Alastair McLeod, Jayapura – Andy Burdam was just sitting down to an evening meal with his family when the police and militiamen arrived. They punched the 45-year-old Papuan elementary school teacher and dragged him away to the local police cells.

From outside the station in West Papua's far-western coastal town of Fak Fak, militiamen threatened the independence supporter and threw large stones at him while the Indonesian police watched. "They did nothing to stop them," Burdam says.

Since East Timor's independence vote, a younger and more defiant generation of Papuans sees their long-held dream of independence as a realistic possibility. Under the leadership of congress president and tribal chief Theuys Eluay, support for a break from Jakarta is gaining strength in West Papua (formerly Irian Jaya). Last week a congress of West Papuan activists and tribal leaders issued a proclamation of sovereignty in the provincial capital, Jayapura.

The independence movement is also sweeping towns outside the capital. And with such enthusiasms have risen East Timor-style militias.

Along with about 50 members of the Free Papua Movement, Burdam fled Fak Fak recently in the face of continued violence and threats from the newly "inspired" Satgas Merahputih – the red and white militia. "Like their brothers in East Timor, they intimidate and attack us and wear red and white colors of the Indonesian flag," says another Fak Fak refugee. Burdam says he was detained for four days by the police, who continually punched and kicked him. He quickly moved with his wife and four children to a different town.

The link between militias in East Timor and the Indonesian army is well documented; West Papuans believe a similar relationship exists in Fak Fak. Rumors that the army and police have covertly established such groups outside Jayapura have circulated within the independence movement for the past year.

Now, information gathered by a Jayapura-based human rights organization, Elsham, gives credence to the speculation. Fak Fak independence supporters say they infiltrated the militias to gain proof that military finances are involved.

An Elsham coordinator, John Rumbiak, says he has evidence that the Fak Fak militia is supported by the police and army. "But we can't investigate the situation in Fak Fak because we've received threats from the militia that if we go to Fak Fak they will attack our personnel," Rumbiak explains. The appointment of a new governor, Air Marshal Musiran Darmosuwito – who was vice governor in Dili at the time of East Timor's referendum – has done little to allay fears.

West Papua shares a history of Dutch colonialism with Indonesia, but, like the Timorese, its indigenous people are Melanesian and mostly Christian.

Separatist leaders first declared independence (from the Netherlands) in 1961, but West Papua was incorporated into Indonesia in 1963. UN recognition of Indonesia's claim to what became Irian Jaya arrived in 1969, when the UN and Jakarta administered the Act of Free Choice. Then, about 1,000 ethnic Papuan delegates voted on behalf of 800,000 Papuans to become a province of Indonesia. It was dubbed the Act Free of Choice by pro-independence leaders, who believe that the vote was a result of corruption and coercion. Activists were forced back into the jungle, from where they have waged a low-level war against Jakarta for nearly four decades.

At last week's congress, convened by the West Papuan Council and comprising Free Papua Movement members and the Forum for Reconciliation (churches, universities, traditional leaders and others), independence chief Eluay said West Papua legally had never been part of Indonesia. About 500 voting members from 2,700 delegates unanimously agreed. In a swift reply, Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid said anti-independence voices had been excluded from the seven-day meeting – about 1 million people in the province are non-Melanesian. And, in any case, independence was not an option. Wahid's government also is mindful of West Papua's lucrative mineral resources, including the world's richest gold deposit at Grasberg. Four workers were killed at the US-operated mine there last month when a waste-storage facility collapsed, triggering new environmental concerns.

According to Elsham, at least four people have been shot dead, 81 detained and tortured, and 165 injured following peaceful demonstrations in the past eight months. It says militias stepped up activities after a meeting of independence delegates in February. Elsham is now compiling a report to the UN

Commission for Human Rights on the events in Wayati, a small village near Fak Fak, in March. It claims a convoy of militia, police and military arrived singing the Indonesian national anthem, then police and militia set about ransacking homes. Witnesses say militiamen, armed with machetes and clubs, urinated on their rice and other foodstuffs. Expect more East Timor-style scenes of ethnic violence in coming months.