Rights watchdog calls for thorough investigation into Papua torture video

The Indonesian government should use the newly available video testimony of a torture victim to mount a thorough, impartial and transparent investigation into the case, Human Rights Watch says.

Human Rights Watch's Asia division deputy director Phil Robertson said he lamented that the Indonesian authorities were “sitting on their hands rather than fulfilling their obligations and proactively identifying and prosecuting the soldiers responsible”.
  
Robertson was referring to the torture of Tunaliwor Kiwo, a Papuan farmer, and his neighbor, Telangga Gire, by Indonesian soldiers as depicted in a video that surfaced last month.
The 10 minute video, captured on a cell phone on May 30 shows soldiers kicking Kiwo’s face and chest, burning his face with a cigarette, burning his genitals with a glowing bamboo stick and placing a knife at Gire’s neck.

In a video just made available, Kiwo describes the forms of torture he suffered for three days before he escaped from the soldiers on June 2. Soldiers also tortured Gire, who was eventually released from custody after pleas from his wife and mother.

The government has promised to investigate the case, but claims it cannot identify the perpetrators.

“Kiwo has shown tremendous bravery in coming forward – he deserves justice and protection from retaliation, not another half-hearted army investigation and cover-up,” Robertson said in statement made available to The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Indonesia is a party in the United Nations Convention Against Torture and has strict obligations to investigate and prosecute promptly all incidents of torture occurring on its soil and to ensure that victims and witnesses are protected against all ill-treatment or intimidation as a consequence of filing a complaint or giving evidence, he said.

In the video, Kiwo said he and Gire had been riding a motorcycle from their hometown, Tingginambut, to Mulia, the capital of Puncak Jaya, when soldiers stopped them at a military checkpoint in Kwanggok Nalime, Yogorini. Kiwo said the soldiers seized and hit them, bound their arms with rope, dragged them to the back of the army post, and tied their feet with barbed wire.

He said the soldiers tortured him for three days, beating him with their hands and sticks, crushing his toes with pliers, suffocating him with a plastic bag, burning his genitals and other body parts, cutting his face and head and smearing crushed chilies into his wounds, as well as other forms of abuse.

Kiwo’s videotaped testimony, which has subtitles in English and Indonesian, can be viewed on the Engage Media website.

“The Indonesian government at the highest levels should guarantee that Tunaliwor Kiwo and Telangga Gire will be protected from retaliation and considered witnesses to crimes,” Robertson said. “The testimony of these two men will be critically important in prosecuting the soldiers who tortured them, so protecting them needs to be a top priority.”
The October media coverage of the May 30 torture video prompted President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to hold a limited Cabinet meeting on Oct. 22, after which the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Djoko Suyanto declared the video showed Indonesian soldiers torturing Papuan villagers.
The video showing Kiwo’s account of his captivity was released while the President was in Papua to promote development.