Papua's women and children under fire

Papua's women and children have been under relentless attack since Indonesia first invaded, leaving immense psychological scars. Reports of raids on villages usually contain references to sexual violations, and often describe women and children forced to watch family members being raped or tortured to death. Early reports document Indonesian soldiers picking up children by the feet and smashing their heads against rocks as mothers pleaded for mercy. These raids are designed to terrorize and demoralize as well as to destroy.

In its 2003 annual human rights report on Indonesia, the U.S. government stated without any ambiguity that rape and other brutalities against women have been made a weapon of war by the Indonesian military.

An infamous example of women and children being massacred took place on Biak, a tiny island off the coast of Papua. At 5 a.m. on July 6, 1998, the Indonesian army opened fire on a group of young people sleeping in the main square. The entire population of the town was then forced at gunpoint to the harbour, where for an entire day Biak men, women and children were subjected to physical, psychological and sexual abuses.

The local Catholic church reported that more than 100 people - mostly women, some with babies and young children - were then forced on board two Navy vessels and taken out to sea. Over the next few weeks, their naked bodies and body parts washed ashore or were found in fishing nets. Most of the victims had been mutilated in gruesome ways.

HIV/AIDS

West Papua has the highest HIV rate in Indonesia. Much of it is due to the ongoing harassment that Papuan women face from Indonesian soldiers, as well as the severe lack of health services for Papuans in the region.

AIDS was first detected in the province in 1992. Studies undertaken by international researchers report that brothels established and run by the Indonesian military are a principal source of the deadly disease. The military is also reported to be relocating HIV-infected prostitutes from other parts of Indonesia to Papua.

Indonesian government spokespersons attempt to blame the spread of HIV/AIDS on the Papuans' risky sexual behavior. Urbanization, however, is closer to the root of the problem. More and more young people are displaced from rural communities (see other Special Topics) to become sex workers in the towns and cities. Ninety percent of sex workers in Jayapura (the capital of Papua) are native Papuans, and less than five percent of them use condoms.

A recent report by University of Victoria professor Dr. Leslie Butt and colleagues, notes that there are virtually no government initiatives for AIDS education in rural locations, where the majority of indigenous Papuans live. The most vulnerable people in Papuan society are slowly being killed by an unseen, undiagnosed, yet preventable disease.