JAKARTA, Indonesia – Sabar Iwanggin, a lawyer working for the human rights organization Elsham, was arrested in October for forwarding a text message that read, “The president has an agenda of wiping out Papuans by poisoning food and hiring members of the army as doctors, restaurant workers, and motorcycle taxi drivers to kill Papuans.”  (Please see the Impunity Watch report on his arrest here.)  Iwanggin was formally charged this week with insulting the president.

Iwanggin will be transferred to a community prison is Abepura to await trial.

Elsham co-worker Paula Makabori said that Iwanggin is being unfairly singled out for a text message that was received and forwarded by thousands of others.  She told Radio New Zealand International, “Why don’t those thousands of other people be put into the jails together with Sabar?  Because they all received the same SMS and for writing to their friends and families because of their concern about human rights in West Papua and the deteriorating situation over there.”

For more information, please see:

Radio New Zealand International – Papua human rights campaigner charged over SMS messages – 12 December 2007