for the next 17 years.” http://www.addictedtowar.com/docs/indonesia.htm
[the U.S. has provided Indonesia with hundreds of millions of dollars in economic and military assistance, greatly facilitating the colonization of East Timor. On the diplomatic front, the U.S. has helped to block any effective action on the issue. Former U.N. Ambassador Daniel Patrick Moynihan openly bragged, in his book A Dangerous Place, about how he carried out with “no inconsiderable success” U.S. policy to render the U.N. “utterly ineffective” on East Timor. (…) Unfortunately, the general media silence on East Timor has left the U.S. public in the dark, helping to facilitate one of the great genocides of the late 20th century. Exposure of the tragedy of East Timor–and of the U.S. government role–is essential to the future of the East Timorese people.] http://fair.org/extra-online-articles/east-timor-media-turned-their-backs-on-genocide/
[other Western nations, including Britain and France, also took advantage of Indonesia’s increased demand for military supplies caused by its massacre in East Timor. These nations shipped arms to Indonesia during the massacre, albeit in much smaller quantities than the U.S. (…) After the invasion in December 1975, armed resistance prevented the Indonesian armed forces from gaining control over the country until 1979. Indonesia’s campaign of encirclement and annihilation (1977-1979) achieved its goal due to substantial supplies from the US in 1976 and 1977 of OV10-Broncos, Lockheed C-130 transport planes, 45 Cadillac Cage V-150 commando armoured vehicles equipped with machine-guns, mortar and cannon launchers and a huge quantity of rifles, machine-gun, pistols and communications equipment. This enabled the invaders to devastate areas where the armed resistance and most of the population were holding out. There were huge casualties (an estimated 200,000 deaths in a population of 700,000), cause by heavy bombing and war-related famine and disease. This was followed by the enforced re-settlement of most surviving Timorese in strategic settlements under army control[38] (…) Father Leoneto Vieira do Rego, a Portuguese priest who spent 3 years in the mountains of East Timor, before surrendering to Indonesia in January 1979, estimated that over 200,000 people had been killed during the first 4 years of the war]
Canadian Catholic Church: “The invasion, which could have served as the model for Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait a decade-and-a-half later, has claimed the lives of 250,000 Timorese –more than a third of the population– through war, famine, and an aggressive forced birth control programme said to include forced abortions, involuntary sterilization of women, and murder by injection of newborns in hospitals”[39]
On October 8, 1977, the Australian, reported: “30,000 Indonesian troops are still roaming East Timor slaying men, women and children in an attempt to end the persistent but hopeless liberation war”[40]
Father Leoneto Vieira do Rego, a Portuguese priest who spent 3 years in the mountains of East Timor: “The second phase of the bombing was late 1977 to early 1979, with modern aircraft. This was the firebombing phase of the bombing. Even up to this time, people could still live. The genocide and starvation was the result of the full-scale incendiary bombing. (…) The Indonesians attacked relentlessly with infantry and with U.S.-supplied armed reconnaissance planes known as the OV-10 (Bronco)[41]
FRETILIN (Frente Revolucionária de Timor-Leste Independente or FReTiLIn): “American military advisers and mercenaries fought alongside Indonesian soldiers against FRETILIN in two battles … In the meantime, American pilots are flying OV-10 Bronco aircraft for the Indonesian Air Force in bombing raids against the liberated areas under FRETILIN control”
In May, 1980, Brian Eads reported: “…malnutrition and disease are still more widespread than in ravaged Cambodia, but the people of East Timor are slowly struggling back to life. Perhaps the most telling observation came from an official who had recently visited Cambodia. By the criteria of distended bellies, intestinal disease and brachial parameter … the East Timorese are in a worse state than the Khmers”[42]
In its report of January 1991, Amnesty International stated: “[Amnesty International] remains concerned about a continuing pattern of serious violations described in its August 1990 statement, persistent reports of extrajudicial executions, the systematic use of torture against political detainees by members of the security forces, hundreds of unresolved cases of `disappearances’ and the continuing imprisonment of at least 10 alleged supporters of Fretilin sentenced in trials which Amnesty International believes were not fair. Amnesty International is increasingly concerned about a pattern of short-term detention, ill-treatment and torture of alleged political opponents of Indonesian rule in East Timor which has gained additional momentum since August.”
