Jayapura, Jubi – The families of the victims of the Bloody Paniai human rights violations assessed that the trial of the case at the Makassar Human Rights Court was no more than a publicity stunt by the State.

Rights activist Yones Douw, an advocate for the victims' families, in a written statement received by Jubi on Thursday, September 15, 2022, said that the victims' families, survivors and witnesses of the incident refused to attend or testify at the Makassar Human Rights Court this month.

Yones Douw is an advocate for Yosep Degei, Yosep You, Obet Gobai and Herman Yeimo. They are the parents of the four students shot dead by security forces on December 8, 2014, namely Simeon Degei, Pius You, Apinus Oktopia Gobai and Yulius Yeimo. Douw also represents Yermias Kayame, one of the 21 survivors of the Bloody Paniai tragedy.

Douw said the shooting that killed four people and injured 21 people in Enarotali, the capital of Paniai Regency, was a gross human rights violation involving four Indonesian Military (TNI) and Police units. The victims' families and survivors were disappointed that only one defendant would be tried at the Makassar Human Rights Court.

"The families of victims, witnesses, advocate I and II state to President Joko Widodo, the High Commissioner of the UN Human Rights Council, the Attorney General's Office, the Papuan Council of Churches, the National Commission on Human Rights [Komnas HAM], the panel of judges of the Makassar Human Rights Court, all national and international human rights institutions, journalists, and religious and Church leaders wherever they are, that we will not attend the Bloody Paniai gross human rights violation trial in Makassar because the suspect being tried is only one retired officer," said Douw.

Douw assessed that the trial process did not match the facts on the ground. "Indonesia is protecting the perpetrators of the Bloody Paniai gross human rights violation, there is impunity," said Douw.

Douw emphasized that the families of victims and survivors will not give power of attorney to anyone to represent them to testify at the Makassar Human Rights Court. If there were parties who became witnesses in the trial, Douw said it must have been the trickery of the State and TNI.

Source: https://en.jubi.id/bloody-paniai-trial-a-publicity-stunt-victims-families