New video footage documenting the aftermath of the Paniai massacre in West Papua has been released publicly for the first time, intensifying calls for Indonesia to conduct an independent and transparent investigation into the killings. Minority Rights Group International, which released the footage on Thursday, described it as highlighting the urgent need for accountability.
In December 2014, Indonesian army and police opened fire on a group of peaceful protesters in the highlands region of Paniai, killing four unarmed Papuan teenagers and injuring seventeen others. The crowd had gathered to protest an earlier act of violence by Indonesian security forces against a group of young boys — an incident Dancing Turtle reported on at the time. TAPOL, the Indonesia human rights campaign, was unsparing in its assessment: the protesters had gathered peacefully and were greeted with bullets, reflecting the Indonesian military’s casual disregard for the lives of indigenous Papuans.
The four-minute video, filmed by citizen journalists on the ground, includes first-hand testimony from survivors and graphic footage taken in the immediate aftermath of the shootings. Both the national human rights commission and the Indonesian police have launched investigations, though the police — who initially sought to blame the killings on armed ethnic Papuan rebels — have been accused of obstructing the inquiry rather than advancing it.
The massacre is considered one of the worst acts of state violence in Indonesia in years, and it casts a long shadow over President Joko Widodo’s stated commitment to human rights. More than six months after Widodo was sworn in pledging to give special attention to West Papua, little has changed on the ground. Despite some efforts to improve basic services in the region, the Indonesian government continues to suppress peaceful protest, silence civil society voices and exclude international journalists. Reports of extrajudicial killings, torture, arbitrary arrests and the detention of indigenous activists remain common.
Claire Thomas, Deputy Director of MRG, said Widodo has left a trail of broken promises on West Papua, and that the Paniai investigation will be a crucial test of his government’s commitment to meaningful reform. If the military is to be held to public scrutiny, and if those perpetrating abuses against Papuans are to face consequences, the response to Paniai is where that commitment must be demonstrated.
The broader context is one of sustained assault. Since Indonesia’s annexation of West Papua in May 1963, indigenous Papuans have faced systematic human rights violations — extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture, arbitrary detention — while the territory’s considerable natural resources have been exploited by Indonesian and international business interests with little regard for the indigenous population or the environment. Thousands have been displaced by large-scale development projects implemented without their free, prior or informed consent. Indonesia is currently serving its fourth consecutive term as a member of the UN Human Rights Council.
The situation in West Papua is documented in Dancing Turtle’s undercover documentary Forgotten Bird of Paradise, and in the feature-length film The Road to Home, both available via the Dancing Turtle shop.