Allan Nairn, an American reporter: “Last Tuesday in the occupied nation of East Timor, I survived a massacre carried out with American arms. (…) As a large, peaceful crowd stood outside a walled cemetery, the Indonesian army attacked them with M-16 rifles. (…) Dozens upon dozens fell to the ground around me, as ranks of soldiers aimed and fired into the terrified, retreating people. (…) It was a calculated mass murder, the latest of many in East Timor, where 200,000 people (a third of the population) have died from massacre and forced starvation since Indonesia invaded there in 1975 (…) The marching had already ended and people were standing around when the army swept toward us from two directions. A troop truck full of helmeted men sealed off one escape route when a long, formed-up stream of soldiers brandishing their M-16s rounded the corner and opened fire upon the crowd. (…) There was no provocation, no spontaneous flare-up, no threat to the soldiers or warning to disperse. The soldiers simply advanced upon the gasping Timorese and began firing in a coordinated way. (…) The Timorese were paying the price for daring to engage in public speech. In the eyes of the Indonesian army, that is the crime of `politik.’ That is the word the soldiers screamed as they kicked me in the back and gut and beat my head with swinging rifle butts. It is also what they shouted as they put both of us on the pavement and aimed their M-16s straight at our heads. (…) The answer we shouted back –and I think it is what saved us– was the word “America!” We were citizens of the country that supplied those M-16s. Killing us might invite somewhat different results from killing the Timorese whom they were just at that moment executing just a few feet away from where we sat. (…) For 16 years now, the mass killing of Timorese has simply been met by fresh renewals of U.S. military aid. After Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975, Washington responded by doubling the weapons flow. (…) Now, after the cemetery massacre, the people of East Timor are in especially urgent danger (…) The question before Washington is not whether it should restrain Indonesia, but whether it will continue to serve as a sponsor and knowing accomplice in what are unmistakably criminal acts. The United States should end all military aid and sales to Indonesia and, at the same time, let the U.N. enforce the law (…) Gunshot massacres with U.S. weapons by U.S. client states have happened many times in many places. But this is the first time that I am aware that the act was witnessed and survived by U.S. journalists. (…) The lives of a great many gravely threatened Timorese now hang on how Americans will respond.[43] http://www.mega.nu/ampp/nunestimor.html
[The U.S. role in the recent catalog of horrors in East Timor is deep and far reaching, the culmination of over three decades of nurturing the Indonesian fascist regime. Just as the U.S. mainstream media has attempted to suppress the clear connection between the Indonesian military and its militias in carrying out genocide in East Timor, the U.S. government and its corporate sponsors vigorously deny any role in the slaughter and devastation there. (…) in September 1999 (…) Throughout East Timor thousands were murdered, hundreds of thousands made homeless, entire cities burnt to the ground. There is ample evidence that the U.S. government knew this was coming, and that their trained killers would play a leading role. (…) in late 1998 (…) At the end of October, the East Timor Action Network, another major player in bringing about this change, reported that Indonesian military confidential documents it had obtained revealed a troop buildup in East Timor. This included one Kopassus company and Kopassus intelligence and headquarters units still in the territory. Indonesia claims that all Special Forces have been withdrawn. (…) The report also stated that the documents contradict the claim by Indonesia that paramilitary groups are not under ABRI’s command, and quoted an Australian group that released the documents as stating that these forces are perceived by ABRI’s administration to be part of their operational structure. (…) The Melbourne newspaper reported on September 17 the eyewitness testimony of Joao Brito, 15, of Ermera in East Timor: He told of events on 3 September, the day the result of the 30 August autonomy referendum was announced. (…) Then the terrorists marched through the village, burning buildings, shooting, and slashing people with machetes. (…) Fascism proved to be very good for business until the economic collapse of recent years. Through it all the main sponsor and beneficiary has been the USA. Now that the recent horrors in East Timor have finally pricked the world’s conscience, it is the height of hypocrisy for Clinton and Cohen to condemn the bloodbath that was the end result of a policy of protecting U.S. interests and investments in Indonesia at all costs.]
Joao Brito, eyewitness testimony of the independence leaders’s killings: “The soldiers, armed with automatic weapons and carrying cans of petrol, were after independence leaders. (…) They called house-to-house and they burned out the political leaders, (…) When the houses burnt, they let the women and children out, but they pushed the men back into the fire where they died. (…) After they cut with machete, they shouted and danced because they are happy they kill people, (…) They say you dogs. You do not have the right to independence.”
