JAKARTA: Indonesia's National Commission on Human Rights said Sunday (April 19) it was investigating the killings of 12 civilians, including women and children, in a military operation in the restive easternmost Papua region.
The commission, abbreviated as Komnas HAM, said at least 12 civilians died of gunshot wounds in "an enforcement operation" by the armed forces against the TPNPB-OPM rebel group in the central Papuan village of Kembru on Tuesday.
Several other people were wounded.
The commission was "conducting monitoring", chairwoman Anis Hidayah told AFP Sunday.
She added there was a "strong suspicion" that Indonesian soldiers were responsible.
The military did not respond to a request for comment.
Local media reported the military's Habema task force in Papua as saying its forces had killed four members of the independence guerrilla movement in an "armed contact" in Kembru, and that they are investigating a report of a fatal shooting that killed a child in another village.
Komnas-HAM, which is part of the Indonesian state system but functions independently, said any operation that resulted in civilian casualties "cannot be justified on any grounds".
"Any form of attack against civilians, whether occurring in situations of war or otherwise, and whether perpetrated by state or non-state actors, constitutes a violation of human rights and international humanitarian law," the commission said in a statement Saturday.
It urged restraint from all sides and called on the military to re-evaluate its operations against Papuan rebels.
Papua, which shares its main island with Papua New Guinea, is a former Dutch colony that declared independence in 1961.
Indonesia, however, took control two years later, followed by a 1969 referendum in which 1,000 Papuans out of a population of some 800,000 voted to integrate into the country.
Papuan independence activists regularly criticise the vote and call for fresh polls, which Jakarta has rejected, citing UN acceptance of its sovereignty over the region. - AFP
