Very limited information about the case of Dipenus Wenda, Wetius Wenda and Tepenat Wenda is publicly available. According to the monthly West Papua report published on the ETAN website, the three men, along with Marius Kogoya had been giving out leaflets campaigning for an boycott of the April 5th elections when the police arrested them. in the Bokondini area of Papua’s Central Highlands. That article does not give a date for their arrest, although a later email circulated by Koteka Prisoner Support states that the four men were arrested on March 29th 2004.
Marius Kogoya was shot dead while in police custody. The police’s version of events, as reported in the Cenderawasih Pos and the Jakarta Post, was that Mr Kogoya had fought back while under interrogation. In other reports (eg the report published by ETAN), the police claim that Mr Kogoya was trying to escape arrest at the time. The police also claimed that the four arrested men had admitted to being members of the OPM.
The email from Koteka prisoner support relates that in early May the three survivors were being held under arrest in Wamena hospital, but doesn’t give details of injuries or illnesses.
The the Justice and Peace Secretariat (SKP), in their chronology of events connected to human rights in Papua, have reported from the 6th session of the three men’s court case on the 23rd November, however there is no report of the verdict or sentence.
Depinus Wenda was listed as being still in prison by the Democracy Alliance for Papua in 2011 but this has not been confirmed. The fates of Wetius and Tepenat Wenda are unclear.
Sources:
ETAN / Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center, “Papua Report April 2004”, April 2004, http://etan.org/issues/wpapua/rfk/04aprilwpap.htm
Koteka Prisoner Support, “West Papua Prisoner Support Week”, 6 May 2004, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tribal-melanesia/message/1784
Cenderawasih Pos, “Keterangan Kapolsek Memberatkan Terdakwa”, 9 November 2004, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Komunitas_Papua/message/2538
Jakarta Post, “Police Shoot Dead Separatist Ahead of Voting Day”, 5 April 2004, http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2004/04/05/police-shoot-dead-separatist-papua-ahead-voting-day.html
Sekretariat Keadilan dan Perdamaian Keuskupan Jayapura, “Catatan Sosio-Politik No 10”, February 2005, http://www.hampapua.org/skp/skp02/ssp-10i.pdf
Aliansi Demokrasi untuk Papua, (unfortunately ALDP has changed its website and its archive seems to be no longer online, so this information is no longer available to check online)
