Jakarta – Settlers sought refuge at military and police posts yesterday as the Indonesian police, with orders to shoot on sight, began restoring order in a remote Irian Jaya town following the slaughter of 40 people in the latest violence.
Mobs beheaded or burnt some victims to death in the fighting in Wamena in the restive province on Friday and Saturday, Antara news agency reported. Many of the dead were given a mass burial late on Saturday.
Order had been restored by yesterday, provincial police chief Brig-Gen Silvanus Wenas said in a telephone interview from the provincial capital, Jayapura. "It is safe and quiet now. There are many troops on the streets," he said.
Pro-independence Irianese also released 22 migrants they had held hostage since Saturday after negotiations between local leaders and representatives of the police, the military and the local administration, officials said.
The private SCTV network quoted police as saying at least 40 people had been killed. Antara put the toll at 28 dead, but said the figure was expected to rise as many families had reported relatives missing.
Police said most of the dead had been settlers from elsewhere in Indonesia who were killed by angry separatists and indigenous villagers. However, local human-rights activists claimed many of the victims had been shot to death by police.
The violence in Irian Jaya was the worst in the province in years and erupted when police pulled down outlawed rebel "Morning Star" flags on Friday. The flying of rebel flags has become a symbolic and provocative act of defiance against Indonesia's central government and military, which has rejected calls for independence for the resource-rich, but largely undeveloped region.
Villagers attacked police with bows and arrows and machetes, but after being repelled by gunfire they turned on newcomers in the town. Indigenous Papuans have long resented the presence of settlers from other parts of the country who dominate commerce and industry, as well as the security forces.
Hundreds of frightened settlers sheltered in local army barracks and police stations yesterday. "The situation is now under control. We have called on the settlers to go back to their homes," the police chief said.
Meanwhile, Antara news agency said the hospital in Wamena was in dire need of more doctors because eight out of 10 there had fled to Jayapura following the violence. District Secretary Yason Mabuay was quoted as saying volunteer doctors were needed to treat 41 people injured in the clashes as well as other patients in the hospital.
Local military chief Lt-Col Agus Sularso in an announcement aired by the official radio RRI yesterday said that settlers should not panic because the situation had been brought under control. However, further violence was feared after the police chief announced that security forces would continue to pull down rebel flags.
Police said they had detained 59 people and had charged 15 of them in the killings. The province has been wracked by separatist violence since Indonesia annexed it in 1963 after generations of Dutch colonial rule.