Fight against state violence
The struggle against the shrinking space for critical civil society.
KontraS was founded in 1997, when during a controversial election campaign several activists disappeared without a trace. Everyone suspected the army of these disappearances, and to address this politically a working group was created that was later renamed the human rights organization KontraS.
Reporting human rights violations
KontraS was founded in the late 90s, at the height of the struggle against authoritarian leader Suharto, who ruled the country with an iron fist for 33 years. When he stepped down in 1998, a period of political instability began, but in the meantime the country has become a democratic constitutional state again. Although it remains fragile, various reports show that a strong human rights movement remains necessary.
KontraS focuses very strongly on human rights violations by state actors, such as the army and police. They often operate as a state within a state, and on behalf of certain companies, for example in the palm oil sector. In addition, it works closely with other 11.11.11-partners in Indonesia in monitoring human rights violations in the mining sector, among others. KontraS has legal experts who can provide assistance, provide education on the rights of local communities and report human rights violations by the police or military.
Forgotten conflict
KontraS also explicitly stands in solidarity with the population in West Papua, a forgotten conflict area. The call for more autonomy is extremely sensitive to the regime in Jakarta, which dismisses freedom fighters as terrorists. In 2021, KontraS, together with a dozen other NGOs, published a report on the conflict of interest of (ex-)military personnel and politicians in mining operations in Papua. After Fatia, then director of KontraS, shared the findings of the report via YouTube, one of the country's most powerful politicians smeared her in court for defamation. She was eventually acquitted in early 2024.
RIP Munir
Every year on September 7, KontraS commemorates the death of one of its founders, human rights activist Munir. Because of his activism, he regularly faced intimidation and death threats. He mainly targeted the involvement of the Indonesian army in human rights violations and the smuggling of illegal logging in East Timor, Papua and Aceh.
Munir was poisoned with arsenic on September 7, 2004 during a flight to Amsterdam. He had just decided to take a break from the national context and continue his studies in the Netherlands. The poison was administered via the fruit juice that Munir was offered by a pilot with ties to state security, but the steward remained tight-lipped and the court did not excel in investigating this painful case.
