The Indonesian administration of President Prabowo Subianto Djojohadikusumo is sending mixed signals about a proposed amnesty to tens of thousands of Papuans convicted or facing charges for allegedly backing the armed secessionist movement in West Papua. The lack of clarity is generating confusion rather than a thoughtful approach to addressing the eastern province’s longstanding human rights problems.
A low-intensity conflict has been ongoing in West Papua since the 1960s, when the United Nations-sponsored Act of Free Choice resulted in West Papua coming under Indonesian rule. Since then, Indonesian security forces have committed arbitrary arrests, torture, extrajudicial killings, and forced displacement in the name of quelling the insurgency, but are seldom held to account for these abuses.
In January, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, a government minister, said that President Prabowo was planning to grant amnesty to all Papuans convicted or awaiting trials if they renounced violence and pledged allegiance to the Indonesian state, explaining that it was an effort “to resolve the conflict by prioritizing law and human rights.” However, a week later another minister, Supratman Andi Agtas, said that while his office was verifying up to 44,000 names that have been proposed for amnesty, this “does not cover criminals convicted of involvement in armed insurgencies.”
In West Papua, political groups treated the proposal with skepticism. Markus Haluk of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua said it was a “public relations stunt.” Sebby Sambom, the spokesman for the West Papua National Liberation Army, said that core issues had to be resolved, not merely “granting amnesty and expecting the conflict to end.”
For decades, many Indigenous Papuans have denounced the 1969 referendum that led to the integration of West Papua as an unfair process. Generations have peacefully protested racism and discrimination, for which they have faced arbitrary arrests, beating, and unjust treason charges. Papuans Behind Bars, a coalition of West Papua human rights groups, reports that the authorities are currently imprisoning 83 Papuans for separatism, mostly for peacefully celebrating the Morning Star flag, the flag of the independence movement and forbidden under Indonesian law.
As a first step for durable change, President Prabowo should acknowledge the historical, economic and political grievances of Papuans, including their root causes and effects, and ensure justice and redress for human rights violations, past and present.