Human rights commission condemns killing of 12 civilians in Indonesia's Papua province

JAKARTA - Indonesia's National Human Rights Commission strongly criticised the military on Monday as it investigated the killing of 12 civilians last week during an operation against rebels in Papua province.

The military said it had no information about the deaths, but the state-run rights commission said over the weekend that 12 people including women and children had been shot dead during an operation against separatists in central Papua on April 14. Dozens of others sustained serious injuries, it added.

The commission said it was investigating the deaths. It was not immediately clear whether the civilians were the killed by Indonesian or rebel fire, or both.

"We condemn the enforcement operation against Papuan rebels that resulted in civilian casualties," commission chief Anis Hidayah said in a statement.

"All forms of attacks against civilians, whether in situations of war or otherwise, carried out by state or non-state actors, constitute violations of human rights and International Humanitarian Law," she added.

The commission also urged Indonesia's military to reevaluate operations against Papuan rebels, she said.

Resource-rich Papua, home to the world's second-largest gold and copper mine, has seen a simmering separatist movement since it was brought under Indonesian control in a 1969 vote overseen by the United Nations.

The military spokesperson for Papua told Reuters he had not received any information regarding civilian fatalities in Papua last week. The Papuan rebel group said 12 civilians had been killed by military operations.

The military's Habema taskforce carried out an operation on April 14 in Puncak region after receiving reports from civilians about the presence of rebels in their village, taskforce spokesperson Wirya Arthadiguna told Reuters.

Four rebels were killed during the operation in Kembru village, and there was a report of a child dying from a gunshot during an unrelated incident in a nearby village, Wirya said.

"No military personnel were present at that village at the time of the shooting of the child, and the two incidents took place at different locations and times and are not connected,” he said.

-Ananda Teresia; Editing by Gibran Peshimam and Stephen Coates/Reuters