AWPA: West Papuan Activists Needs Protection
The Hon Stephen Smith MP
Minister for Foreign
Affairs
Parliament House
Canberra
ACT 2600
2 November 2009
Re: West Papuan political activists Yoab Syatfle and Victor Yeimo
Dear Stephen
Smith,
I am writing to you concerning Yoab Syatfle, a political activist in West Papua because of concern for his safety.
Yoab Syatfle has received a number of death
threats which were sent by SMS to his mobile phone and
apparently related to his peaceful political activities. We
are concerned that his life may be in danger.
We
believe that Yoab Syatfle has been targeted because he is a
prominent peaceful political activist in Papua. He is the
Sorong Secretary of the Papua Traditional Council (Dewan
Adat Papua) which represents Indigenous communities in
Papua. He is also Secretary of the Papua National Consensus
Team, a non-violent group campaigning for a peaceful
internationally mediated solution to the political problems
in Papua.
On 26 October, Yoab Syatfle received a
number of anonymous SMS messages threatening that he would
be abducted and killed if he left his house. One of them
warned: “you are one of the people we are looking for, we
remember you, if you leave your house yard one more time,
you will be killed”.
We are also concerned about
another West Papuan political activist , Victor Yeimo who
was arrested on the 21st October in the Mansapurani Sentani
hotel in Jayapura during a police operation called Pekat,
which began on the same day, 21 October. We believe he was
arrested solely because he helped organise a number of
peaceful demonstrations earlier this year.
Victor
Yeimo has always advocated a peaceful solution to West
Papua's future. We believe that the targeting of peaceful
political activists by the security forces in West Papua is
a deliberate campaign to create fear and stifle discussion
of the many issues of concern to the West Papuan people.
These include the human rights situation in the
territory, the exploitation of their natural resources and
the right to discuss their future The right to free
expression, opinion and assembly is guaranteed under the
Indonesian Constitution and the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which the country is
a state party.
We request you to use your good
offices to urge the Indonesian Government to take
immediate action to ensure the safety of Yoab Syatfle, and
to hold an immediate, effective and impartial investigation
into the threats he has received with the results made
public and those responsible brought to justice. to
protect peaceful activists from harassment to allow human
rights organisations in West Papua to work without
interference from the security forces. to release Victor
Yeimo and all other West Papuan political prisoners as a
sign of good faith to the West Papuan people. Yours
sincerely Joe Collins Secretary AWPA (Sydney)
ENDS