Mahfud MD: The Issue Of Officials Committing Human Rights Violations In Papua Is A Hoax

Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Mahfud MD/DOK Coordinating Ministry for Political, Legal and Security Affairs

JAKARTA - Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs (Menko Polhukam) Mahfud MD emphasized that information that mentions violations of human rights (HAM) by officials in the Papua region is a hoax or a lie.

"I want to emphasize that let's proportionalize the hot issues, many of which are hoaxes. First, the issue of human rights violations by officials who are in the international spotlight. Brothers, all of them are hoaxes," Mahfud said as quoted by ANTARA, Thursday, July 21.

Mahfud just attended the 50th Annual Session of the United Nations (UN) High Commission for Human Rights (HAM) in Geneva, Switzerland, on June 13-14, 2022. In the forum, Mahfud delivered a speech on development progress human rights in Indonesia.

"In the trial, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (Michelle Bachelet) mentioned 49 countries that had human rights violations, Indonesia was not mentioned at all," he said.

Therefore, Mahfud asked all parties not to be provoked by the narratives of irresponsible parties regarding human rights violations in Papua.

"In November 2021, someone said this, Indonesia received a warning from the United Nations because it received 19 letters from SPMH, that's a unit at the United Nations given the authority to return complaints to their country," said Mahfud.

As for the letter from the Special Procedure Mandate Holders (SPMH), Mahfud continued, it was not a spotlight or an investigation, but a forwarding of letters from the public to the country concerned. However, the contents of the letter were never discussed at the UN High Commission for Human Rights.

"Indonesia received only 19 letters. At the same time, the United States received 78 letters, India received 50 letters. After Indonesia answered, it was finished," said Mahfud.

SPMH, he said, is not a UN organ that can assess and investigate human rights violations in a country on behalf of the UN KT HAM.

In fact, the perpetrators of violence in some areas of Papua, he said, were armed criminal groups (KKB). However, he stressed, the KKB can only carry out violence in a few areas of Papua.

"In Papua this KKB is an issue because the motive for this KKB is a political and security motive because it aims to carry out acts of separation or disintegration. However, from a quantity perspective, only a few," he said. Mahfud assessed that the security of the Papua region was conducive. The violence perpetrated by the KKB occurred in only a few locations, and did not represent the situation in Papua.

"Criminal acts and violence only occur in the Central Mountains and some places. If you go to Manokwari, Jayapura, to the south, everything is conducive. So, in general it is conducive, where there is interference with KKB in certain places," said Mahfud.