Another Terror on Veronica Koman, a Papuan Human Rights Activist

TheIndonesia.id - Human rights defender Veronica Koman got another terror that related to her activity. Sunday, 7 November 2021, 10.26 Jakarta time, two packs of suspicious packages exploded, spraying green, yellow, and red paints.

That was the second attack in a month. The first attack was on 24 October 2021 carried out by two men riding a motorcycle. They hung a parcel on the fence of the house and it burnt afterward. Also on November 7, 2021, there was another attack on the house of Veronica Koman's relatives in the form of a package containing a chicken carcass and a threatening letter.

The parents have submitted a report to the police for the first attack.

Police confirm the second attack was a firecracker pack. They also found a letter in the vicinity containing a threat addressed to Veronica Koman who is now residing in Australia. The threat is related to Koman’s activity on human rights advocacy in Papua.

"It is considered as a form of threat to the occupants of the house related to Veronica Koman's actions," the Head of the Operational Assistance Section for Police Antiterrorism Special Force, Police Grand Commissioner Aswin Siregar, told reporters, Monday, 8 November 2021.

Amnesty International states this is an attack on a human rights defender. “Especially a member of the Indonesian Advocates Association or Peradi," Executive Director of Amnesty International Indonesia, Usman Hamid, said. "She has acted as a lawyer for the Papuan student alliance and also the West Papua National Committee and youth organizations that are involved in the West Papua National Committee, conveying their expression peacefully through various means."

The attack on Veronica Koman confirms a finding on the democratic regression phenomenon in Indonesia which is characterized by the increasing attacks on human rights defenders. The National Human Rights Commission noted 206 reports of human rights violations against human rights defenders between 2015 and 2019.