Marni Cordell – One of the three men who occupied the Australian consulate in Bali on Sunday says he is being pursued by the Indonesian military and does not believe Indonesia's assurances that he will not be arrested or detained.
On Tuesday the Greens senator Richard di Natale sought a guarantee from the Indonesian embassy in Australia that the trio would be safe, and said he was "encouraged" by an assurance from Indonesian diplomats that they would not be detained by Indonesian authorities.
But Rofinus Yanggam, phoning from an undisclosed location in Indonesia on Wednesday afternoon, told Guardian Australia that he was being followed by Indonesian military intelligence and did not believe the diplomats' assurances.
Asked for his response to the news, Yanggam said: "My response is it is not true, because [military intelligence officers] are still looking for us.
"Yesterday we came to our friend's house and two intelligence officers came past the front of our house [and looked in]. They came back in the night-time. We don't feel safe at this moment."
The three men occupied the consulate on Sunday to highlight the treatment of Papuans and called on the Australian government to apply pressure to Indonesia to release all Papuan political prisoners and to open up the secretive province to foreign journalists.
West Papua has been closed to foreign journalists since Indonesia acquired the province under controversial circumstances in the 1960s. Dozens of Papuans are in jail for expressing political opinions. The crime of "treason" carries a long jail term in Indonesia.
In an open letter to the Australian people, handed to consulate staff, the three protesters said they wanted their message to be delivered to leaders at the Apec meeting in Bali including the US State Secretary, John Kerry, and the Australian prime minister, Tony Abbott.
They claimed consular staff threatened to call the Indonesian police and military to have them ejected. This has been denied by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Dfat) which said: "The consul general did not make threats. He explained to the individuals that they were free to leave voluntarily."
Yanggam, who has been in hiding since he left the Australian consulate before 7am on Sunday morning in fear for his safety, explained what happened after the trio fled.
"When we go from Australian consulate, the special forces, the army forces from Indonesia, they are looking for us," he said. "That's why I did not feel comfortable to be there in Bali."
He said the trio had gone to stay with some friends in a dormitory but that military intelligence officers had arrived there asking about their whereabouts.
The group decided to leave Bali by bus. However, when they were on board two military officers stopped the bus and asked questions of the driver, he said.
"They stopped the bus and asked many questions. They asked to the driver, 'Those Papuan people, where do they want to go?'
"The driver told them where the bus was going, but he also talked to them. He said what are you looking for, and they told [him] that they are trying to check for bus fees, that this is the reason that they pulled [the bus over].
"But the real reason they are looking for us is because we went into the consulate," Yanggam said.
He said the group then decided it was unsafe to continue on their journey. They got off the bus and caught a later one to a different location. They are now planning to go to a second undisclosed location. "It is not safe to say where," Yanggam said.
Di Natale said, in response to Yanggam's account: "I'm extremely concerned at the reports that the Indonesian authorities appear to be following the three West Papuan activists. It's vital that the Indonesians honour the commitment they made to me, which is that these three men will be safe."