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Riot case Papuans 'beaten by police'
Stephen Fitzpatrick, Jayapura, Papua
21sep06
INDONESIAN police have been driven by revenge and their own personal
interests in a series of show trials over the deaths of four police and an air
force sergeant in May riots, a new report claims.
The investigation, soon to be made public after months of documentation
by a coalition of Papuan and national church and human rights groups, will
allege that none of 23 men accused over the killings was directly involved in
the deaths.
All but two of the accused have been sentenced to up to 15 years' jail,
with the final pair of men appearing yesterday in Abepura District Court, near
the Papuan capital, Jayapura.
The killings, at the peak of two days of demonstrations at Cendrawasih
University over the giant Freeport McMoRan gold and copper mine in Timika,
shocked Indonesians for their brutality.
The police victims were beaten with rocks and sticks after a crowd of
students and other still-unidentified groups broke through a police line on
March16. Forensic investigations found that the air force sergeant, who was not
in uniform, was killed in a separate knife attack on the university campus,
Papua's largest.
However, as the final two of the 23 accused appeared yesterday in court,
lawyers, church groups and supporters - as well as the men themselves -
insisted their confessions were forced after beatings with rifle butts, pistols
and fists, as well as electric shocks.
Mechanic Steven Wandik, accused of murdering air force sergeant Agung
Prihadi Wijaya by smashing in his head with a large stone, said he was
repeatedly beaten by police over a period of weeks before he offered a false
confession to thecrime.
He said he was taken from his home without warning in the middle of the
night on May 12 - almost two months after the riots - and forced into a police
vehicle after being hit in the head with a rifle butt.
He said he was too frightened to offer resistance, and that for several
weeks police offered no explanation for his arrest.
Wandik says his name was given to police by a cousin, Sam Wandik - the
other man on trial in Abepura District Court yesterday.
Sam Wandik told the court he provided his cousin's name as someone
involved in the killings only after repeated beatings and electric shocks.
Asked after his appearance yesterday why he was now recanting on his
allegation, Sam Wandik said: "Because I'm being held in the jail now, not in
the police cells, and the police can't hurt me there."
Aloy Renuarin, the Papua head of Indonesian human rights group ELSHAM,
later described the 23 men as "victims of police revenge" and said the
convictions had so far been based on "incredibly weak evidence". "This is a
matter of politics, of a legal mafia and of the courts and government
discriminating against Papuans," Mr Renuarin said.
Appeals were lodged yesterday in five of the cases.
Evidence given in Steven Wandik's prosecution has included photographs of
the accused participating in a police reconstruction of the crime.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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Berdikusi dg Santun & Elegan, dg Semangat Persahabatan. Menuju Indonesia yg
Lebih Baik, in Commonality & Shared Destiny.
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