Carmel Budiardjo - TAPOL founder, human rights defender, Papuan champion and beloved mentor

Human rights defender Carmel Budiardjo ... many lives "touched - and sometimes transformed
- by her passionate and determined campaigning for human rights, justice and democracy
in Indonesia, East Timor, Aceh and West Papua". IMAGE: TAPOL

By Asia Pacific Report

BRITISH and Indonesian human rights defender Carmel Budiardjo, founder of TAPOL watchdog and the movement’s driving force for many decades, has died peacefully aged 96.

TAPOL said in an announcement that she had died on Saturday and would be greatly missed by an extensive network of people whose lives had been “touched — and sometimes transformed — by her passionate and determined campaigning for human rights, justice and democracy in Indonesia, East Timor, Aceh and West Papua”.

For many, she had been a great mentor as well as a beloved friend, TAPOL said.

• WATCH: Carmel Burdiadjo and the story of TAPOL
• Surviving Indonesia’s Gulag: A Western Woman Tells Her Story
• Carmel Budiardjo: rights defender who shone a light on Papua

TAPOL stands for “tahanan politik” or “political prisoners” in Indonesian.