Four Papuan Activists Jailed On Treason Charges

Caleb
Fotheringham, RNZ Pacific reporter

Four
Papuan political prisoners have been sentenced to seven
months’ imprisonment on treason charges.

But a West
Papua independence advocate said Indonesia is using its law
to silence opposition.

In April this year, letters
were delivered to government institutions in Sorong West
Papua, asking for peaceful dialogue between Indonesia’s
President Prabowo Subianto and a group seeking to make West
Papua independent of Indonesia, the Federal Republic of West
Papua.

Four people were arrested for delivering the
letters, and this triggered protests, which became
violent.

West Papua Action Aotearoa’s Catherine
Delahunty said Indonesia claims the four, known as the
Sorong four, caused instability.

“What actually caused
instability was arresting people for delivering letters, and
the Indonesians refused to acknowledge that actually people
have a right to deliver letters,” she said.

“They have
a right to have opinions, and they will continue to protest
when those rights are systematically
denied.”

Indonesia’s embassy based in Wellington said
the central government had not gotten involved in the legal
process, but the letters did fall into the category of
treason, as per the national crime code.

Delahunty
said the arrests are in line with previous action the
Indonesian government had taken in response to West Papua
independence protests.

“This is the kind of use of an
abuse of law that happens all the time in order to shut down
any form of dissent and leadership. In the 1930s we’d call
this fascism. It is a military occupation using all the law
to actually suppress the people.”

Delahunty said the
situation was an abuse of human rights and it’s all
happening less than an hour away from Darwin in northern
Australia.

The spokesperson for Indonesia’s embassy
said the government had been closely monitoring the case at
arm’s length to avoid accusations of
overreach.

© Scoop Media