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Asia/GenocideEastTimor_Z.html
Documentary “Dalan Ba Dame” that shows testimonies of survivors of the East Timor genocide by the Indonesia military forces: [Civilians that surrendered were sent to live in concentration camps controlled by the Indonesian military. There was very little food and medicine. International aid didn’t reach the people. Thousands died of starvation and disease (…) Sexual violation of women also became a weapon used in the war. (…) The Indonesian military established a large number of interrogation centres across the country. (…) There were no trials, and many prisoners simple disappeared. (…) In the 1980s Timor-Leste came close to being dropped from the international agenda. Many nations accepted Indonesia’s annexation of Timor as legitimate. Economic and strategic interests were higher priorities that the principle of international law. (…) [In 1975] Indonesian soldiers and civil authorities took many Timorese children away from their families to Indonesia. In the early years of the conflict the Indonesian military forced Timorese children to work, providing logistical support to the soldiers who were fighting. These children were called TBO’s. (…) On 30 August everyone came out to vote at the polling centres (…) Because of all the attacks, UNAMET [United Nations Mission in East Timor] pulled out all their staff from all the districts. Dili, on 4 September, was very dangerous due to military activity. (…) The police, TNI and militia forced thousands and thousands of people across the border into East Timor. (…) Many people sought refuge in the Suai church. The militia completely surrounded them.]
Survivor 1: “It was a terrifying time. At that moment, we just assumed we were going to die. We stop thinking about living. ”
Survivor 2: “Some people surrendered because the situation was unbearable, others were captured.”
Survivor 3: “When some of the people surrendered they were beaten and pelted with rocks until blood flowed. In the evening, they were taken away to be killed. (…) At that time many friends were also imprisoned with me. They were also beaten and given electric shocks. And one friend, right in front of us, was raped. (…) Then I left prison but I wasn’t completely free. Even after I left the prison they continued to rape me until eventually I had a child.”
Survivor 4: “Many friends died. Many were beaten to death. When they were being beaten they yelled out and we could hear them. It was very distressing. Some died because they were ill. We slept on the bare ground. We slept on the bare cement. We had no food. Some became ill from the cold. Some caught tuberculosis and died. That any of us managed to survive to see today is a miracle. Back then there was no concept of Human Rights. At that time we had no human rights. We suffered terribly. We were powerless.”
Survivor 5: “By the end of 1979 things were becoming unbearable. People were starving and some had died, especially children and pregnant women. Many of them died of hunger. Those who got sick did not recover. If you got sick, you died.”
Survivor 6: “In 1979 a lot of people died – about 40 or 50 every day. In this house people were wailing, and in that house people were wailing. Sometimes a person would lose two or three children all at once.”
Survivor 7: “We lived with them as if we were their wives. They played with us as if we were something of no value, as if we were their dolls. No matter what they did to us we just had to accept it because there was no-one to rescue us. They had already killed our husbands. They said if we do not do what they want they would kill us. We spoke out but there was no-one to save us. (…) Some suffered stress, some went mad, some died. I myself became seriously ill for about four years.”
Survivor 8: “From 1980 to 1982 the Indonesian military sent political prisoners, from the area between Manatuto and Lospalos, to Atauro. I have a list with 8.000 names on it. Together with the residents of Atauro that makes 8.400. Eighty percent [80%] of those 8.400 people were women and children. On Atauro there was no food, no shelter, no toilets. The children were starving. The milk of breastfeeding mothers just dried up. And there was cholera.”
Survivor 9: “They beat and beat me until I lost consciousness. We couldn’t recognize each other, because our faces were so bruised and swollen. Senhor Joao who used to work as a guard there, will remember how our faces were all swollen. We couln’t even touch them. Blood just poured down. They took us on the airplane like this. They blindfolded us and tied us tightly until we arrived in Kupang. (…) They gave us one spoonful of rice per day. They brought one plate of rice and gave us one spoonful. Each person got one spoonful. We cried every day. They put each of us in a separate room. We would go drink some water, come back, try to sleep, go drink some water, try to sleep, get up again and cry because each day all we eat was one spoon of rice. And then the Indonesians would come and say: Do you still remember how to eat this rice…? It’s better to give this food to the pigs than to you, because you oppose this country. You do not love Soeharto, so you cannot live in this world.”
