There are renewed calls for United Nations monitors to be allowed in to Indonesia’s troubled Papua provinces, to verify what human rights groups describe as gross violations.
There are renewed calls for United Nations monitors to be allowed in to Indonesia’s troubled Papua provinces, to verify what human rights groups describe as gross violations.
Rights groups from around the world are meeting at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, trying to turn the spotlight on the region.
Norman Voss, from the International Coalition for West Papua, says Indonesia is keeping the territory isolated, repressing freedom of expression and jailing activists at unprecedented rates.
“We look at what local human rights organisations in Papua are documenting – we see we have a quite a high number of cases of torture, of political arrests during political demonstrations,” he told Radio Australia’s Pacific Beat.
“We [had] almost 79 political prisoners by the end of last month.”
Mr Voss also said a heavy military presence in the area is creating a climate for conflict.
“West Papua, in a way, is the wild west of Indonesia,” he said.
“There’s a lot of money, a lot of resource-extraction and the security forces are benefiting from the ongoing conflict and from this situation.
“The social gap between indigenous Papuans and other Indonesians who’ve moved to Papua over the last two decades, is getting wider and wider.”
