According to an activist of KINGMI (Gospel Tabernacle Church) Papua, the assault took place on 20 March 2014 in the Senior High School (SMU) complex Yapis Nabire, Papua. Siluwanus Nagapapa was trying to stop the brutal action of ten members of the Mobile Brigade of Nabire District Police against an inebriated Papuan. However, the police were offended by Siluwanus and attacked him by slashing and stabbing him about the head and back.
(Photo: Paulus Kobogau was slashed about the head by police officers in Nabire for attempting to stop the police brutality. Courtesy of KINGMI activist)
Attempting to save himself, Siluwanus Nagapapa fled to the house of Paulus Kobogau. Seeing Siliwunus was bleeding, Paulus tried to prevent the police from getting into his house by standing in front of the door. He asked the police why they were chasing and injuring Siluwanus. Yet, instead of responding to Paulus’s question, the police brutally attacked him. Paulus was stabbed five times in the back and slashed about the head with a knife, kicked, pelted with stones, and struck with a wooden stick as well as guns by the police.
Siluwanus Nagapapa and Paulus Kobogou were later arrested and detained at Nabire District Police Station. After being detained for two hours, Paulus was taken to Siriwini Nabire Hospital because he had lost a great deal of blood and fainted, while Siluwanus was taken to the same hospital on the next day after he too fainted in the detention cell. After one week of treatment, both were allowed to go home and to receive outpatient medical treatment. There has been no investigation conducted into this case and the victims must bear the cost of their own medical treatment.
Video of an interview with Paulus Kobogau is available in Indonesian here.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
Indonesia has ratified the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UNCAT) by enacting the Law No. 5 of 1998. Freedom from torture as a non derogable right is also guaranteed by the Constitution (UUD 1945). The guarantee is further enshrined in various regulations in Indonesia, ranging from the Law No. 39 of 1999 on Human Rights, to internal regulations of state institutions. In 2009, for example, the Chief of the Indonesian National Police issued a regulation that requires police officers to respect human rights principles in performing their duties.
However, all these regulations are not adequate to stop the practice of torture and to ensure the perpetrators are tried and punished, especially in Papua. The ongoing conflict in Papua is what triggering many practices of violence, torture, and assault. This case was a second attack by the police Mobile Brigade of Nabire in the same week. Previously, over a small dispute small dispute, members of the Mobile Brigade of Nabire District Police stabbed two Papuans with bayonets.