Agence France Presse in Jayapura – The subversion trials of five high-profile independence leaders from the remote Indonesian province of Irian Jaya opened yesterday amid tight security.

The charismatic head of the pro-independence Papua Presidium, Theys Eluay, was the first to stand before three judges. He remained defiant despite facing life imprisonment. Asked by the clerk to state his nationality, Eluay said: "Papuan." Asked again what country he belonged to, he replied: "The country of Papua." Papua is the local name for Irian Jaya, a former Dutch colony integrated into Indonesia in 1969 by a UN referendum that independence leaders consider flawed and unrepresentative.

Dressed in a maroon blazer carrying a picture of Christ and purple checked trousers, Eluay appeared in the small white-walled courtroom in Abepura, an outer suburb of the provincial capital, Jayapura.

Prosecutors read 18 pages of charges against Eluay, even quoting from speeches he made in 1999 and citing events leading up to the Papua Congress he helped organise last year, which ended with a demand that Jakarta recognise the province's sovereignty.

Critics have dubbed the trial a political exercise by Jakarta, and Eluay urged supporters who flocked to his house on Sunday to remember that "it is the Papuan people who will be on trial tomorrow, not us five". Several hundred supporters, including traditional dancers in feathered headdress decorated with the banned separatist Morning Star flag, gathered outside the courthouse as the defendants stepped out, singing hymns and praying.

Police frisked those entering the court complex, confiscating Morning Star flags, while other police conducted weapons checks around the city.

After the hearing, Eluay said he would travel to Jakarta tomorrow for a check-up at the hospital where he underwent prostate surgery earlier this year.

Facing the same charge but in a separate hearing was Eluay's fellow Presidium member, Don Flassy. Their trials were adjourned until next Monday. The trials of three other defendants were adjourned for two weeks.

The five defendants were arrested in the days after the anniversary of an unrecognised declaration of independence on December 1 last year. The freedom movement in Irian Jaya picked up momentum last year after New Year pledges by Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid to change the province's name to West Papua and promote dialogue. But Jakarta reversed Mr Wahid's liberal approach and enforced an often brutal crackdown on independence advocates.