Jakarta – An Indonesian minister on Saturday said Jakarta would take a new approach to demands from the restive province of Irian Jaya, but urged the government to go further and take independence leaders there into a partnership.
"In the month of December, there will be a new approach on Irian in listening to the demands of the [Irianese] ... specifically in relation to the special autonomy for that region," said Junior Minister for the Development of Eastern Indonesia Manuel Kaisiepo.
Kaisiepo, speaking to journalists after meeting with President Abdurrahman Wahid at the Merdeka Palace, said the new approach would involve "many issues." He did not elaborate, but hinted that the approaches were mainly economic as they were being developed at the coordinating ministry for the economy and finance. But Kaisiepo, a native of Irian Jaya, also urged Jakarta to regard the pro-independence Papua Council Presidium as its "critical partner."
His call came after police in Irian Jaya arrested four members of the pro-independence Papua Presidium, just days before the province celebrated the 39th anniversary of its unrecognized independence declaration on Friday.
The arrested men – Theys Eluay, the flamboyant head of the council and fellow members John Mambor, Don Flassy and Thaha Al-Hamid, were all jailed and charged with treason.
Jakarta, still smarting form the loss last year of East Timor, has flatly rejected independence for Irian Jaya, also known as West Papua.
But it is planning to unveil a special autonomy status for Irian Jaya sometime next year, excluding foreign, monetary and defence policies.
Kaisiepo warned that the autonomy status must be "socialized to the Irianese, to the public in general and even to the Papua Council Presidium," before the lower house passes the autonomy status draft bill. "All this time, the government can only make offers, but they should also listen to the people," he added
Independence supporters in Irian Jaya, Indonesia's easternmost province, maintain that their nationhood declaration on December 1, 1961 marked the start of their sovereignty. They have argued that Irian Jaya, formerly Dutch New Guinea, does not belong to Indonesia because an overwhelming majority of its population were ethnic Melanesians.
They also reject a so-called "Act of Free Choice" supervised by the United Nations in 1969, which formalised Indonesian absorption of the region, as flawed and unrepresentative. Jakarta, which poured 1,300 crack troop reinforcements into the restless province ahead of the 39th anniversary, has flatly ruled out independence.