Lindsay Murdoch, Jayapura – Indonesian police with riot shields, padded uniforms and automatic weapons stare grimly at barely clothed men from the remote mountains of West Papua in a surreal stand-off that will inevitably lead to bloodshed.
"Merdeka, merdeka [independence]," the highlanders yell as they whip themselves into a dancing frenzy on the streets of Jayapura, the provincial capital. The police, most of whom are Javanese, look down on the black-skinned Papuans, who are mostly poor and unemployed.
Long simmering tensions in the province also called Irian Jaya are coming to a head. Jakarta has abandoned its brief experiment with a more tolerant approach towards the rebellious but resource-rich province. "There should be no effort to proclaim [independence], secede from the unitary state of the Republic of Indonesia, be that in Irian Jaya – or Papua – or in Aceh," President Abdurrahman Wahid said in a statement released on Thursday ahead of rallies yesterday marking West Papua's failed 1961 bid for independence. Any action to secede will "certainly be halted, and will be acted on firmly", Mr Wahid said. In Jayapura, police and soldiers have been ordered to shoot any separatist who produces a sharp weapon.
Many West Papuans are bitterly disappointed with Mr Wahid, who took office with a reputation as a liberal reformist. He came to Jayapura last New Year's Eve, promising the people could fly their beloved Morning Star, the separatist flag. They could call the province West Papua instead of Irian Jaya, a name imposed on them by the former dictator Soeharto. They could have their political freedom, albeit within the unitary state of Indonesia.
All that has vanished as Mr Wahid's rivals and military hardliners have turned up the heat on him and he struggles for political survival. Three of West Papua's pro-independence leaders were jailed this week for exercising free speech. It reminded people here of the repressive Soeharto decades.
Heavily armed police and soldiers occupy the streets of Jayapura, stopping and searching all travellers. Shops are closed. Thousands of settlers from other parts of Indonesia have fled the province, fearing attack.
By first telling people the Morning Star flag could fly, then banning it, Mr Wahid has got the people into such a state of high anxiety that lives may be lost.
The mood on Jayapura's streets is ugly. Indonesian authorities have ordered that pro-independence militia known as Satgas (Taskforce) Papua must not raise the Morning Star again outside a government building in Jayapura that they have been using as their headquarters. The stern-faced, black-clad militia must also vacate the building by today. But independence hardliners vow to keep raising the flag each day, as they have done for months.
During a subdued but tense ceremony marking the 1961 anniversary in Jayapura yesterday, people shouted, "The flag must stay". Scores of riot police surrounded the ritual, which was marked by prayers and defiant speeches. "With God as our leader, what do we need to be afraid of? Nothing," Tom Beanal, deputy leader of the pro-independence Papuan Presidium Council, told the crowd of several thousand.