Indonesia HUMAN Prosecuting Political Aspiration RIGHTS Indonesia’s Political Prisoners WATCH Prosecuting Political Aspiration Indonesia’s Political Prisoners Copyright © 2010 Human Rights Watch All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America ISBN: 1-56432-642-X Cover design by Rafael Jimenez Human Rights Watch 350 Fifth Avenue, 34th floor New York, NY 10118-3299 USA Tel: +1 212 290 4700, Fax: +1 212 736 1300 [email protected] Poststraße 4-5 10178 Berlin, Germany Tel: +49 30 2593 06-10, Fax: +49 30 2593 0629 [email protected] Avenue des Gaulois, 7 1040 Brussels, Belgium Tel: + 32 (2) 732 2009, Fax: + 32 (2) 732 0471 [email protected] 64-66 Rue de Lausanne 1202 Geneva, Switzerland Tel: +41 22 738 0481, Fax: +41 22 738 1791 [email protected] 2-12 Pentonville Road, 2nd Floor London N1 9HF, UK Tel: +44 20 7713 1995, Fax: +44 20 7713 1800 [email protected] 27 Rue de Lisbonne 75008 Paris, France Tel: +33 (1)43 59 55 35, Fax: +33 (1) 43 59 55 22 [email protected] 1630 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Suite 500 Washington, DC 20009 USA Tel: +1 202 612 4321, Fax: +1 202 612 4333 [email protected] Web Site Address: http://www.hrw.org June 2010 1-56432-642-X Prosecuting Political Aspiration Indonesia’s Political Prisoners Maps of Prisons with Political Prisoners in Indonesia ......................................................... 1 Summary ........................................................................................................................... 3 Recommendations ........................................................................................................ 15 Methodology ................................................................................................................. 16 Political Prisoners from the Moluccas ................................................................................ 17 Background ................................................................................................................... 17 The 2007 Flag Unfurling and Its Violent Aftermath ......................................................... 18 Individual Case Profiles ................................................................................................ 22 Johan Teterisa ........................................................................................................ 22 Reimond Tuapattinaya ............................................................................................ 24 Ruben Saiya ............................................................................................................ 25 Ferdinand Waas ...................................................................................................... 26 Papuan Political Prisoners ................................................................................................ 27 Background ................................................................................................................... 27 Individual Case Profiles ................................................................................................ 28 Filep Karma ............................................................................................................ 28 Buchtar Tabuni ....................................................................................................... 34 Ferdinand Pakage ................................................................................................... 36 Simon Tuturop and Tadeus Weripang ..................................................................... 39 Roni Ruben Iba ....................................................................................................... 40 Appendix: Legal Provisions Frequently Used To Prosecute .................................................41 Pro-Independence Activists ...............................................................................................41 Indonesian Criminal Code ............................................................................................. 41 Government Regulation 77/2007 on Provincial Flag and Logo, Article 6A ...................... 42 Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................... 43 Maps of Prisons with Political Prisoners in Indonesia 1 Human Rights Watch June 2010 Prosecuting Political Aspiration 2 PROSECUTING POLITICAL ASPIRATION SUMMARY Human Rights Watch | June 2010 Buchtar Tabuni, a leader of the West Papua National Committee, outside his cell in Abepura prison. He is serving a three-year prison term for inciting hatred against the Indonesian government. © 2010 Garda Papua 4 Prosecuting Political Aspiration The judges should have deemed his action more as a political aspiration than a life-threatening act.... He only waved an RMS flag, and did not carry a weapon. Asmara Nababan, a former secretary-general of the National Commission on Human Rights in Jakarta, speaking about the prosecution of Johan Teterisa. Indonesia has made important progress in strengthening democracy and respect for human rights since the end of authoritarian rule under President Suharto in 1998. Advances have included permitting increased freedom of association and assembly, holding three generally free and fair national elections, and providing greater overall protection for civil and political rights. Improved freedom of expression has been hailed as This report focuses on this last area. It profiles the cases of 10 emblematic of this progress. While there have been notable prominent Papuan and Moluccan activists currently behind accomplishments—700 new magazines and newspapers bars for expressing their political views, detailing ill-treatment sprung up in the first three years after Suharto’s ouster they have suffered and violations of their due process rights. alone—the right to free speech in Indonesia continues to be In total there are currently at least 100 Papuans and limited in three significant ways: Moluccans in prison in Indonesia for peaceful political expression. • Laws criminalizing defamation and insult remain in the criminal code and are used to silence anti-corruption Human Rights Watch takes no position on claims to self- activists, human rights defenders, journalists, determination in Indonesia or in any other country, and consumers, and others. 1 nothing in this report should be construed as supporting or denigrating the independence aspirations of Papuan or • The government continues to criminally prosecute Moluccan activists. Consistent with international law, people who express religious beliefs that deviate from however, we support the right of all individuals, including the central tenets of six officially recognized religions; independence supporters, to express their political views heterodoxy and public adherence to unrecognized peacefully without fear of arrest or other forms of reprisal. religions are officially illegal. 2 President Suharto was notorious for arresting and imprisoning • The government continues to criminally prosecute those who opposed him, from Communist party members and peaceful expression of pro-independence sentiment by sympathizers in the early years to critics of all stripes, ethnic minority activists in Papua and the southern including ethnic minority pro-independence advocates, in his Moluccan islands. later years. Under Suharto, Indonesian authorities failed to Human Rights Watch | June 2010 5 Elementary school teacher Johan Teterisa in his prison uniform at Lowokwaru prison in Malang, East Java. Teterisa is serving a 15-year prison term for treason. ©2009 Abraham Hamzah distinguish between acts of criminal violence and peaceful features as “organizations, groups, institutions or separatist expression of separatist views, contributing to political movements.” Both the Papuan Morning Star flag and the polarization and fueling radicalization in East Timor and Aceh. “Benang Raja” (rainbow) flag of the Republic of the South While those latter conflicts have been resolved through Moluccas (Republik Maluku Selatan, RMS) are considered to political agreements and thousands of political prisoners fall under this ban. 3 have been released since Suharto’s resignation, the practice Most of the political prisoners in Indonesia were convicted of of lumping together peaceful advocates and armed militants makar (rebellion or treason) under articles 106 and 110 of the and treating both as criminals continues in Papua and the Indonesian Criminal Code. Many were sentenced to 10 years southern Moluccas. or more in prison. In several cases the activists were tortured Most of the cases detailed in this report are of activists by police while in pre-trial detention. Some have faced imprisoned for organizing rallies or participating in mistreatment and denial of medical treatment while in prison. ceremonies in which flags were raised symbolizing Moluccan activist Reimond Tuapattinaya, first detained in aspirations for an independent state in Papua or in the June 2007, described being tortured immediately following his southern Moluccan islands. In December 2007, the arrest: Indonesian government issued Government Regulation 77/2007, which regulates regional symbols. Article 6 of the If they held an iron bar, we got the iron bar. If they held a regulation bans display of flags or logos that have the same wooden bat, we got the wooden bat. If they held a wire cable, 6 Prosecuting Political Aspiration Reimond Tuapattinaya leading a Sunday religious service inside Kediri prison in East Java. He is serving a seven-year prison term