Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

[by video link] I rise tonight on the issue of human rights, as is my habit on Tuesday nights, even when I am here remotely. The Australian Greens believe that universal human rights are fundamental and must be respected and protected in all countries and for all people. I want to particularly speak tonight about an incredibly concerning development that we've seen in West Papua. The story broke today in The Guardian about an Indonesia police chief, Untung Sangaji, accused of brutal violence against West Papuan people. He received training from the Australian Federal Police at the Jakarta Centre for Law Enforcement Cooperation, or JCLEC. I'd like to quote some of The Guardian's report:

When questioned later about the alleged mistreatment, the officer in charge of the operation, the Merauke police chief Untung Sangaji, reportedly told local media: "In future if there are further acts of treason I will shoot them in the legs … They have insulted the Indonesian nation. Never mind mistreatment, I will shoot them dead if ordered to shoot them … If necessary, we will chop them up."

One of the people who was detained by this police chief, a West Papuan activist, died in custody in an operation overseen by Untung Sangaji. What is very clear from the reporting and should be of concern to all of us here is that this abusive cop maintains a close relationship with the Australian Federal Police.

Sangaji told the Guardian: "We continue to work really closely with the AFP. We have their phone numbers. If they are following a people-smuggling suspect, they call us and we know we have to take the call."

This makes my blood boil, and it should horrify every Australian that our government and our police are funding and training and working hand-in-hand with human rights abusers.

Untung Sangaji has also been associated with attacks on trans people in Aceh. The Guardian article said:

In 2018, the Indonesian National Commission on Human Rights condemned the violent and humiliating arrests of 12 transgender women in the province of Aceh, saying that Indonesian and Sharia police had acted outside the law and their actions were inhumane.

…   …   …

Sangaji was a local police chief at the time and, according to reports, police in his team cut the women's hair in public, forced them to wear men's clothes and coached them to behave like "real men".

I feel so much hurt and sorrow for these women for the attacks they experienced. Everyone deserves to be safe and to be able to express who they are. No-one should face these transgender and transphobic attacks. I think in particular we should all remember that transwomen are women.

I'll be using every tool under the Senate's authority to scrutinise the information covered in The Guardian this morning and ensure the parliament brings much-needed oversight to the AFP. Tomorrow the Senate is going to vote on my OPD for all records of Untung Sangaji's participation in AFP sponsored training and to provide all communication between Sangaji and the AFP. I will be demanding a clear guarantee from the AFP that they won't provide any future training to him. If the Morrison government and the AFP do not act swiftly when presented with the clear evidence against this violent cop, it will confirm our government's complete disregard for human rights.

But, of course, the brutality of this one police chief is just one element of the broader issue of the right of the people of West Papua to self-determination and their ongoing struggle for justice against the oppression of the Indonesian government. The Guardian article summarised:

"West Papua is at its worst since the Suharto era, and somehow the world just doesn't notice," says Veronica Koman, an Indonesian human rights lawyer who lives in exile in Sydney.

…   …   …

"There are at least 60,000 internally displaced people right now in West Papua," she says. "They are mostly undocumented and in the jungle, facing malnutrition, hunger, sickness. [Just recently] a two-year-old boy died."

I want to salute the brave activists who are putting their lives on the line in West Papua and say to them: the Australian Greens see you and we are with you in solidarity. We want to see the Indonesian government withdraw all military troops from West Papua; we want to see full access for UN and other independent human rights observers; and, most importantly, we want to see full self-determination for the people of West Papua.