Amnesty International activists mark Human Rights Day outside the Presidential Palace on Dec. 10, 2019, by demanding President Joko Widodo settle various human rights abuses, including those allegedly carried out in Papua. (Photo supplied)
The Human Rights Court in Makassar, capital of Indonesia’s South Sulawesi province, has begun a trial in the 2014 Paniai shooting that killed four Christian students.
Aged between 17 and 18, the victims – two Catholics and two Protestants – were shot dead by security forces during a protest on Dec. 8, 2014, in the Paniai district of then Papua province. The incident left at least 21 protesters injured.
The Attorney General’s Office (AGO) named Isak Sattu, an Indonesian Military retiree who was a liaison officer for the Paniai Military Command, as a suspect in the case after the National Commission on Human Rights conducted an investigation into the case and revealed last year that the incident could be interpreted as a gross human rights violation because of the systematic killing and torture of civilians.
During the first trial on Sept. 21, which was run by a division of the AGO tasked with investigating human rights violations, prosecutors outlined the case by saying that the defendant knew, or should have known, that troops under his effective command had committed human rights violations by launching a wide and systematic attack against civilians.
However, according to prosecutors, the defendant did not take appropriate and necessary actions within the scope of his power to prevent or stop the crimes.
The second trial is scheduled for Sept. 28. If found guilty, Sattu could face up to 25 years in prison.
Yones Douw, chairman of the Justice and Peace Department at Kingmi Church in Papua who accompanied families of the victims of the shooting, told UCA News that none of the victims’ families attended the first trial.
“They have decided not to attend the first trial and the next one. They also do not want to send any representative to the legal process. Their reason is that there is only one defendant, something they do not believe at all. They even call the legal process ‘an insult’,” he said.
He said the victims’ families will not stop seeking justice and continue to urge authorities to bring all those involved in the incident to the court.
“Justice must be upheld,” he asserted.
Father Bernard Baru, chairman of the Justice and Peace Commission of the Augustinian Order in Papua, termed the legal process “the state’s political scenario.”
“The state makes use of the law politically. This, of course, taints the law itself. I think the state is too scared of international intervention as there is too much pressure from the international community with regard to gross human rights violations in Indonesia,” he told UCA News.
In July, the Asian Human Rights Commission issued an open letter demanding a fair human rights court for the Paniai shooting case. The group said the quality of the human rights court for the case “is an important milestone to prove to the entire community: who is the real justice in this country, the victims or the perpetrators.”
Father Baru also said the maximum prison term for the incident will not be enough.
“A life imprisonment is the right punishment. It is because what the defendant did is a serious human rights violation,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Coalition of Civil Society Monitoring 2014 Paniai Case said in a statement that several Papuan university students from the Paniai district were intimidated by six people, including one wearing police uniform, who came to their house a day before the first trial to ask them whether they would stage a protest against the legal process.
Calling on the Attorney General to bring all those involved in the incident to court, the group said: “By charging only one person in the trial, we finally need to ask this question: Who the Attorney General is protecting?”
