Renewed calls for UN visit to West Papua after torture video surfaces online
Photo: AFP/ Andrew Gal
A West Papua freedom movement leader is renewing calls for a UN human rights visit to Papua after new videos of Indonesian soldiers torturing a West Papuan man emerged online.
In the video viewed by RNZ Pacific, a group of men wearing Indonesian military uniforms take turns kicking, punching and slicing an indigenous Papuan man.
He was in an open 44-gallon drum filled with water with his hands tied behind his back.
The president of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua, Benny Wenda, said he is truly horrified by the video that he says has emerged from the Yahukimo regency in Highland Papua.
He said the men can be heard saying in Indonesian “my turn, my turn” and comparing their captive’s flesh to that of an animal.
RNZ Pacific has contacted the Indonesian government for comment.
In 2018, Indonesia’s then president Joko Widodo extended an invitation to the UN Human Rights Commissioner to visit Papua but it has so far not eventuated.
Wenda is calling on the international community to pressure Indonesia into facilitating the visit.