Jakarta – Pro-independence leaders in Irian Jaya and Aceh were unmoved Thursday by President Megawati Sukarnoputri's apology for past suffering inflicted on the restive Indonesian provinces.
In her first state of the nation address, Megawati held out an olive branch to independence agitators in both resource-rich provinces at opposite ends of the Indonesian archipelago. She apologised for past policy blunders that had "caused long suffering" and said the government was "correcting conditions by respecting cultural identities and giving more authority to regional governments ... in the form of special autonomy".
But Papua Council Presidium chairman Theys Hiyo Eluay said the people of Irian Jaya – the western half of New Guinea island known locally as Papua – were only interested in independence. "Indonesia should apologise. It's not us who are in the wrong," he said by phone from Jayapura, the capital of the mountainous jungle-clad province.
Papuans were ready to accept Megawati's apology but it would not weaken the campaign for independence. "We have never asked for special autonomy. We want our sovereignty returned. We don't need autonomy," Eluay told AFP.
"Papuans are wanting and waiting for Indonesia to give back their sovereignty which was declared on December 1, 1961." Megawati said Aceh and Irian Jaya differed from East Timor, which voted for independence from Indonesia in 1999, as they constituted domestic problems.
"It's true that Aceh is part of Indonesia's domestic affairs, but that's not the case with Papua," Eluay said. "As we declared sovereignty in 1961, we are not part of the 'Unified State of the Republic of Indonesia'." Separatist sentiment has rumbled in Irian Jaya since Indonesian troops moved in on the heels of the departing Dutch in the early 1960s.
Tension has been fuelled by Jakarta's exploitation of mineral and forest resources, sometimes brutal military repression, and waves of transmigrants dominating the civil service and economy. Around three-quarters of Irian Jaya's 2.4 million residents are Melanesian Christians.
In gas- and oil-rich Aceh, Megawati's comments were greeted with demands for trials of soldiers and police accused of killing civilians and the resumption of dialogue between the government and separatist rebels.
Muhammad Nazar, the jailed head of a student activist group campaigning for an independence referendum, said Megawati must cancel the military operation authorised in April which has helped push the death toll this year above 1,100.
Prosecuting human rights abusers was her next priority as Indonesia's leader, Nazar said. "Ironically ... they've called this a 'security and law enforcement operation' but there has not been a single case taken to court. What law are they enforcing?" Nazar said by phone from jail in Aceh's provincial capital.
Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels rejected the special autonomy pledged by Jakarta. Field commander Teungku Amri bin Abdul Wahab said the Acehnese could only contemplate accepting Megawati's apology if "she gives them independence and then puts on trial all human rights abusers".