The statement below was released on the Facebook page of the Free West Papua Campaign.
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We are filled with grief today to learn that a 17-year-old West Papuan youth has been found murdered by suspected members of the Australian-trained Indonesian special forces group Kopassus.
We have received reports that on March 6, two days after joining thousands of other Papuans in a mass Free West Papua rally in Yahukimo, activist Deni Bahabol was tortured and killed. He was on his way to the West Papua National Committee (KNPB) secretariat when he was suddenly set upon by Indonesian special forces troops. They tortured him, beat him and then, using a stone, drowned him in the nearby Brazza river.
His corpse was found four days later, with his arms still outstretched, by people from Papiti village in the Asmat region of West Papua. Deni was taken to a nearby morgue, identified and later buried by his family members.
Papuans are still mourning and have received no explanation from the Indonesian authorities as to what happened to him, despite KNPB activists trying to get answers from police.
This was a horrible and cold-blooded murder of a Papuan youth and there is no excuse for such a crime. Such horrific killings as this have become commonplace in West Papua where murder is used as a weapon of terror by the Indonesian state.
We fully condemn this horrible murder and demand justice for Deni Bahabol's family, an end to all human rights violations and to the illegal occupation of West Papua.
Rest in peace brother, your vision for a Free West Papua will live on forever and we will continue to struggle until freedom comes.
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