The Wire

A viral video that shows a West Papuan man being tortured has made headlines across the world, and put the spotlight onto a region that is often hidden in secrecy. Papua became an Indonesian province after the so-called “Act of Free Choice” in 1969, a referendum that’s widely held to be fraudulent. Since that time human rights abuses have been reported by agencies such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Torture and human rights abuses often go unnoticed by the media, as foreign journalists and aid agencies are not allowed access to West Papua.