Vaudine England – Excitement pervaded the airport at Sentani, near Irian Jaya's capital Jayapura. As tourists and missionaries tried to collect their luggage, suspense rippled through the crowd of indigenous Papuans.

Black-garbed members of the pro-independence militia, Satgas Papua, formed two lines, shouldering aside anyone in the way. All at once they sprang to attention and saluted, as a hush fell over the arrivals hall.

It was an example of the adulation accorded to members of the Papuan independence movement, and particularly to the self-styled "Great Leader of the Papuan people", Theys Eluay.

Born on November 12, 1937, into the leadership of the Sentani tribe, he has been present at most key moments in his land's history. His wife belongs to the Ohee clan, which took the provincial government to the High Court a few years ago over a land dispute. Mr Eluay was a signatory to the 1969 "Act of Free Choice", through which 1,000 hand-picked tribal elders signed their approval of Irian Jaya as an Indonesian province. That Act is now the target of Mr Eluay's and his colleagues' ire.

Turning his back on this collaborationist past, he recanted in a long interview in the Cenderawasih Post, of Jayapura, in November 1998. "How could we fight before? We had nothing in our hands," he said. "If we fought we would have been finished. Now everything is different."

Mr Eluay was a member of the provincial parliament, representing Suharto's Golkar party for several terms. He retained power on the provincial customary council. Just before the June 1999 election, he announced he was resigning from Golkar and would start a West Papuan Party, which has yet to materialise.

Mr Eluay's support for Papuan freedom has since become more vocal. On December 1, 1999, he announced the "inevitability" of Papuan independence and focused the growing independence sentiment on flag-raising ceremonies. The flag still flies on the pole at his home in Sentani.

He has been arrested and detained from time to time. At the June 2000 Independence Congress in Jayapura, Mr Eluay was elected president of the newly formed Papua Presidium, a group of indigenous leaders keen to moderate between the independence movement and Jakarta.

Many Papuans and observers wonder how to judge Mr Eluay. They note that his best friend seems to be Yorrys Raweyai, deputy chairman of Suharto's social control and thuggery organisation, Pemuda Pancasila. They wonder where the money is coming from to pay for the flags, t-shirts and uniforms for the Satgas Papua run by Mr Eluay's son, Boy Eluay.

The ambivalence contributes to the fears of rights activists and others that a conflict is being deliberately stoked in Irian Jaya in order to justify a crackdown.

Amid fears that the Papuan leadership can be easily divided and manipulated by Jakarta, Mr Eluay is the firebrand of the independence cause. "If the [Indonesian] Government uses violence, go ahead. We will not. The world will see who will use violence. Only the wrong use violence," he said.