Filep Karma, a prominent Papuan activist and former political prisoner, was found dead  yesterday on a beach in the Papuan city of Jayapura.

He had been on a diving trip with his brother-in-law and nephew, and apparently went diving alone after his relatives left the trip early.

Karma, 63, a master diver with three decades’ experience, was found wearing his scuba diving suit.

His daughter said he had died because of a tragic “accident and drowning”.

I had met Karma in 2008 when I visited a Jayapura prison to interview political inmates.

Karma was clearly the leader that the other prisoners looked to for inspiration. He articulated his principles for the human rights and self-determination of the Papuan people.

We quickly became friends, discussing and debating the human rights situation in Papua.

Educated about mistreatment
Filep Karma was born in 1959 in Jayapura, the capital of Indonesia’s Papua province. Karma told me his father educated him about the mistreatment of Indigenous Papuans under Indonesian rule.

In 1998, Karma organised a protest on Biak Island, calling for independence for Papua while raising the Morning Star flag, a symbol of independence banned by Indonesia’s government.

Indonesian military forces violently broke up the protest. Karma was imprisoned, then released in 1999.

In 2004, he organised another Morning Star protest following the killing of Theys Eluai, another pro-independence leader. The authorities tried and sentenced Karma to 15 years in prison for “treason”.

In 2010, Human Rights Watch published a report on political prisoners in Papua and the Moluccas Islands, launching a global campaign to release the prisoners.

Karma’s detention a ‘violation’
In 2011, Karma’s mother, Eklefina Noriwari, petitioned the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention for Karma’s release. The working group determined Karma’s detention had violated international law, and called on the Indonesian government to release him.

The authorities only released Karma in 2015.

After his release, Karma embraced a wider agenda of political activism. He spoke about human rights and environmental protection. He campaigned for the rights of minorities. He organised help for political prisoners’ families.

Karma’s humour, integrity, and moral courage was an inspiration to many people. His death is a huge loss, not only for Papuans, but for many people across Indonesia and the Pacific who have lost a human rights hero.

Andreas Harsono is the Indonesia researcher for Human Rights Watch where this article was first published. Republished with the author’s permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

More leading Indonesian figures have made racial slurs against Natalius Pigai, former chair of the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) – and all West Papuans, says United Liberation Movement of West Papua (ULMWP) interim president Benny Wenda.

“Since the illegal Indonesian invasion in 1963, Indonesian elites have made clear their racist plans to destroy Melanesian West Papuans as a distinct people,” said Wenda in a statement.

Last month retired General Hendropriyono, former head of the Indonesian intelligence agency (BIN) and special forces (Kopassus) general, claimed that two million West Papuans should be separated from their Melanesian brothers and sisters in the Pacific and moved to the island of Manado in Indonesia.

“This is racial ethnic cleansing, a genocidal fantasy at the highest levels of the Indonesian state,” Wenda said.

Last week, one of President Jokowi’s most prominent supporters called a leading West Papuan human rights defender a “monkey”, the same racial slur that sparked the 2019 West Papua Uprising.

Ambronicus Nababan, chair of the Pro Jokowi-Amin Volunteers (Projamin), made the racial comment about Natalius Pigai, former head of Indonesia’s leading human rights group.

“These remarks stand in a long tradition. When Indonesia invaded our land, General Ali Moertopo said the Papuan people should be transferred to the moon,” Wenda said in the statement.

‘Obstacle to development’
“In 2016, General Luhut Panjaitan said the Papuans should be transferred to the Pacific. Indonesia’s rulers have always seen us as sub-human, as an obstacle to ‘development’ that needs to be ethnically cleansed and killed.

“My people rose up against this racism and colonisation in 2019. Thousands of students returned from the rest of Indonesia in an exodus from racism, dozens were killed by Indonesia, and hundreds arrested.

“The Indonesian state punished those who spoke out with over 100 years of collective prison time. The killers and racists in the army, police and state-backed militias were allowed to go free.”

These are not just statements from Indonesian officials, Wenda’s statement said.

They were linked to the military operations that had displaced more than 60,000 people since December 2018. The racist attitudes “justify treating us as second-class citizens, torturing and imprisoning us for exercising our rights to free expression under international law”.

Indonesia’s settler colonial project in West Papua had been built on racism.

Wenda said this was why the ULMWP provisional government was formed on December 1 last year.

‘We are no longer accepting Indonesian law’
“We are no longer accepting any Indonesian law, policy or proposal. We will not bow down to Indonesian rule any more. The provisional government is issuing the following four points:

1. We reject all forms of Indonesian law enforced in West Papua;
2. We support the 83 countries demanding Indonesia allow the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights into West Papua;
3. The solution to West Papuan suffering is an independence referendum; and
4. All West Papuans must unite behind the provisional government.

“It is time to end this: no more torture, no more displacement, no more killing, no more discrimination. To all my people, those who are working in the Indonesian government, in the civil service, professionals, exiles, lawyers, those inside, in the highlands, coasts, islands and towns – we are no longer Indonesian citizens.

“We are forming our own Melanesian nation. Come behind the provisional government, and we will peacefully reclaim our country and refuse Indonesia’s illegal occupation of our territory.”

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz