Jayapura – Indonesian police entered the headquarters of the pro-independence Papua Taskforce in the province of Irian Jaya Saturday, as a deadline for vacating the building passed.
Irian Jaya police chief Brigadier General Sylvanus Wenas arrived with Jayapura police chief Lieutenant Colonel Daud Sihombing early Saturday, saying police and task force commanders would "guard" the building together.
"I've told [the city police chief] not to behave provocatively, to act nicely, we can all talk this through together and everything can be resolved peacefully," Wenas told journalists. "So now police are sitting here with the taskforce guarding the building. We'll talk later about the issue of vacating it."
Police last month secured an agreement from elders of the pro-independence Papua Presidium that the task force would vacate the Cultural center, a disused government building, by December 2.
More than 100 armed and helmetted anti-riot police were lined up on the streets outside the building since early morning, while some 80 taskforce members and independence supporters milled around the dilapidated two-storey cultural center beneath two empty flagpoles.
The building, the site of an unrecognized declaration of independence on December 1, 1961 by Papuans – before the former Dutch colony was formally incorporated into Indonesia – had been adopted as the task force headquarters since a Papuan Congress in Jayapura in June.
The separatist Morning Star flag had been flying there since June, but under last month's unpopular agreement, it had to come down for the last time on Friday.
Task force commanders agreed at dawn Saturday not to raise the flag again, as had been demanded by taskforce members and independence supporters on Friday night, when police officers formally lowered it themselves, five hours after after the official government deadline. The taskforce commanders remained defiant on the issue of leaving the building, saying it belonged to the Papuan people.
As police entered the building, officers posted outside directed taskforce members over a loud hailer to go home. "Those taskforce commanders who are in charge of guarding the building, please enter, but those not on duty please go home to your respective houses, and rest," Sihombing said.
He asked them to open the streets outside the building to the public. "Task force comamnders and police will guard the building together and keep an eye on things," he said.
Presidium member Zamrack Taime told the crowd he would push for police to allow the taskforce to stay in the building. "In 1961, the Papuan nation was born in this building. For that reason we Papuans want to stay in control of it," he said over the loud speaker.
Taskforce members outside looked on in silence. Later some spoke of their disappointment in a day they had hoped would further their cause in the face of stiff resistance from Jakarta which has flatly ruled out independence for the half-island, which is rich in timber, oil and gas, gold and other minerals.
Jakarta flew some 1,300 crack troop reinforcements into Irian Jaya ahead of the December 1 commemoration and arrested four top presidium leaders, put them in jail and charged them with treason.
Nine taskforce members were taken in for questioning on Friday, but Wenas said they were not under arrest. "I came down to Jayapura from the highlands one week ago to raise the flag and see Papua get independence on December 1," Damianus Sopos Reye told AFP. "But here we have leaders with no sense of justice. They are disappointing the people too much." "This is a violation of our rights," said another, Enos Wenda. "The removal of our flag last night was not official. They should have discussed it with us in an open forum first."