Papua. The jumpy video shows a prisoner lying in a jungle clearing in eastern Indonesia a moments after troops allegedly sliced open his abdomen with a bayonet, sending intestines tumbling from his stomach.
In his last moments, Yawen Wayeni lifts his arm into the air, and says weakly, “Freedom! Papua ... Freedom!”
At the sound of his muffled voice, gun-toting, uniformed officers resting in the shade approach. “Speak up,” one taunts. “What? You all are never going to get freedom. As long as there are soldiers still.”
One year after the activist’s death, footage being circulated online is providing a glimpse into the actions of Indonesia’s military in Papua, where an estimated 100,000 people have been killed since the former Dutch colony was integrated into the country nearly 50 years ago.
Police have said Wayeni, captured for allegedly vandalizing several of their buildings and vehicles, was shot in the thigh and stomach while resisting arrest and that he died on the way to the hospital.
Harkristuti Harkrisnowo, a director general at Indonesia’s Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, said on Tuesday that she was unaware of the video but promised to investigate.
Despite tremendous strides toward democracy since emerging from decades of dictatorship under Gen. Suharto in 1998, the government still imposes lengthy prison terms to its Papuan critics for peacefully expressing their views, organizing rallies or simply raising separatist flags. Many say they have been tortured in detention with electric shocks, beatings and cigarette burns.
The central government, which granted Papua special autonomy in 2001, denies such atrocities still take place, but an Amnesty International report cited incidents of torture, excessive force and executions by security forces in Papua last year.
Others said the killing points to the persistence of violence in governing the far-flung, desperately poor region.
“For all their talk about how things have changed since Suharto’s days, this particular murder is just another example reminding us how much remains the same,” said Richard Chauvel, a senior lecturer at Victoria University in Australia, who has written extensively about Papua.
The video also points to broader feelings that special autonomy — which gives Papuans greater control over their budget and economy — has done little to address key issues driving attitudes in the province.
Thousands have turned out in the streets in recent months demanding that candidates for elected office at the sub-provincial level be indigenous Papuans, something senior officials in Jakarta flatly rejected as “discriminatory,” exacerbating tensions.
Sidney Jones of the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank, said government leaders, with few exceptions, “do not understand that the only way to stem an independence movement is through serious attention to political issues.
“At the same time, the Papuans themselves tend to blame Jakarta for everything that has gone wrong, without too much introspection [into] what they themselves could do.”
This is a huge gap, she said, that can only be bridged if high-level discussions are held about political issues. Others believe outside pressure is required.
Fifty members of the US Congress signed a letter calling on President Barack Obama to make Papua — the half of New Guinea that was invaded by Indonesia in 1962 — “one of the highest priorities of the administration.”
The seven-minute video appears to have been made by the police’s Mobile Brigade, or Brimob, the paramilitary force that took part in the arrest. They too have a legacy of abuse in Papua.
It is not clear how the clip made its way to the Internet, and few have seen it.
The troops reportedly caught up with Wayeni at his home in the jungle village of Matembu on Aug. 3, 2009.
Wayeni’s wife told the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) that they tied his arms and legs to a log and forced him to chant “Free Papua!” before slicing him in the abdomen with a bayonet.
They all but ignored him as he stumbled to the ground. “Look, he’s tired,” one officer says as the prisoner’s head lolls back.
The police ask Wayeni if he is an atheist and call him a “savage,” saying his prayers will never be answered. They then ask how, in his condition, he thinks Papua will ever shake free of Indonesian rule.
“It’s equally surreal and horrific watching as the grievously injured Yawen Wayeni answers teasing questions from uniformed Indonesian security forces about his political beliefs,” said Phil Robertson, a deputy director at the New York-based Human Rights Watch.
Getting medical help, he notes, seems the furthest thing from their minds. Despite his suffering, however, the dying man refuses to give in.
“This land was promised by God to us, the Papuan people,” Wayeni says. “God, the suffering of the simple people, there are so many! They are crying, oh God!”
Sought for comment by the Jakarta Globe, Papua Police Chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Iman Setiawan confirmed the video was taken by a police officer for “crime scene investigation purposes.”
He said the incident occurred in Yapen-Serui district after police received a report about the presence of a Free Papua Movement (OPM) training camp on the slopes of the mountain near Matembu village. During the police search at the location, Wayeni opened fire at the officers, triggering a firefight, Iman said.
“We opened fire because he resisted. Even when he was dying, he shouted ‘free Papua,’” said Iman, who at the time of the incident served as the local police chief.
He maintained that Wayeni died on the way to a local hospital shortly after the shoot-out and that the video was taken for the investigation. “It became our document but I don’t know how it circulated outside,” he said.
Police records show Wayeni was convicted of illegal possession of firearms and had also attacked officers who were safeguarding ballot boxes during the 2009 general elections.
AP, with additional reporting from JG’s Banjir Ambarita