Survivor 10: “They practically beat me to death. One night they shocked me 5 times. Five times I reached a point where I could not move. I felt my soul leave my body. My legs were shaking. I lay sprawled out on the cement. One of the Indonesians soldiers, Pak Heri, raped me. The soldiers thought I was as good as gone. They lifted me up and put me in a chicken coop behind the intelligence unit toilets. One evening they raped me until 4 or 5 am. When I was put there it was all dark and covered in urine. I just slept on the filth. ”
José Manuel Ramos-Horta, ex president of East Timor: “In the course of our 24 year struggle everyone knew that violations of human rights, torture, killings, disappearances and violation against women were regular occurrences in East Timor. These problems occurred because of the occupation, and because Indonesia and the international community did not recognize Timorese human rights, including, above all, our right to self-determination. In the international treaties about human rights, Article one, talks about human rights. The right to self-determination is a human right, and violation of the right to self-determination is violation of a fundamental human right.”
Survivor 11: “As the day of the popular consultation [voting East Timor independence from Indonesia] approached, many people moved up into the mountains. I know this because they collected food from our place. (…) Before they attacked us the militia surrounded us shooting, shooting, making a huge noise, a huge noise.”
Survivor 12: “I saw virtually all the voting centres, because at that time I was working in the media. I saw that though many people were afraid, they took the attitude: you can only die once –you cannot die twice. In some places, I felt very sad because I saw old men struggling alone with walking sticks, old women with bad legs walking anyway. But they had such courage to go and vote while saying: If it is our destiny to die, you can only die once. And this moved me very much.”
Survivor 13: “The UN announced that day, Timor had voted for independence. We were still at home watching it on TV. Although we were happy because we had won, we could not express it by shouting out or celebrating, because there was already lots of shooting outside. And they had begun to burn down nearby houses. (…) After the vote the terror began to be very intense. (…) People ran for shelter in the UNAMET compound. Some didn’t manage to get in, and were killed on the streets outside.”
Survivor 14: “We were scared that the militia were going to attack us in Dare. Then there would be nowhere else to run. (…) We felt completely alone. We were totally abandoned. There was no one to help us. We felt the international community had closed its eyes, closed its ears. That they didn’t see our suffering. They didn’t see our anguish, didn’t hear our screams. On 19 September 1999, they say over the radio there had been agreement to intervention by the international community in East Timor. From Dare we could see the whole of Dili. We could see what was happening. We could see that they were still burning houses. Finally from there we saw the first airplane flying in. Less that thirty minutes later we saw eight helicopters flying in. And the people in the mountains were shouting and cheering (…) they could stop the violence, and we could start to live again.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdXHFan6TK0
[This video is a documentary about the invasion of East Timor. It can be seen more testimonies of the slaughters and violence perpetrated by Indonesian military.]
Documentary: “September 17 1975: … Jakarta is now sending guerrillas to provoke incidents that provide an excuse to invade. (…) In 1983 General Suharto received the UN Prize for his support for family planning.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLKBiDz8mao
SECOND EVALUATION.- Of the Evidence provided there is no doubt about their authenticity considering their origin, since each evidence compiled comes from an internet link where it is found the corresponding information that supports and strengthens the evidence through an article. Regarding the proofs offered and that support the aforementioned Charges (case that does not occupy nor is in our remit to know or decide jurisdictionally in this matter on our Part), there is no objection, disqualification or invalidation of the digital content by the Party I represent, by virtue of they are digital media coming from reliable sources and also were formally and openly declared and published in due course, which are full, genuine and truthful evidence.-
THIRD EVALUATION.- Due to what was exposed, published and declared and that are now presented as digital Evidence for this Case by the Executive Secretary of IBEC and BTHR Master Yan Maitri-Shi, such proofs are determined as LEGITIMATE and VALID by the Part I represent as Prosecutor of IBEC and BTHR. These evidences support and confirm the Accusation presented by the World Association of Buddhism to Indonesia & President Joko Widodo by 7 charges against them.-
