AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC STATEMENT

3 September 2013

INDONESIA: DROP CHARGES AGAINST ‘FREEDOM FLOTILLA’ SUPPORTERS IN WEST PAPUA PROVINCE

Amnesty International calls on the Indonesian authorities to drop the charges against four Papuan activists who were arrested last week for their peaceful political activism. The charges against them highlight the ongoing failure of the Indonesian government to make a distinction between violent armed groups and peaceful activists, and between peaceful expression of opinion and acts of physical violence.

Four men, Apolos Sewa, Yohanis Goram, Amandus Mirino and Samuel Klasjok, who are members of the Sorong branch of the Papuan Customary Council (Dewan Adat Papua, DAP) were arrested by the Sorong district police on the evening of 28 August 2013. They had taken part in a peaceful prayer gathering, alongside hundreds of people, at the Maranatha Church in Sorong city, West Papua province. The event was organised in solidarity with the planned visit of a “Freedom Flotilla”, a boatload of Australian activists, due to enter Indonesian waters in the coming weeks to highlight the human rights situation in Papua.

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