M Yusuf Manurung, Jakarta – The name of the person who reported a case of treason to police following a Papuan demonstration in Central Jakarta on August 28, 2019 was revealed during a court hearing yesterday. The person was the Red-and-White Militia (LMP) General Chairperson Adek Erfil Manurung.
“I made a report with the Metro Jaya Polda [Jakarta regional police] while it was still August 28”, said Manurung when testifying at the Central Jakarta District Court on Monday February 3.
Manurung said that he made the report after he was informed by a friend that there was a flag raising action at the State Palace. Manurung then watched a video of the action on a YouTube channel belonging to the internet media group Surara.com. After watching the video he claimed to have felt compelled to report it to police.
“For us [raising] the Morning Star is an act of separatism”, he testified.
According to Manurung, he also saw the demonstrators in the video calling for a referendum. In addition to this, there were requests for the withdrawal of the TNI (Indonesian military) from Papua. According to Manurung, the action in front of the State Palace was a movement to separate Papua from the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia (NKRI).
“We cannot accept those things. Because we love the NKRI”, he said.
Nevertheless, the leader of the group which once besieged the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) offices in Central Jakarta in September 2017 claimed that he could not identify any of the individual defendants in the Papua treason case from the Suara.com video he watched. “It’s just we couldn’t see the people clearly”, said Manurung.
The six defendants in the treason case are Paulus Suryanta Ginting, Charles Kossay, Ambrosius Mulait, Isay Wenda, Anes Tabuni and Arina Elopere. They have been indicted on two alternative articles, namely Article 106 of the Criminal Code (KUHP) in conjunction with Article 55 Paragraph 1(1) of the KUHP on makar (treason, subversion, rebellion) and Article 110 Paragraph 1 of the KUHP on criminal conspiracy.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was “Pimpinan Ormas Ini Lapor Kasus Makar Papua Setelah Nonton Youtube”.]
