In the last few months, a disturbing trend has become apparent in a string of incidents across Indonesia: the sending of innocuous packages that contain the corpses of dead animals. Whilst the actors, cases and context of each incident may differ, the very fact this newly prominent technique was used to intimidate them displays a commonality in tactics that hides the perpetrator and is designed to cause an atmosphere of fear. The parallels of the recipients of these packages shows a trend of targeted intimidation designed to cause fear and silence those speaking out against embedded interests.

Tempo Media were the first to be hit by this new wave of dead animal packages. On 19th March, a package containing a rotting pig's head addressed to Francisca (Cica) Christy Rosana, a Tempo journalist and one of the hosts of the popular podcast Bocor AlusPolitik, which critically covers some of the biggest stories in Indonesian politics, was sent to Tempo's office. An Instagram account, @derrynoah, threatened that the pig's head would be followed up by burning down Tempo's offices, as well as a targeting of her family. A package containing six headless mice was also sent to the office on 22nd March. As this sequence of events occurred in the run-up to the passing of the controversial TNI (Military) Law, which she and the podcast had been critically covering, it seemed likely to be an attempt to intimidate and silence criticism of the new law, and allow it to pass without opposition.

A second incident affected Delima Silalahi, an environmental activist based in North Sumatra, who received a package containing a bloody carcass of a bird addressed to her at her house on 30th May. Delima and others had demanded the closure of PT Toba Pulp Lestari, a company that had been accused of causing an ecological and social crisis in the community through its deforestation activities. The timing and target of the package coincides again with the fact that someone was speaking up on an issue against vested interests.

Furthermore, Papuan students across Indonesia received packages across Indonesia on three separate occasions in June. On 6th June in Denpasar, Bali, two packages were received by students, containing rotting pig's heads. One of the packages, addressed to Wemison Enembe, had a note saying it contained the book Papua Bergerak (Papua on the Move), which turned out to be false. The book itself had already been part of an intimidation campaign, when its launch on 18th May was disrupted by people who had received a hoax invitation claiming that they were handing out money and groceries at the event. Wemison himself is the chair of the Bali chapter of the Papuan Student Alliance (Aliansi Mahasiswa Papua, AMP). The alliance, both in Bali and nationally, has organised a number of protests in the past several years. The second package was delivered later in the evening to another residence full of Papuan students, this time addressed to Yuberthinus Gobay, a member of the national executive of the same organisation. The timing and recipients of these packages bear the hallmarks of attempts to intimidate Papuan students activists and their supporters from carrying out further protests.

Incident Map 19th March to 19th June. (see original document)

This was followed up on 18-19th June with another package, this time with threatening notes and a dead chicken and chicken droppings, to other members of AMP in Yogyakarta. Thirdly, also on 19th June, AMP members in Surabaya received a package containing a dead monitor lizard, after receiving threats from an unknown phone number and seeing threatening posters plastered around the city. This arose after their participation in protests against militarism in West Papua.

This renewed surge is not entirely without precedent. Veronica Koman, a human rights defender and lawyer, had boxes sent to her and her family threatening retribution for her work, including a dead chicken with a message stating that anyone hiding her would end up like this. Nevertheless, the increasing prevalence of this tactic has contributed to a climate of fear amongst the media and human rights defenders. This is very worrying and needs to be taken seriously by the Indonesian Government, as is their duty, as the suspicion of collusion hangs over these incidents where those receiving the packages have been critics of government policy or the actions of oligarchs. TAPOL calls upon the police force to condemn these acts in the strongest possible terms and to find the perpetrators and bring them to justice.

Source: https://tapol.org/news/bed-pigs-head-packages-dead-animals-intimidate-media-and-activist