On behalf of the oppressed peoples of West Papua, I would like to appeal for urgent help from you and your government regarding the death penalty that has been imposed against a West Papuan freedom fighter by the name of Yogor Telenggen, and for your immediate intervention to pressure Indonesian government to stop the execution of an innocent West Papuan man.

The death penalty imposed against Yogor Telenggen was assessed by his lawyer, Yan Christian Warinussy, as a demand that was too heavy and not in accordance with the facts of the trial. Mr Yogor Telenggen, was not involved in the various violence alleged by the prosecutor.

In a hearing that took place in the Manokwari District Court, West Papua on Friday (05/03/2019), the prosecutor asked the judge to declare the defendant, Yellow Card Yoman, aka Yogor Telenggen guilty of premeditated murder, violent theft and illegal possession of firearms.

The court’s decision would violate international law because Mr Yogor Telenggen's status as a combatant is very clear. Mr Telenggen is a freedom fighter with arms, fighting against his enemy, the Indonesian military. The shooting took place in areas of war conflict, between the TPNPB or The West Papua National Liberation Army (military) and the Indonesian military, where there is no killing of civilians, therefore it cannot be categorized as premeditated murder to punish.

We believed that the victim has been denied the natural justice that he deserves and urgently appeal for help from international community, including United Nations to pressure Indonesian government to stop the execution of Mr Yogor Telenggen because the status of Yogor Telenggen best fits the ‘Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War’ Articles 2, 3, 4 and 5 internationally recognised as the rules of engagement in a conflict which the West Papua National Liberation Army knows well and engage with the Indonesian military.

Find below is the full information about the victim.

Name of the Victim

Family Name: Telenggen

First and other names: Yogor

Sex: Male

Birth date: 23rd June, 1988

Occupation: West Papua Liberation Army (Freedom fighter)

Location: West Papua freedom fighter a defender for the rights of Indigenous people of West Papua held at Manokwari Prison, West Papua province of Indonesia

Mr. Yogor Telenggen is an active member of the West Papua National Liberation Army (WPNLA) who has been given a death sentence by the Manokwari regional court. He was previously sentenced for life in prison in 2013 but escaped Abepura prison on 8 January 2016. He was re-arrested at approximately 4 pm on 12 May in Puncak Jaya regency.

Telenggen was shot below the knee during arrest. He was subsequently taken to Bhayangkara hospital in Jayapura for treatment. His whereabouts was unknown for almost a month following his arrest. Neither he nor his family was given arrest and detention letters. He has been detained in Jayapura at the headquarters of Brimob (Mobile Brigade Corps, a special unit of the Indonesia National Police before his trial in Manokwari.[1]

Yogor was initially captured as a prisoner of war (POW) by the joint Police and Military forces of Indonesia during a gun battle between the West Papua Liberation Army who is fighting for Independence from Indonesia and the Indonesian military believed to be the occupying forces in the West Papuan’s land being claimed by Indonesia as one of its provinces. He was captured as a Prisoner of war in the battlefield in Punjak Jaya regency Papua Province.

He was categorized as a ‘terrorist’ which bars people including his relatives from seeing him throughout his detention years. The lawyers who were representing him were allowed to see him during the trial to represent him but mostly off limits. He was often tortured to extract information in many different inhumane way but most noble ones were drinking and eating of his own wastes without feeding him enough while being in prison. He is now being sentenced to death the worse of the judgement which is an attempt to deter West Papuans from joining the West Papua National Liberation army to fight for independence from Indonesia.

During his arrest he was shot below the knee and continuously bitten in the prison that resulted in bones dislocations and poor health in general. The purpose of the torture was for investigation purposes to extract information from him about the West Papua National Liberation Army. 

He was briefly taken to the hospital by the police to a hospital run by the police. His relatives were not informed about the events because he was taken care of as a terrorist and do not want his relatives to know his whereabouts.

His case was not focus on torture but focus on the sentence of death penalty by the court. We believe that he is not a common criminal or a terrorist for that matter but he was charged under Article 340, 187, 55(1)(1), 365(1), 365(4) of the Indonesian Criminal Code that does not even warrant a death penalty for the punishment of a common criminal that can be punishable by death.

