A recent report by the West Papua Institute for Human Rights Study and Advocacy (ELS-HAM) details actions by Indonesian soldiers stationed in Papuan villages against villagers this year. The report’s allegations include the confiscation of processed lumber to meet soldiers’ daily needs, beatings and rape. Of the 11 rape victims listed in the report, 6 were minors. A number of villagers reported that they had been threatened with guns and beaten with rifle butts, and several said that they had been forced to eat soil by Indonesian soldiers.
