Indonesia: leading NGO faces arson attack
Event- Country
- Indonesia
- Initial Date
- May 9, 2022
- Event Description
The office of the Papua Legal Aid Institute (LBH) became the target of a terrorist attack on Monday (9/5) morning. The action is suspected to be related to a case that the agency is currently working on.
One unit of a motorcycle caught fire and the back of a car parked side by side was also scorched in the terrorist act. The director of LBH Papua, Emanuel Gobay, believes that there were parties who did this on purpose.
“From the evidence we found, such as the presence of a wick, the wick smelled of kerosene mixed with gasoline, coupled with evidence of plastic filled with gasoline, then added with grass that looked charred after being exposed to gasoline, our suspicions were made by people who have bad intentions with us,” Gobay told VOA Monday morning.
Testimony Regarding the Suspected Perpetrator So far, the facts gathered by LBH Papua regarding the incident stated that the arson took place at around 04.00 WIT. LBH Papua staff who live in the office dormitory noticed the fire after hearing the sound of an explosion coming from the garage area. The staff then came out and found the flames that burned the motorbike.
The staff and the community living around the agency’s office located on Jalan Gerilyawan, Kamkey, Jayapura, immediately put out the fire.
“The LBH Papua staff and local residents worked together to collect water and immediately extinguished the fire that was burning on the motorbike, then pulled the burning motorbike out of the garage of the LBH Papua office, so the fire didn’t spread everywhere,” added Gobay.
The motorcycle owner explained that he parked the vehicle around midnight, or four hours before the incident. In the initial inspection, the motorcycle tank did not explode in this fire.
LBH Papua staff also received information from two residents who passed in front of the office shortly before the incident. The resident stated that he saw one person wearing a black sweater, hat and mask running out of the LBH Papua office environment, then going on a motorbike.
“We have no other problems. The problems we face are from the cases we are accompanying. So, of course it has something to do with the cases we are attending. Maybe the people we suspect of doing this are people whose interests might be disturbed by our advocacy,” added Gobay.
On Monday afternoon, Gobay was at the Papua Regional Police to report the terror incident.
Similar terrors have occurred at LBH offices in other cities in Indonesia. LBH Medan, for example, was targeted by Molotov cocktails in October 2019. Meanwhile, the Yogyakarta LBH office was targeted by Molotov cocktails in September 2021.
Common in Papua Yohanis Mambrasar from the Papuan Human Rights Lawyers Association (PAHAM) said that from the chronology described by LBH Papua, he believed this incident was a terror against LBH Papua staff.
“This is an action taken by a person or group who feels disturbed by the work of LBH Papua in fighting for truth and justice in Papua,” said Yohanis.
PAHAM Papua noted that, at least in the last 4 years, LBH Papua was very massive in advocating for a number of cases. The cases handled include the criminalization of Papuan political activists, freedom of expression, as well as assistance to indigenous peoples in cases of theft of timber or confiscation of customary lands.
“Including assistance to palm oil workers and PT Freeport workers, and it should not be forgotten, legal assistance to cases of treason in Papua,” he added.
Human Rights (HAM) activist Theo Hesegem also considered what happened at LBH Papua as an act of terror.
“We can’t confirm who the perpetrators are, but we know that a terrorist act is taking place. Actually, if human rights defenders experience acts of terror, it does not mean that people who work for humanity end up there. It’s impossible,” he said.
Interestingly, Theo himself had recently become a victim of what he described as terror against critical activists. On 7 May, Theo, Executive Director of the Papuan Justice and Human Integrity Foundation, lost his motorcycle, which was his operational vehicle, while investigating cases of human rights violations in Wamena, Nduga, and the surrounding mountainous areas.
Theo himself has experienced many terrors during his activities in defending human rights in Papua. For example, when he was actively investigating cases of armed violence in Nduga. But he promised that any incident would not hinder his efforts to carry out humanitarian work.
“And that is something human rights defenders have to face. We must not forget that for me this is a normal thing, and it must be experienced by human rights defenders,” he said again.
Moreover, added Theo, in Papua acts of terror are a daily occurrence.
“It’s a normal thing that human rights defenders have to deal with in the poor conditions of this region. But we also want it not to happen again, and it is the duty of the police to follow up on this terror. We don’t want human rights defenders in Papua to be treated like that,” said Theo.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- Intimidation and Threats
- Violence (physical)
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment
- Right to property
- Right to work
- HRD
- NGO
- NGO staff
- Perpetrator-State
- Unknown
- Perpetrator-Non-State
- Unknown
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Event Location
Latitude: -2.5404150777075483
Longitude: 140.70529086491644
- Event Location
- Summary for Publications
On 9 May 2022, the office of LBH Papua, NGO providing pro bono legal aid to victims of human rights violations, was targeted with an arson attack that damaged the office and two vehicles of the NGO staff by unknown authors likely as result of the NGO work in Jayapura, Papua, Indonesia.