Massacre Location
One survivor said: “The attack on July 6th took place in the morning, when we were under the water tower. During the initial attack the troops assembled around us in a U formation. There were Brimob police in riot gear, army troops(Kopasgad), a company of soldiers from the local Kodim barracks, as well as Navy personnel. ...
We Have Come to Testify
This record and illustrated book contains songs and spoken testimonies delivered over Melanesian beats and soundscapes. The illustrations by Michael Kumnick have been drawn based on the testimonies of survivors and witnesses of the 1998 Biak massacre in West Papua, as given at the 2013 Citizen’s Tribunal. The events as told by the survivors echo...
The Biak Tribunal: Trailer Video
“From July 2 to July 6, 1998, when the military opened fire, the morning star flag flew over the thirty-five-meter-tall water tower near the harbor in Biak town. (Biak is the name of the island, the district, and the district capital.) The demonstration was led by a Jayapura-based provincial government employee named Filip Yopy Karma…The...
Verdict Announced
The Citizens Tribunal announced its findings on Monday, 16 December, 2013. Our findings were featured in The Guardian and by ABC News 7:30 in a special broadcast: Searching for the truth about a massacre in West Papua
Names Without Graves
The detailed report, “Names Without Graves, Graves Without Names” by Elsham Papua has just been translated. This report, which was completed in the months immediately following the massacre, contains essential background for anyone who is conducting research on this event. For over fifteen years it was only accessible to Indonesian speaking researchers, and...
Opening Statement from Nicholas Cowdery
THE BIAK MASSACRE CITIZENS TRIBUNAL University of Sydney, 6 July 2013 OPENING STATEMENT I appear with Gustav Kawer of West Papua, recipient in Amsterdam of the “Lawyers for Lawyers” award for 2013, to assist the Tribunal. Mr Turnbull SC and Mr O’Gorman SC appear also and will make submissions in due course – I shall return...
A Collective Testimony read by Ronny Kareni
We have come to testify. There is much that we want the world to know. We want to testify about the injustices of the Biak massacre. We want to testify about the killings and the beatings with rifles. We want to testify about the people who were disappeared, those who were imprisoned and those who...
