A national network of groups supporting freedom and justice for West Papua has called on Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta to condemn Indonesian charges of treason against accused West Papuan Victor Yeimo.

They have called for the release of Yeimo, who this week rejected charges against him in a court hearing in the Papuan provincial capital of Jayapura.

Spokesperson Catherine Delahunty, a former Green Party MP, described the charges against West Papua National Committee (KNPB) international spokesperson as “trumped up” and said Yeimo had suffered a “serious health crisis”.

“In addition to taking a strong position in support of Ukraine at this terrible moment we are asking Nanaia Mahuta to stand up for human rights in our neighbourhood,” she said in a statement.

“Last week Victor Yeimo was charged with treason for participating in an antiracism peaceful protest on August 19, 2019.

“He also spoke against the abuse of West Papuan students, which included hours of being harangued and called ‘monkeys’ before being beaten and arrested.

“That is his only ‘crime’, but for that he has been detained for ten months, suffered a serious health crisis and is now in court facing trumped up charges of treason,” Delahunty said.

Yeimo charged with makar
In Jayapura, the preliminary court hearing against Yeimo was held at the Jayapura District Court in Abepura, Papua, on last Monday, reports Suara Papua.

During the hearing, the public prosecutor read out the indictment in which he charged Yeimo under the makar (treason, subversion, rebellion) articles.

The defence believes that the charges are excessive because what happened in August 2019 was a response to the racism which was “rooted in the nature of the Indonesian population against Papuans”.

The prosecution said that during the protest actions which ended in riots on August 29, 2019, there was verbal as well as written involvement of the defendant along with his colleague the chairperson of the KNPB, Agus Kossay, in demonstrations which were facilitated by the chairpeople of the Student Executive Council (BEM) in Jayapura.

“They [the chairpersons of the West Papua National Parliament (PNWP), the Federal Republic of West Papua (NRFPB), the West Papua National Coalition for Liberation (WPNCL) and the Free West Papua Campaign (FWPC), together with the defendant], called for, and took part in committing the act of makar with the maximum [aim] of all or part of the country’s territory [separating from Indonesia],” said prosecutor Andrianus Y. Tomana in reading out the charge sheet in the courtroom.

According to the prosecutor, Yeimo was being indicted for crimes under Article 106 of the Criminal Code (KUHP) in conjunction with Article 55 Paragraph (1) on the crime of makar, Article 110 Paragraph 1 of the KUHP on criminal conspiracy to commit a crime, and Article 110 Paragraph 2 on endeavoring to mobilise people or call on people to commit a crime.

In reply, Yeimo admitted that he had been involved as a participant in the anti-racist demonstration on August 19, 2019. However, the protest happened without problems and after it finished the protesters returned home.

‘I was arrested because of racism’
“I was arrested only because of the racism case, indeed I was involved and it’s true there were speeches.

“But it was not just me that gave speeches, the DPRP [Papua Regional House of Representatives] spoke, the governor spoke, all of the Papuan people spoke at the time. So if I’m being tried, why aren’t they being tried?” he asked.

Yeimo explained that he attended along with other Papuan people in order to oppose and to fight against the racism and this opposition was conveyed peacefully at the Papua governor’s office.

Delahunty said the Yeimo case had attracted a strong response from UN Special Rapporteurs, but in letters to the West Papua Action Network the New Zealand government only said it was “concerned” and that its officials “raise the case”.

The European Union Commission has called for Indonesia to allow their high commissioners to visit West Papua, specifically naming the Victor Yeimo case as a human rights issue.

“Our Foreign Minister needs to support the growing international calls for justice for Victor,” Delahunty said.

“She needs to condemn this outrage and call for the treason charges to be dropped and Victor Yeimo to be immediately released.”

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

By RNZ Pacific

Doused in black warpaint, draped in ammunition and clutching guns almost as big as some of them, the boys stare with hardened gazes into the camera.

The photo, taken somewhere in Papua’s remote hills, is like countless others released by the West Papua Liberation Army, a rebel group waging war on the Indonesian military and proclaiming independence from the state.

But unlike the stream of propaganda showing what the group says is its burgeoning guerrilla force, the ceremoniously staged scene in May appears to show children fighting within the Liberation Army’s ranks.

READ MORE: West Papuan Liberation Movement applies for full MSG membership

“These children automatically become fighters and opponents of the colonial military of Indonesia,” said Sebby Sambom, a spokesperson for the Liberation Army.

He said about a dozen soldiers between the ages of 15 and 18 were currently fighting for the rebel group in different parts of Papua.

Under international human rights laws, 18 is the minimum legal age for the recruitment and use of children in hostilities, according to the UN Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict.

Using children under the age of 15 as soldiers is defined as a war crime by the International Criminal Court.

