Protests calls for arrest of Indonesian President in London

Indonesian President Yudhoyono began his state visit. Protesters from human rights organisations and West Papua and Moluccan independence movements called for his arrest, an end to the killing of Papuans and the release of political prisoners.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is a former war lord in East Timor where he was involved in operations leading to the deaths of thousands of civilians, and is now in charge of an ongoing genocide in West Papua, where 500,000 people are thought to have been killed. In West Papua there is no freedom of speech and raising the flag of Free West Papua which several at today's protest were waving results in imprisonment for 15 years.

According to campaigners from West Papua:

"Every day women and children are being raped, villages burned, elderly murdered, and lives destroyed. People are being put in prison for raising a flag, or assassinated in broad daylight."

The protesters were from various groups including Amnesty International, Survival, the Indonesian Human Rights movement Tapol, green campaigners Rainforest Rescue (Regenwald) as well as supporters of the Free West Papua campaign and the Moluccan independence movement.

Protesters condemned the UK Government for inviting a war criminal to come to the UK and treating him to the ceremony of a state visit. The claims made by the Indonesian government to be As well as calling for the release of political prisoners and an end to the killing, some of those present were also asking for the arrest of President Yudhoyono for war crimes. After seeing a documentary film about the continuing genocide in West Papua, a prominent UK businessman offered a bounty of £50,000 for a peaceful attempt to carry out a citizen's arrest on the president during his visit.

Alex Regent, a spokesman for the movement to arrest him told the Indonesian newspaper Harian Detik "We believe he should face justice as thousands of people are being killed in West Papua. We hope that many UK supporters will attempt to arrest the president during his upcoming trip, to help bring into focus what Indonesia is doing in West Papua."

As the web site says: "Your attempts to arrest this war criminal will, at this stage, be largely symbolic, but they will have great political resonance." They suggest that someone should calmly "approach Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and in a gentle fashion to lay a hand on his shoulder or elbow, in such a way that he cannot have any cause to complain of being hurt or trapped by you, and announce loudly, “Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, this is a citizens’ arrest for genocide and crimes against humanity in West Papua. I am inviting you to accompany me to a police station to answer the charge."

This afternoon at Downing St, the President was nowhere to be seen, but perhaps later in his visit we may see someone going for the prize, though perhaps the main effect of the offer will be a little press interest and a higher than usual level of police protection for Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Although one of the posters at the protest claim that Yudhoyonon is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), Indonesia has not acceded to the Rome Statute, the founding treaty of the ICC, and it is not possible for the ICC to address his case. The Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC), whose Advisory Board is chaired by former Secretary-General of the United Nations and Nobel Laureate Kofi Annan and which includes many highly respected groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch has called on Indonesia to deliver on its commitment to fight impunity for military crimes by ratifying the Rome Statute, but it has not done so.

Activists from the South Moluccan independence movement went to the courts to have the Indonesian president arrested for alleged human rights violations during an official visit to the Netherlands in 2010. Although the courts rejected the case as Dutch law guarantees him immunity as a sitting head of state, Indonesia cancelled the visit, but despite opposition here, our government is welcoming him with open arms.

I had expected to see West Papuan tribal leader and founder of the Free West Papua organisation based in the UK Benny Wenda at the protest, but unfortunately he is ill. Granted asylum in the UK in 2002 and living in Oxford, the Indonesian government had applied through Interpol for his extradition on charges of murder and arson, which he denies. Fortunately last August, Interpol came to the decision that the case they were making against him "was predominantly political in nature" and deleted him from their 'wanted' list.

Source: http://www.demotix.com/news/