In such a situation, it is given start to the Fifth Stage of the Procedure called the “Judgment”, in which it is set the term of 5 five days to Jury Members to decide whether the Accused is “innocent” or “responsible” for the charges against them concerning the, accepted and valuedevidence in this writing.-
Sekkha Dhamma
Prosecutor of IBEC & BTHR
Mexico , February 2016 two thousand sixteen
[1] http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/content/2002/timber_mafia/resources/resources_indonesia.htm
[2] http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=5728
[3] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/18/AR2009111804162.html
[4] http://www.smh.com.au/victoria/worlds-worst-illegal-logging-in-indonesia-20140629-zsq5j
[5] http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/deforestation-in-indonesia-is-double-the-government-s-official-rate/
[6] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6927890.stm
[7] http://www.orangutans-sos.org/orangutans
[8] http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/files/pdfs/forests/cooking-the-climate-1.pdf
[9] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/indonesia/10140222/Indonesian-president-apologises-over-Singapore-haze.html
[10]http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/footprint/agriculture/palm_oil/environmental_impacts/soil_water_pollution/
[11]http://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/researchnews/tippingtowardstheunknown/thenineplanetaryboundaries.4.1fe8f33123572b59ab80007039.html
[12] http://www1.american.edu/ted/ORANG.HTM
[13] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/18/AR2009111804162.html
[14] http://www.animalinfo.org/country/indones.htm
[15] http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/19/singapore-pollution-haze-indonesia-air-quality
[16]http://www.greenpeace.org/seasia/id/PageFiles/645408/FULL%20REPORT%20Coal%20Mining%20Polluting%20South%20Kalimantan%20Water_Lowres.pdf
[17] www.amnesty.org/en/region/indonesia/report-2012#section-2-6
[18] www.amnesty.org/en/region/indonesia/report-2012#section-2-6
[19] OSBORNE, INDONESIA’S SECRET WAR, supra note 4, at 50
[20] Seth Rumkorem, a former Free Papua Movement (the “OPM”) leader, described this massacre to Tahanan Politik (“TAPOL”) in 1984. TAPOL is the name of a London (UK)-based organization campaigning for human rights in Indonesia. The acronym is the name for “political prisoner” in Indonesia. See TAPOL, The Indonesian Human Rights Campaign, at http://tapol.gn.apc.org/ (last visited July 5, 2002).
[21] BUDIARDJO & LIONG, WEST PAPUA,supra note 10, at 79-80 (quoting Henk de Mari, in DE TELEGRAF, Oct. 11, 12, & 19, 1974). Extracts from these articles were published in TAPOL BULLETIN, No. 8, January 1975).
[22] Id
[23] BUDIARDJO & LIONG, WEST PAPUA,supra note 10, at 34.
[24] OSBORNE, INDONESIA’S SECRET WAR, supra note 4, at 70.
[25] The Papua New Guinea government estimated that at least 2,500 West Papuans were killed in Madi, while Dutch TV reporters suggested the much higher figure. OSBORNE, INDONESIA’S SECRET WAR, supra note 4, at 87-88.
[26] Prosecuting beliefs: Indonesia’s blasphemy laws (ASA 21/018/2014) www.amnesty.org/en/documents/ASA21/018/2014/en
[27]https://books.google.com.au/books?id=ZjC1cGfvARQC&dq=7+December+1975,+East+Timor&source=gbs_navlinks_s&hl=es
[28] Ramos-Horta, pp. 107–08; Budiardjo and Liong, p. 23.
[29] Hill, p. 210.
[30] Taylor, p. 85
[31] John Taylor, “Encirclement and Annihilation,” in The Spector of Genocide: Mass Murder in the Historical Perspective, ed. Robert Gellately & Ben Kiernan (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp. 166–67
[32] James Dunn cites a study by the Catholic Church suggesting that as many as 60,000 Timorese had been killed by the end of 1976. This figure does not appear to include those killed in the period between the start of the civil war in August 1975 and the invasion on 7 December. See James Dunn, “The Timor Affair in International Perspective”, in Carey and Bentley, eds., East Timor at the Crossroads, p. 66
[33] Taylor (1991), p. 71.
[34] Quoted in Turner, p. 207
[35]http://www.google.co.uk/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&met_y=sp_pop_totl&idim=country:TMP&dl=en&hl=en&q=east+timor+population
[36] http://www.cavr-timorleste.org/en/Brief.htm (Death Toll)
[37] http://www.cavr-timorleste.org/updateFiles/english/CONFLICT-RELATED%20DEATHS.pdf
[38] TAPOL (the Indonesia Human Rights Campaign), Backgrounder on East Timor, 1991.
[39] David Webster, “Bishop of East Timor: Campaign of Terror Has Begun,” Catholic New Times, Canada, November, 17, 1990.
[40] Noam Chomsky, Edward S. Herman, The Political Economy of Human Rights: Volume 1 — The Washington Connection and Third World Fascism, Black Rose Books, 1979.
[41] Noam Chomsky, Towards a New Cold War: Essays on the Current Crisis and How We Got Here, Pantheon Books, 1982.
[42] Noam Chomsky, Towards a New Cold War: Essays on the Current Crisis and How We Got Here, Pantheon Books, 1982.
[43] Allan Nairn, “A Narrow Escape from East Timor,” U.S.A. Today, November 21, 1991.
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