Necessary combatants
Sambom, who is based in Papua New Guinea, accepted the Liberation Army was in violation of international conventions but said the enlistment of children as combatants was necessary because of what he described as oppression by the Indonesian military in Papua.

He said children had been fighting for various rebel groups in Papua for decades.

The Liberation Army has been under the spotlight since a renewed campaign in the Central Highlands regency of Nduga since late last year.

In December, its fighters massacred at least 16 Indonesian construction workers in Nduga who were working on a state roading project, the Trans-Papua Highway.

The attack, which also killed an Indonesian soldier, was the bloodiest in years and sparked a huge military-led hunt for the rebel fighters which has seen dozens killed on both sides in the past six months.

Scorched earth
The Liberation Army has accused Indonesia of a scorched earth campaign, which the military has denied.

Rights groups have documented a widespread displacement of civilians from Nduga as the Liberation Army and Indonesian military and police engage in frequent gunfights.

In April, the Irish human rights group Front Line Defenders said more than 32,000 people had been displaced from the regency since December.

Children have also been caught up.

The Humanity Volunteer Team of Nduga said in April there were more than 700 students at an emergency school for displaced people from Nduga that was set up in nearby Wamena.

Cycle of violence
Experts say the use of child soldiers in Papua is part of a cycle of violence, with many joining the fight after their parents die in battles with Indonesia’s military.

“Some of them feel angry. If there is no trauma healing process for these kids, it is a matter of time in coming years, in coming months, they will join their fellow friends in the jungle,” said Hipolitus Wangge, an Indonesian researcher who interviewed people displaced from Nduga this month.

He said one boy he interviewed in a Wamena displacement camp – who he estimated was aged between 10 and 11 – expressed a desire to join the Liberation Army, which is led in Nduga by Ekianus Kogoya, an ambitious commander who’s about 20 years old.

“To some refugees, they still see Eki as the commander, as one of the strongmen in the Highlands at the moment. Because he can fight, he can kill, and to some he can be a symbol of Papuan resistance,” said  Wangge.

Chris Wilson, a senior lecturer at Auckland University who specialises in terrorism and conflict in Indonesia, said the use of child soldiers would prolong the violence in Papua by enlisting young people in the conflict before they are fully developed.

“It’s going to be very difficult for them to be reintegrated into society once they’re involved in the actual violence from that type of age.”

“Overwhelming force”
Wilson said their presence would also complicate any clashes for Indonesia’s military, which would be likely prevented from using “overwhelming force” if it was aware of children within the rebels’ ranks.

A spokesperson for Indonesia’s military, Mohammed Aidi, said he did not know of the use of child soldiers by the Liberation Army.

This article is published under the Pacific Media Centre’s content partnership with Radio New Zealand.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

By Rambo Talabong in Manila

Outspoken critic Senator Antonio Trillanes IV has become the second opposition senator to be arrested under the Duterte presidency.

A team led by Makati police chief Senior Superintendent Rogelio Simon confirmed that the police served the arrest warrant on Trillanes yesterday for the charge of rebellion, hours after the document was released by Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 150 Executive Judge Elmo Alameda.

Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Jose Balajadia told reporters that the police followed protocol. He said the National Capital Region Police Office director Chief Superintendent Guillermo Eleazar served the warrant on Trillanes.

READ MORE: Why the Senate backed Trillanes but not De Lima vs Duterte – by Camille Elemia

Eleazar said in an interview on ANC that Trillanes voluntarily went with the arresting team. The senator had earlier said he would not resist arrest providing police presented a the proper warrant.

Trillanes was brought to the Makati City Central Police Station for charging procedures.

He was then taken to Makati RTC Branch 150 to post the bail of P200,000 (NZ$5600). He was accompanied by fellow opposition senators Kiko Pangilinan, Paolo Benigno Aquino IV, and Risa Hontiveros; as well as his Magdalo party colleagues.

-Partners-

The judge signed Trillanes’ release order before 5 pm.

Rebellion charge revived
The rebellion charge against Trillanes was revived after President Rodrigo Duterte issued Proclamation No. 572, revoking an amnesty granted to the senator in connection to the 2003 Oakwood mutiny and the 2007 Manila Peninsula siege.

Trillanes had questioned then Police Chief Ronald Del Rosa about extrajudicial killings in Duterte’s bloody, protracted war on drugs, and had also organised the testimony of former members of an alleged death squad that operated under the president while he was mayor of the city of Davao in the country’s south, reports CNN Philippines.

Another opposition senator, Leila de Lima, also a fierce critic of Duterte, has been detained in Camp Crame since February 2017, for drug charges.

Rambo Talabong is a journalist with the independent news website Rappler. Asia Pacific Report publishes under a Creative Commons licence.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz