Elsham (organisation)

ELSHAM is a human rights organization in Western New Guinea, Indonesia. The acronym stands for Indonesian Institute for Human Rights Studies and defense. Office of the non-governmental organization (NGO ) is Jayapura. Some of its leading representatives like John Rumbiak live in exile.

ELSHAM committed against human rights violations and environmental destruction in the rich resources of West Papua. Representatives of the NGO report to regularly on the human rights situation in which since the 1960s to Indonesia belonging part of the country. The number which has since taken place there extrajudicial killings is estimated by ELSHAM 100,000. One of the focal points of the conflict is operated by Freeport McMoRan, Grasberg mine, to make it more than once came to bloody confrontations in the past. ELSHAM criticized in this context, the sharp practice of the Indonesian military against demonstrators. Representatives of ELSHAM were even - especially due to their critical reporting - the target of attacks. Rumbiak fled in 2002 after threats by the Indonesian police in the United States. There he was appointed as a visiting professor at the Columbia University in New York.