The status of Yogor Telenggen best fits the ‘Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War’ Articles 2, 3, 4 and 5 internationally recognised as the rules of engagement in a conflict which the West Papua National Liberation Army knows well and engage with the Indonesian military. The war is a 60 years’ war and both sides know about the existence of the conflict and that they are at war with each other over national ideology and of independence from colonial rule. Yogor shot two military personal in the battlefield which the judges claimed under murder without considering the situation and the status of the conflict that the two organizations are in.
 

The victim (Yogor Telenggen) in this case would be executed this week and it is of urgent that the international community through the United Nations intervene to stop Indonesia from executing him. The local lawyer who represented the victim believes that the judges are under the influence of the military that they don’t seem to change their thoughts on their decision. He hopes to argue for the case once again this week which needed to be backed by other support. We hope that the international community, including UN write to Indonesian President to advise him to stop the execution of Mr. Yogor Telenggen this week.  

The origins of the TPNPB (The West Papuan National Liberation Army) shows that the Papuan people have long fought to remain independent. In 1942 during the Japanese occupation, Papuans in Biak declared their independence. Tens of thousands of Free Papua Movement members in 1965 resisted Indonesia in the lead-up to the fatally flawed 1969 “act of free choice”. This history illustrates the fact that today’s TPNPB freedom fighters are continuing a longstanding “war of national liberation”.

International humanitarian law recognizes them as combatants and not, as the government prefers to describe them, merely members of an “armed criminal group”. Wars of national liberation are addressed under Additional Protocol I of the 1949 Geneva Conventions. Although Indonesia is not yet a signatory to this protocol, combatants on both sides must still respect basic international humanitarian law as a matter of customary international law during the armed conflict.

Indonesia may not be signatory to Geneva Conventions, but it is legally and morally subject to the Charter of the United Nations under which Indonesia signed an agreement asking the United Nations to send troops to subjugate West Papua irrespective of the local and public objections. Irrespective of any interpretation of the agreement, Indonesia and other nations are legally and morally subject to the obligations including UN Charter articles 103, 88, 76, and 1.

It is Indonesia that made West Papua an international issue, it is Indonesia that asked the United Nations to send troops while promising to respect the Papuan right of self-determination (UN Charter 76 & 1).

As a newly elected member of the UN Security Council, Indonesia’s stated priority is fighting for the noble cause of the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination. It should be no less a priority for Indonesia to democratically address the same fundamental demand being voiced by the Papuan people. Amnesty International's report says that remains of banned chemical weapons collected by Papuan civilians in Nduga were different from the ones Indonesian military claimed on the media. Indonesian military says it was only smoked grenades and not bombs. How do you justify the number of victims with severe burns on their bodies? Indonesian military hierarchy are lying to the public because they have actually used banned chemical weapons against unarmed civilians in West Papua. Indonesian government should be condemned at the strongest possible terms because those chemical weapons used have been banned under international law.

Indonesian claims over the lawful integration of West Papua into the Republic of Indonesia is actually based on historical fraud and lies, is hollow and will not stand the test of a legal challenge should the matter be raised in a competent court of international law.  This Act of Free Choice was a sham and a total disregard of democratic principles that is accorded to all civilized nations. Based on this fraudulent process, also legitimated by United Nations, the fate of West Papuan people was placed in the hands of a brutal and oppressive entity-Indonesian state.

On any account therefore, there is no justification for the integration of West Papua into the Republic of Indonesia. There is no shared pre-colonial history. There is no shared colonial history. There is no shared decolonization history and that integration has failed in that it has not resulted in much social, economic and political advancement by the Papuan people at all for the last 56 years. In fact, it has seen the deterioration of the Papua people and their future.

We need to have an honest and meaningful discussion with Indonesian government on this depressing issue of West Papua because the more we ignore the plight of West Papua, West Papuan people will continue to suffer more under the hands pf brutal regime – Indonesian state.

We urgently appeal to your good political party, government, including United Nations to do all you can to stop the execution of Mr Yogor Telenggen because we strongly believed that Indonesian justice system is unfair and have failed the peoples of West Papua.  Mr Yogor Telenggen has the right to defend his land and country from colonial government of Indonesia, who violated international law in conducting sham referendum in 1969 where only 1025 Papuan elders where forced at gunpoint to say “yes” to Indonesia. This is very root cause of problem which has resulted in distrust and hatred that Papuans have against Indonesian government which hasn’t been resolved yet.

Your prompt action and attention to this matter will be highly appreciated

Lewis Prai Wellip

OPM International Diplomat & Asia-Pacific Representative of Mr JACOB PRAI-Prime Mover of the Nation of West Papua.