Updated Thu 24 Oct 2013, 4:48pm AEDT

Video: New report claims Indonesia responsible for Papua genocide (ABC News)

An extensive new report has been released, containing graphic detail of the alleged murder, rape and torture of more than 4,000 Papuans by Indonesian military in the late 1970s.

The report, by the Hong-Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission (AHCR), names numerous Indonesian military commanders, including the late Indonesian President, General Suharto, as those responsible for ordering or failing to stop the violence, and says they should be tried by a human rights court.
The report "The Neglected Genocide - Human Rights abuses against Papuans in the Central Highlands, 1977 - 1978" attempts to document violence that occurred when Indonesia launched several military operations around Wamena, in response to independence uprisings after general elections in 1977.

The AHRC conducted field visits, interviewed witnesses and examined historical records.

It has collected the names of 4,146 people it believes were killed by the Indonesian military and claims the total number of victims who died from torture, disease and hunger as a result of the violence could be well over 10,000.

The report says Papuans in the Central Highlands were victims of napalm bombing and indiscriminate shooting from the air, sometimes from aircraft supplied to the Indonesian military by Australia and the US.

In one reported incident, villagers in the Bolakme area were told they would be receiving aerial aid from Australia, only to be bombed by American-supplied planes.
The report also contains details of independence supporters being burned alive, boiled alive, and being forced to perform sexual acts in public.
In other incidents, the report claims women and children were targetted: children's heads were cut off, women were raped and had their breasts cut off and internal organs pulled out.
The report names 10 Indonesian commanders and senior military leaders it says were responsible for either ordering or failing to prevent the violence perpetrated by various battalions.
Among those resposible, according to the report, is the former President Suharto, as Supreme Commander of the Indonesian military.
A spokesman for the Asian Human Rights Commission Basil Fernando says some of those named in the report are still in positions of power within the Indonesian military.
The report calls for an ad hoc human rights court to be set up to hear the allegations and try those responsible, as well as the establishment of a truth commission.
The AHRC is calling on the international community to demand the Indonesian government be held to account for human rights violations in Papua.