Prabowo, Indonesia state forces turning West Papua into a rogue land of "lawlessness," brutality, impunity, resource exploitation

On May 11, 2026, hundreds of demonstrators from the Anti-Militarism Front gathered outside the Indonesian Ministry of Human Rights in Jakarta to denounce the massacres, brutality of state forces, militarization, and impunity imposed on West Papua.

The protesters demanded that the ministry led by Natalius Pigai, the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), and other independent institutions immediately establish a Fact-Finding Team (Tim Pencari Fakta/ TPF) to investigate the murder, killings, shootings, torture, arbitrary arrests, and military abuses across Papua.

Among the cases raised was the April 14, 2026 violence in Puncak Regency, where at least 15 people were killed and five others wounded in Kembru District.

Protesters also condemned the unrest in Dogiyai Regency that left five civilians dead: Siprianus Tibakoto (25), Yulita Ester Pigai (70), Martinus Yobee (17), Angkian Edowai (20), and Ferdinan Auwe (23). Others, including 12-year-old Maikel Waine and Pigai Kikibi (23), reportedly suffered gunshot wounds. The action also highlighted the killing of Elki Wunungga, allegedly shot dead by police officers in Bokondini.

No one has been investigated and held accountable for these killings and rights violations.

Behind every number is a future erased. A 17-year-old youth whose dreams will never grow old. A mother and elder whose voice will no longer return to her family fire. Sons buried before their parents. Children learning the language of gunfire before the language of peace. In West Papua, massacres not only take lives but also destroy futures, fracture families, and extinguish hopes that can never be replaced.

The demonstrators also denounced the arbitrary arrest and torture of 14 civilians by the Indonesian military, as well as the shooting of a health worker. Though eventually released for lack of evidence, survivors and communities continue to carry fear, trauma, and terror under constant military presence.

West Papua has turned into a zone of "lawlessness" under Indonesian occupation. A rogue security state where the guns of the military and police become the rule of the land.

International law is disregarded, human rights violations are carried out with impunity, and state forces operate without accountability while Indigenous Papuans are continuously displaced, criminalized, tortured, and killed. The right to protest and speak about freedom and self-determination remains closed and restricted.

At the same time, foreign corporations and political elites are able to openly and freely profit from the extraction of Papua’s lands and resources.

Protesters condemned the 2.3 million-hectare Merauke National Strategic Project (PSN), alongside the operations of Freeport-McMoRan, BP LNG Tangguh, and other extractive projects that deepen militarization, ecological destruction, and Indigenous dispossession.

The Anti-Militarism Front demanded an end to military operations, the withdrawal of Indonesian troops from West Papua, the rejection of the New Autonomous Regions (DOB), and unrestricted access for the United Nations Human Rights Council and international investigators to conduct an independent human rights investigation.

No officials appeared to meet the protesters. West Papua continues to bleed under militarist and brutal occupation, while the Indonesian state only knows bullets, prisons, silence, and impunity.#