25 August 2002
Subject: The case of Benny Wenda
Benny Wenda, the secretary general of DEMMAK, the Penis Gourd People's Assembly, a mass organisation based in the central highlands of West Papua, was arrested on 8 June this year and is still be held at the police headquarters in Jayapura.
The police have made it known that the prisoner is being held on suspicion of being responsible for an attack on the Jayapura police headquarters in December 2000. At the time, the police raided the hostels in Abepura where students from the highlands are living, alleging that they were responsible for the attack. Many students were injured during the raids, and two
lost their lives during the raid and when in police custody.
He also faces a charge in relation to the alleged possession of a false passport which he held during a recent stay in Papua New Guinea.
Three human rights organisations in Jayapura are now handling the case, the West Papua Legal Aid Institute, ELS-HAM, the Institute for Human Rights Study and Advocacy, and KontraS Papua, the Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence.
According to a note received this week from KontraS Papua based on information from the detainee's famly, Benny Wenda's health has deteriorated during his detention, apparently as the result of mal-treatment while in police custody. More detailed information is being sought about his state of health and the nature of the treatment he has undergone.
[For information about DEMMAK, see 'They Walk on the Leaves of Trees' by Chris Richards in the New Internationalist special issue on West Papua, April 2002.]
By TAPOL TODAY 25 August 2002
|
|
© Copyright 1999-2001. All rights reserved. Contact: 