Armed Officers Raid Papuan Student Dorms

Markus Junianto Sihaloho | November 13, 2011 Jakarta globe

As tensions remain high in Papua, rights groups on Sunday said security forces in Jakarta and Bali had arbitrarily raided the dormitories of Papuan students.

“This is a form of intimidation and direct terror,” said Haris Azhar, a coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras).

He said about 10 soldiers and police officers on Thursday night raided a dormitory where Papuan students live in Tebet, South Jakarta. Some officers were armed, he said, and they did not have a warrant.

“The personnel broke the door open and looked at everything in the dormitory,” he said, adding that the officers violated national human rights laws and the 2009 police regulation on human rights.

Though it could not be confirmed immediately, he said security forces also raided Papuan student dormitories in Lenteng Agung and Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta, and in Denpasar.

“In Denpasar, one of the officers claimed to be from the provincial intelligence unit and asked all the dorm residents to produce their ID cards for security reasons,” Haris said, adding that dormitory leaders were threatened when they refused.

Oktovianus Pogau, a Papuan student who lives at the dormitory in Tebet, South Jakarta, said police interrogated five students and asked them to write down personal information.

The Papuan Students Associations for Java and Bali condemned the searches. “Halt the discrimination and racism by Indonesians against Papuan students,” they said in a statement. “In Papua we receive and accept people from Java and other areas with love, but here we are treated unjustly and inhumanly.”

Papua has seen a low-level separatist movement since the 1960s. Last month, six people were killed and dozens injured in Jayapura after security officers opened fire on an independence gathering whose participants raised the outlawed separatist flag. The government denied firing on demonstrators but witnesses issued statements to the contrary.

http://www.freewestpapua.org/index.php/news/1731-armed-officers-raid-papuan-student-dorms