Stop Sudah English-revised-March2012 - International Center for ...

[T]he army came down in a helicopter, we all ran. I came to the village because we were hungry and I had to come dig
yams . . . I was surprised because there were soldiers in the honai [which had not been burned], the tip of their
weapons were poking out. 58 Startled, I . . . turned right around [to] go back home, but they chased me and covered
my mouth. Another one came, took my hands and pulled me into the honai. There were five of them and they rubbed
my breasts. Another grabbed my genitals and they said, “There are OPM in the village, yes?” But I said there
weren’t, then was quiet . . . they took off my shirt, bra, and skirt . . . ordered me to lie down, they took turns
[raping me], after that they ordered me to go home. 59
After fleeing to the forest and eating only leaves, another woman was also forced to return to her garden in
the village. In March 2005, she went with her daughter, but soldiers hiding on the side of the road attacked
them.
There were seven of them and they pulled us . . . laid us down . . . My daughter . . . was crying, but they shut her
mouth . . . I said, “Let me be raped, but not my child.” But one soldier said, “Mama shut up.” My daughter had
very heavy bleeding. I was raped by four soldiers . . . my child was raped by the three others. My daughter cried and .
. . cried . . . I also cried . . . My daughter is grown now and unmarried . . . If on the street she sees the army or police
[she] becomes afraid and cries, she wants to hide . . . She can get angry with us or others walking with her. Ya . . .
we can’t do anything. 60
The sweeping operation that targeted OPM commander Goliath Tabuni did not only result in violence
against women. Women victims interviewed by the Documentation Team also talked about the impact of
the operation on their families. There were family members who suffer from pain while fleeing, some died
of starvation or were shot, and their children could not continue their education. The “separatist” label they
were burdened meant that their children were not given jobs as civil servants even if they were college
graduates.
Women had to struggle to survive when they fled into the forest when the sweeping began in 2004, while
their husbands had to flee because they were accused of being OPM. One woman told about how the old
women from the village, together with the mothers who carried their children, ran into the forest. After a
month in the forest the children started getting sick, most of them ill with cholera. Mothers looked for
leaves that could be eaten; they cooked them by burying them beneath embers. The difficulty was that they
had to guard the flame because if it were too large, the smoke would show their hiding place to the army.
At that time, my younger sister was eight months pregnant . . . Although not yet time . . . her child was born in the
forest, but after a few days it died because . . . it was very cold and her breast milk . . . was not flowing well . . . A
child 13 years old died . . . [then] her parents died. We buried [their] bodies in the forest . . . [We thought we’d
better] make a temporary shelter [because if not] . . . the children and mothers would die in the forest . . . We
formed three groups to look for wood, rope vines, and long grass . . . After we made the shelter . . . my mama also
died . . . Children were playing on top of the mountain, when the helicopter came they shot my son . . . through the
head and he died on the spot. Ten people died while we sought refuge in the forest. 61
58 A honai is a traditional Papuan hut.
59 PUN04 narrative.
60 PUN07 narrative.
61 PUN06 narrative.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! 30