Indonesian soldiers face jail over torture

Thu, 20 Jan 2011

Jayapura, Indonesia - A military prosecutor in Indonesia's Papua province on Thursday demanded up to one year in prison for three soldiers charged with disobedience for torturing suspected separatist rebels.

In a video posted on the internet in October, soldiers were seen burning the genitals of one suspected rebel and running a knife across the neck of another.

The prosecutors in the court martial in the provincial capital of Jayapura recommended that that the soldiers - Irwan Riskianto, Yapson Agu and Tamrin Makangiri - be sentenced to one year, 10 months and nine months, respectively.

The officers have been detained for two months.

The military said the soldiers had acted unprofessionally and charged them with disobeying orders. Rights activists said the soldiers should have been charged with violating human rights.

Another video posted on YouTube in July showing police officers taunting a fatally wounded suspected rebel sparked an outcry.

Papua is home to a low-level separatist insurgency with sporadic violence continuing despite regional autonomy awarded in 2001.

The former Dutch colony was incorporated into Indonesia in 1969 after a UN-sponsored referendum that Jakarta was accused of manipulating.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/363265,soldiers-face-jail-torture.html.