Jayapura. Human Rights Watch has lashed out at the Indonesian military, which it said had promised the trial of soldiers allegedly involved in the brutal torture of Papuan civilians would begin on Friday, but instead began the court-martial of personnel in a different case of abuse.
A military tribunal in Jayapura on Friday kicked off the trial of four soldiers implicated in the March beating of a man suspected of hiding weapons.
The incident was recorded on one of the soldier’s cellphones.
However, the military had said the court-martial would involve five soldiers allegedly shown in a different incident in May, one that was briefly posted on YouTube.
In that graphic 10-minute video, as many as six soldiers could be seen torturing two Papuan men, applying a burning stick to one of the men’s genitals and threatening them with a knife and a gun.
The video prompted an outcry from both at home and abroad.
Phil Robertson, a deputy director for Asia at the New York-based HRW, condemned the court-martial, calling it a farce.
“What you hear is apparently not what you get in Indonesia’s opaque military court system, which so often operates behind closed doors and so rarely dispenses justice to victims of abuse by soldiers,” he said.
“So, only at the end of the day of the trial of soldiers in Jayapura — beyond the purview of international journalists and humanitarians who are prohibited from traveling to Papua — is it revealed that their trial is about Indonesian soldiers beating Papuans in March rather than other Indonesian soldiers burning a Papuan’s genitals in May.”
On Thursday, Lt. Col. Susilo, a spokesman for the Cendrawasih Military Command in Jayapura, had said five of the servicemen allegedly featured in the YouTube video would be tried on Friday.
Robertson added that the frequency with which such allegations emerged highlighted “a systemic human rights problem of security force abuses in Papua that needs to be addressed.”
“This should be at the top of the agenda when President Obama visits Jakarta next week,” he said.
The alleged beating at the center of Friday’s trial was recorded on a soldier’s cellphone in Tingginambut subdistrict, Puncak Jaya district, in March.
It shows soldiers punching, kicking and hitting an unarmed Papuan man identified as Davis Tabuni.
The video was recorded by Pvt. Isak on the orders of Second Lt. Cosmos, the only officer among the four soldiers on trial.
Isak, serving as a witness at the trial, said a platoon of 12 soldiers had visited Gurage village to look for Davis, who was believed to be in possession of several firearms, including an AK-47.
“When we found him, we separated him from the rest of the villagers, gave him a cigarette, and began asking where the guns were,” Isak said.
“He wouldn’t talk, so Pvt. Dwi Purwanto got angry and kicked him in the head, but he still wouldn’t talk.”
He added Pvt. Joko Sulistiyono then joined in, kicking Davis and hitting him over the head with a helmet.
“It was at that point that the lieutenant ordered me to start filming the interrogation on his cellphone,” Isak said.
The fourth soldier on trial is Pvt. Syaminan Lubis.
The court-martial was adjourned until Monday.
There was no word of when the trial of the men in the YouTube video would begin.