Names Without Graves
The detailed report, “Names Without Graves, Graves Without Names” by Elsham Papua has just been translated. This report, which was completed in the months immediately following the massacre, contains essential background for anyone who is conducting research on this event. For over fifteen years it was only accessible to Indonesian speaking researchers, and...
Opening Statement from Nicholas Cowdery
THE BIAK MASSACRE CITIZENS TRIBUNAL University of Sydney, 6 July 2013 OPENING STATEMENT I appear with Gustav Kawer of West Papua, recipient in Amsterdam of the “Lawyers for Lawyers” award for 2013, to assist the Tribunal. Mr Turnbull SC and Mr O’Gorman SC appear also and will make submissions in due course – I shall return...
Photos of Ships Involved in the Biak Massacre
Kakap Class (PBOH) (NAV I) KRI Kakap Indonesia 811 1988–Present KRI 811 photographed by Eben Kirksey on July 6th, 1998. Frosch I Class (Type 108) (LSM) KRI Teluk Berau Germany 534 GDR Eberswalde-Finow (634) Teluk Berau (Berau Bay), a name of bay in East Kalimantan province. Sunk as target on 13 October 2012 in...
Eben Kirksey Evidence
Interview by S. Eben Kirksey and Three Key Survivors Interview conducted May 2003, on Biak. Transcribed and translated June 2013, Sydney. Woman One: On July 6th, 1998, at about 5 am the encampment was attacked in a dawn raid. It was slightly after 5, it was getting light, and it was raining. If it wasn’t...
Elsham Jayapura Testimony
Elshan Jayapura Testimony: Biak Report 1998 PDF Download
Names Without Graves, Graves Without Names: A Fatality Report from the Biak Massacre
Elsham, a local human rights organization, produced a 69 page report in Indonesian about the massacre titled “Names Without Graves, Graves Without Names.” The report called for an international investigation, but no human rights organizations followed up on their call. This report has a preliminary list of people who were killed, wounded, or disappeared on...
Edmund McWilliams Testimony: Recalling the 1998 Massacre in Biak
By Edmund McWilliams In July 1998 I was serving as the Political Counselor in the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta. Throughout the archipelago, it was a time of turmoil but also of great hope. In May, the three-decade old Suharto dictatorship had been overthrown by a popular uprising led largely by courageous young people, notably university...
Agus’s Story
Talking about what happened is hard for us. Some of us find it easier to share our stories. Every time I tell my story I share my pain and the pain is a little less; not a lot but a little bit less. I was twelve years at the time of the Biak massacre. I...
A Story of Rescue
I still very much remember what happened on that day. It was the night before when the aeroplanes came. My husband turned to me and said, ‘In only a short time Biak will be bathed in blood.’ We were all scared. We told the children. Don’t go out of the house. You have to stay...
