Jakarta – On February 9 the Regional Representative Council (DPD) hosted a meeting with several civil society organisations that reported on alleged human rights violations in Papua.
The meeting was attended by DPD Deputy Speaker Yorrys Raweyai and a Senator from West Papua, Filep Wamafma.
Meanwhile, several organisations attended namely Amnesty International (AI), the Papua Justice and Human Integrity Foundation (YKKMP), the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI), the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), the Indonesian Communion of Churches (PGI) and the Papua Solidarity Coalition.
"So today we [from] Amnesty International along with a number of residents from Papua, conveyed a number of recent human rights violations", said Amnesty International Indonesia Executive Director Usman Hamid after the audience at the parliamentary complex in Jakarta on Monday February 9.
Hamid said they primarily reported on human rights violations starting from the Papua Highlands to Nduga regency, Lanny Jaya and Yahukimo.
Specifically, the civil coalition highlighted the deployment of officers, the use of helicopters and the alleged fatal shooting of a seven-year-old child in Gearek district, Nduga regency, in December 2025.
"We urged the government to ensure a transparent and open legal process and a resolution to the human rights violations in Papua", said Hamid.
The coalition, he continued, expressed concern over the increasing deployment of officers in Papua, which was not preceded by a political decision at the House of Representatives (DPR). According to Hamid, the revisions to the Indonesian Military (TNI) Law has resulted in the deployment of officers in Papua becoming increasingly out of control.
Meanwhile, YKKMP Executive Director Theo Hasegem said that their attendance at the DPD was to report alleged human rights violations in Papua.
Currently, said Hasegem, a number of communities are still displaced and living in the forests without government assistance. He urged the government to take swift action to resolve this problem.
"Therefore, this [issue needs] serious attention on the process of how human rights violations in Papua can be resolved and I hope the government will pay full attention to this", said Hasegem.
DPD Deputy Speaker Yorrys Raweyai acknowledged that conflict resolution in Papua has been stagnant. Since becoming involved and assisting the Papuan issue since the 1990s, Raweyai said that the government has not taken any concrete steps.
"From the beginning until now, the problem has been the same, and there has been no concrete point of agreement", he said.
During the era of former president Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, said Raweyai, although the issue of resolving the Papuan conflict was been given wider access, the conflict did not subside. In fact, he admitted to having difficulty meeting with Widodo during his 10 years as president.
"For 10 years we asked for time, but it never happened, until he ended his term", he said.
On the other hand, Raweyai noted that human rights issues during Widodo's era also remained unresolved. Yet he is the only president to have visited Papua 17 times.
"Before and after his visits to Papua, the violence escalated and finally until Amnesty International, which exposed that during his term in office the highest number of human rights violations [in the country] were in Papua", he said. (thr/wis)
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Koalisi Sipil Datangi DPD Lapor Dugaan Pelanggaran HAM di Papua".]
