Filep Karma
| Filep Jacob Semuel Karma | |
|---|---|
| Born |
15 August 1959 (age 57) Biak, Papua |
| Nationality | Indonesian |
| Occupation | Independence activist |
| Known for | 2004 arrest |
| Parent(s) | Andreas Karma (father) |
Filep Jacob Semuel Karma (born 14 August 1959), commonly known as Filep Karma, is a Papuan independence activist. On 1 December 2004 he helped raise the Morning Star flag at a ceremony in Jayapura, West Papua, currently occupied by the Government of Indonesia, for which he was charged with treason and given a fifteen-year prison sentence. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have protested on his behalf, the former designating him a prisoner of conscience. He was released on 19 November 2015.
Born in 1959 in Jayapura, Papua, Karma was raised in an upper-class family active in local politics. His father, Andreas Karma, was a civil servant educated by the Dutch who had continued to work in the Indonesian government after independence, serving as a regent of Wamena, and Constant Karma, one of Filep Karma's cousin, served as deputy governor of Papua.
Filep Karma was influenced as a child by a midnight raid on his home by Indonesian soldiers who broke the family's furniture. He later studied at Sebelas Maret University for a time in Solo, Java which he earning undergraduate degree and becoming a civil servant like his father. In 1997, he traveled to Manila to study for a year at the Asian Institute of Management. He was unable to finish his studies.
Karma has two children.
When Karma returned from Manila, he found Java engulfed in protests against President Suharto. He became involved in the movement and began advocating the secession of Papua from Indonesia.
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