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Indonesia Goes Heavy Handed In Irian Jaya
by Kazi Mahmood for IslamOnline
JAKARTA (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The Indonesian police raided the Papua Cultural Building that served as the base of the separatist Papuan Task Force Unit. At least 47 members of the task force were arrested.
Jakarta decided to move heavy-handedly on the Papuans after clashes erupted last Friday causing the death of eight people. Police says they seized various weapons including Molotov bombs, bows and arrows.
A team from the Mobile Brigade now guards the building and a barbed wire barricade has been set up to prevent retaliation from sympathizers of the Papua Task Force unit. Police units have erected three tents in front of the building.
The busting of the unofficial base of the task force intervened an increase in protests in Jayapura after the shooting incident on Friday.
Students at Jayapura University stage a blockade in order to mark their dissatisfaction over the arrest of PDP leaders and the taking down of the Morning Star flag by the police force.
University campus blockades occurred at Cenderawasih Univerity, in the campus of Science and Technology, and the School of Higher Economy. At the gates of those campuses were banners with slogans demanding self-determination for the people of Irian Jaya.
Related to the events, Indonesia is using warships to surround the island of Irian Jaya. Three of these warships were anchored in Jayapura.
The presence of the warships and the thousands of TNI troops in Jayapura shows the determination of Indonesian President Abdurahman Wahid’s administration to finish the crisis in the province, analysts said.
Indonesia deployed 37 warships around the province of Irian. The warships are said to be ready to assist in the efforts to crack down on separatism there. The ships will remain in their position until December 10th and are prepared to remain there longer should the need arise.
Since the annual anniversary of the Papua Congress and the 39th commemoration of the Independent Papua Declaration on December 1st, 11 people have been killed (10 shot by policemen), 4 were seriously wounded and a more than 40 arrested.
Meanwhile, an independence leader, wanted on subversion charges, turned himself in on Monday.
Reverend Herman Awom, one of five members of the 31-member pro-independence Papua Presidium accused by the Indonesian police of subversion through separatist activities, arrived from a stay in Jakarta at the Sentani airport on Monday.
The reverend is said to be ready to turn himself over to police. Four Presidium members, Theys Eluay, Don Flassy, John Mambor and Thaha Al-Hamid have been under arrest at the provincial police headquarters since last week.
Twenty members of the pro-independence Papua Task Force civilian guard collected Awom from Sentani airport outside Jayapura.
He gave himself up to the police late in the evening, sources said.
His arrest was the latest move in the police's crackdown on separatism in Irian Jaya, the predominantly Melanesian easternmost province.
Police are also detaining nine other pro-independence activists, including Eluay's son Boy Eluay.
Also, Papua New Guinea has stepped up border controls with the neighboring province of Irian Jaya, Prime Minister Mekere Morauta said on Monday.
Irian Jaya, also known as West Papua, occupies the western half of Papua Island, north of Australia. The eastern half of the island is Papua New Guinea. Native Irian Jayans share a Melanesian heritage with their Pacific neighbors to the east.
Indonesia seized the region in 1963 and renamed it Irian Jaya. Jakarta's sovereignty was rubber-stamped by a hastily convened assembly of village chiefs, which pro-independence activists dismissed as a sham.
Speaking at a news conference in Sydney, Morauta said his government supported Indonesian sovereignty over Irian Jaya and had stepped up patrols of the border, which stretches for more than 700 kilometers across almost inaccessible jungle-covered mountains.
''We are forced to be on alert, given that we share a very long border,'' Morauta said.
However, Morauta said Papua New Guinea would accept refugees from the province if it were asked to do so by the United Nations.
''We try not to encourage them to come across but we may be forced to provide refugee status,'' he said.
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