19 Oct 2010

Indonesia military chief orders probe into Papua torture video

6:49 pm on 19 October 2010

Indonesia's newly appointed military chief, Admiral Agus Suharto, has ordered an investigation into a video allegedly showing security forces torturing Papuan villagers.

The video shows a smouldering stick being applied to one man's genitals as he is being questioned over the whereabouts of an arms cache.

The military head says if the video is real, the men involved will be handed over for further investigation.

But a freelance journalist based in Jakarta, Chris Holm, says there are issues with the military inquiry into its own:

"The problem is, however, this would be internal investigation and even now a lot of people question how serious military internal investigations go, there's are been records before of investigations going nowhere or people getting slapped on the wrist."

Human Rights Watch has called for a full inquiry.

Activist and editor of West Papua Media, Nick Chesterfield, says there needs to be an independent investigation not involving the Indonesian government.