Oyuk Ivani Siagian, Febriyan – Amnesty International Indonesia has recorded that 145 Papuan and Maluku activists were convicted for makar (treason, subversion, rebellion) between January 2019 and 2025.
Amnesty International Indonesia Executive Director Usman Hamid stated that the hundreds of people were convicted after peacefully voicing aspirations for independence.
"They were convicted using articles 106 and 110 of the Criminal Code (KUHP) related to makar just for expressing their political views peacefully, something that was also done by the founders of the republic when resisting the [Dutch] colonialists", Hamid said in a press statement on Friday August 15.
Hamid explained that the case occurred in 2019-2025 with the following details:
- 2019: 46 cases with 58 victims
- 2020: 10 cases with 28 victims
- 2021: 8 cases with 22 victims
- 2022: 15 cases with 24 victims
- 2023: 4 cases with 4 victims
- 2024: 2 cases with 5 victims
- 2025 (up until July): 1 case, 4 victims
In terms of region, Amnesty recorded as many as 70 cases of makar in Papua with 127 victims and 16 cases of makar in Maluku with 18 victims.
Moreover, continued Hamid, there was a student in the city of Jayapura who had been charged with makar twice in 2021 and 2022 for peaceful expression. As many as 127 have been sentenced at the district court level, while eight others still have the status of suspects.
Hamid believes that everyone has the right to enjoy the right to freedom of expression, including to voice political demands peacefully. This right is guaranteed under international human rights law.
He said the arrest and illegitimate detention of citizens who express their aspirations and views has been widespread and continues to occur in Papua and Maluku, showing the government's reluctance to accept views that were seen as being opposed.
According to Hamid, the government and law enforcement officials should be able to differentiate between the aspirations of peaceful independence with criminal activities that use violence. "Criminalisation and restrictions on peaceful political expression must be stopped immediately", he said.
He said that the criminalisation of peaceful expression like this injures the spirit of Indonesian independence because the state is obliged to guarantee the right of everyone to speak and actively participate in the life of the nation.
"Unfortunately, 80 years since [Indonesia's independence] the situation has in fact been turned around, human rights that became the foothold of the nation's independence were actually kept away from the main agenda of nationalism. This independent state actually used the law to limit the rights of the people to independent expression when voicing criticism, maintaining their rights, even considering it as 'threatening' the government", he said.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Amnesty Internasional: Ratusan Warga Papua dan Maluku Dikriminalisasi dengan Pasal Makar".]
