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Jakarta. Activists on Friday asked the national human rights body to launch its own probe into the torture of two Papuan men by Indonesian soldiers after one of the victims depicted in a video of the incident came forward to recount his ordeal.

Activists from the Papuan Customary Council (DAP) met with Tunaliwor Kiwo on Oct. 30 at his hiding place in Tingginambut subdistrict in Puncak Jaya, Papua.

They recorded his testimony in a 30-minute video, a copy of which was obtained by the Jakarta Globe.

The Globe independently translated the man’s statement, given in his native tribal dialect, Lani.

Kiwo, who strongly resembles the man that was burned in the genitals with a red-hot poker during the 10-minute torture video posted on YouTube, said the military kept torturing him for three days, long after the video was recorded.

The interrogators repeatedly asked him about a weapons cache in the area.

Kiwo said he was repeatedly beaten, suffocated and burned with cigarettes while being held captive.

He and Telangga Gire, a much younger Papuan also depicted in the video, were pulled over by a soldier in Yogorini village while riding their motorcycle taxis from Tingginambut to the nearby town of Mulia on May 30.

“One of them said ‘get the pliers,’ and a soldier used them to crush my toes,” Kiwo said in the DAP video.

“I screamed in agony and even wet my pants.

“Later that night, they heated up a piece of wire and stuck it in my thighs. They also slammed me against a wall and kicked me in the face.

"The next day they rubbed chili paste, detergent and salt into my open wounds.”

Kiwo said he eventually escaped after overhearing the soldiers saying they would execute him.

“At dawn, only one guard was awake. So I decided to make a run for it. They shot at me but I just kept on running,” he said.

“I could hear them chasing me, so I hid behind some bushes and crawled to the Yamo River.”

Markus Haluk, a member of the DAP, said that Gire, the other victim, also survived.

“The people from his village went up to a military post and begged the soldiers to release Gire because he was only a peasant, not a separatist,” Haluk told the Globe on Friday.

He added that both Kiwo and Gire were now in hiding.

“If the military finds them, there’s a good chance they could be killed or kidnapped,” he said.

The DAP and the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) said the two men would only come forward with their full stories once the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) launched its own probe and formed a fact-finding team.

“We ask Komnas HAM to guarantee the safety of Kiwo and Gire,” said Sri Suparyati, a Kontras activist, after submitting Kiwo’s testimony video as evidence to the commission.

Ridha Saleh, a Komnas HAM commissioner, said the decision on whether to launch an investigation would be made next Tuesday.

“But we’re gathering data on all military operations in Puncak Jaya,” he said.

“We’ve requested that the governor and military headquarters give us access to all of the dossiers linked to military or police operations in the area.”

Meanwhile, Army spokesman Brig. Gen. Suwarno Widjonarko declined to comment on the revelations, saying he was unfamiliar with this latest development.

Separately, four soldiers were indicted at a court martial on Friday in Jayapura, the Papuan capital, over a similar video in which they were recorded assaulting a man for suspected weapons possession.

The three privates and one officer are from the 753 Arga Vira Tama infantry unit based out of Nabire, Papua.