Andrew Kilvert – Military authorities and political enforcers associated with the former Soeharto regime appear to be building up East Timor-style militias in the contested province of West Papua, human rights activists warned yesterday.
The claim follows clashes in the north coast town of Serui on Wednesday when pro-Jakarta elements clashed with pro-independence supporters.
An Australian-based West Papuan academic, Mr John Ondowame, has accused former Soeharto-regime activist Mr Yurris Raweyai of engineering the formation of pro-Jakarta militias in West Papua – as Irian Jaya has been renamed since a visit by President Abdurrahman Wahid over the New Year. Mr Yurris, an indigenous Papuan, is infamous in Indonesian politics for his prominent role in the ousting of Ms Megawati Sukarnoputri, now Indonesia's vice-president, as the head of the Indonesian Democracy party in 1996.
"Yurris is forming militias," Mr Ondawame said. "It is very dangerous, the Yurris rallies are protected by TNI [the Indonesian armed forces] but at the independence rallies the people are shot."
In the provincial capital Jayapura, Mr Yurris has organised the formation of the "West Papuan Army" in coalition with the moderate pro-independence leader Theys Eluay.
He is believed to have brought in many members of the Pemuda Pancasila movement – a youth group ostensibly formed to promote the state ideology Pancasila under the Soeharto government – which was often employed as to break up and intimidate opposition activity.
Pemuda Pancasila members were also prominent in the militias in East Timor, which slaughtered hundreds of people and deported nearly half the population after the territory's pro-independence vote on August 30 last year.
Mr Eluay's motives in associating himself with Mr Yurris are not clear, but some local activists suspect it is a tactical move to gain access to Mr Yurris' funds, which come from the Indonesian military and TNI- associated business interests. Mr John Rumbiak from the West Papua human rights organisation ELSHAM said: "He just wants the money from the military and their businesses. It is very complex but Theys is still supporting independence."
Since Mr Soeharto's resignation in May 1998, West Papua has seen a growing popular movement for independence, expressed in ceremonial raising of the nationalist flag and other protests in many of its widely-scattered towns.
Mr Eluay himself is one of a number of independence activists charged with sedition for raising the rebel flag, and his trial is due to start on February 2. The trial of two others, Don Flassy and Samuel Yaru, began on Tuesday, with the charges carrying a maximum 15 years' jail. On Tuesday, about 100 people closed the airport at Sentani, just outside Jayapura, by sitting on the runway, in a protest demanding proper compensation for land seized for the airport 30 years ago, the Indonesian Observer newspaper reported.
Meanwhile the international community is starting to review the much criticised "act of free choice" in 1969, whereby 1,025 representatives selected by Indonesia voted for the former Dutch colony to become part of Indonesia.
The Netherlands Parliament is conducting an inquiry into the 1969 consultation. Some of the surviving representatives argued that they voted under duress and that the results did not reflect popular sentiment. The vote has never been ratified by the United Nations.