Open Letter: Free West Papuan Political Prisoners of Conscience

Hon Kevin Rudd MP
Minister for Foreign Affairs
PO Box 6022
House of Representatives
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
 
 
Sydney, 14th December 2010
 
Dear Minister;
 
On behalf of Indonesian Solidarity, a non profit human rights organisation based in Sydney, I would like to wish you Happy Christmas and New Year - and a life of personal freedom. Tragically in this special season of Christmas, Mr Filep Jacob Semuel Karma, Mr Buchtar Tabuni and other political prisoners will be unable to celebrate Christmas with their families, and they are only two of more than 130 Papuan and Moluccan activists imprisoned for peacefully voicing political views.
 
Filep Jacob Semuel Karma, age 51, has been in the Abepura prison for five years. In May 2005, the Abepura district court found him guilty of treason for organizing a pro-independence rally on 1st December 2004, and sentenced him to 15 years of imprisonment.
 
Buchtar Tabuni, age 31, is a leader of the West Papua National Committee, a pro-independence organization. He was arrested on 3rd December 2008, in his house in Sentani, near the Sentani airport, Jayapura, West Papua, for organizing protests against the shooting of his relative, Opinus Tabuni. He was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment under article 160 of the Criminal Code.
 
A day after a riot at Abepura prison on 3rd December 2010,  Filep Karma was transferred from prison detention Class II A Abepura to the Police Headquarters without any explanation. Mr. Filep Karma was on a hunger strike from the 3rd to the 7th of December 2010.

Filep Karma and four other inmates, including Buchtar Tabuni, were all accused of incitement which resulted in unrest in prison in Abepura, whereas  Filep Karma and Buchtar Tabuni actually tried to mediate between the the head prison officer and the prisoners and detainees in Abepura prison. While Filep Karma and Mr Tabuni are in the police detention, they have also been denied food for two days and family and friends have no access.

On 23rd July 2010, Filep Karma underwent an operation, under the care of the urology specialist at PGI Cikini Hospital; he returned to Jayapura on 31st July 2010. Because of this condition his health has suffered in recent years.

Filep Karma’s family are also concerned there is the possibility of Filep Karma and Buchtar Tabuni being transferred to the high-security prison island of Nusa Kambangan, where the Bali bombers, Amrozi, Mukhlas, and Imam Samudra spent their last period in prisoner before they were executed by firing squad.
 
All political prisoners in Indonesia, especially in West Papua must be free, because freedom of expression is part of the reform won in Indonesia after the dictator Suharto was forced out.
 
But President Yudhoyono’s administration issued regulation number 77 of 2007; this regulation especially article 6, paragraph 4 is prohibits any display of separatist symbols, as a result of this policy several people in West Papua and Maluku were charged. This is like criminalising the flying of the Aboriginal flag in Australia.
 
The Indonesian government must provide humanitarian assistance to Filep Karma and some political prisons by providing food and medical treatment, allowing them to meet their family, friends and legal counsel.
 
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) needs access to visit political prisoners in West Papua and other places like Maluku, but the Indonesian government closed down the ICRC office in West Papua in May 2009.

We ask you, in a country that believes in peaceful and free expression of political ideas, to demand our government stand up for these ideas in international relations.
 
We thank you for your attention to this pressing matter.
 
Yours sincerely
 
 
Dr John Rawson
Director