Kurniawan Hari and Moch. N. Kurniawan, Jakarta – Politicians in the Papua provincial legislature have threatened to boycott the 2004 general elections if the central government insists on establishing West Irian Jaya as a separate electoral district from its mother province, Papua.

The Papuan councillors said Jakarta should wait until the Supreme Court had reached a decision over the judicial review they had requested into the establishment of West Irian Jaya province. They filed the motion for judicial review on September 3, but the court has not yet responded.

Despite the legal dispute, the General Elections Commission (KPU) is continuing its preparations for the formation of its provincial office (KPUD) in West Irian Jaya.

"If the KPU insists [on forming a KPUD in West Irian Jaya], we shall leave office and boycott the elections," Papua legislature speaker John Ibo said in a meeting with House of Representatives speaker Akbar Tandjung here on Thursday.

He added the provincial legislature might also call on Papuans to boycott the elections if no resolution of the legal dispute were reached immediately. Campaigning for a poll boycott is a crime, according to the law on elections.

The legal conflict was triggered by Jakarta's plan to speed up the formation of West Irian Jaya and Central Irian Jaya provinces, as stipulated by a 1999 law on partition of Papua into three provinces. The move was deemed a violation of Law No. 21/2001 on special autonomy for Papua, which suggests that involvement of the Papuan People's Assembly in the regional split policy. At least two people were killed in a clash between supporters and opponents of the establishment of West Irian Jaya province in August.

The government postponed the establishment of Central Irian Jaya province, but it has identified October 28 as the date for the inauguration of West Irian Jaya province. To be consistent, Ibo said, KPU also had to establish regional offices in Central Irian Jaya and East Irian Jaya.

Later in the day, the Papuan delegates also visited the KPU office to express their rejection of the plan to form a KPUD in West Irian Jaya.

KPU member Mulyana W. Kusumah said, on his recent visit to Manokwari, the prospective capital of West Irian Jaya, that the KPUD office in West Irian Jaya would be established soon after the central government had inaugurated the new province.

West Irian Jaya has been allocated three House of Representatives seats for the 2004 general election.

Meanwhile, a member of House Commission II for legal and home affairs Yahya Zaini suggested that the KPU avoid pushing for the establishment of a KPUD in West Irian Jaya. "I think the KPU should wait until the legal problem is resolved. It shouldn't cH3eate more problems," he said.

Papua province: Indonesia's next flashpoint?

Radio Australia - October 5, 2003

Several days of deadly and violent clashes in Indonesia's remote Papua province have forced the Indonesian government to delay a controversial plan to divide the province into three regions.

Critics say that move undermines legislation which promised the province will get special autonomy. And pro-independence groups are warning there will be more conflict if the military build up in the area continues.

Helen Vatsikopoulos speaks to Sidney Jones from the International Crisis Group about the troubled province and why Jakarta does not want to let go.

Meena David, Reporter: Days of violent street battles with just primitive weapons left five people dead and scores injured. The riots erupted during the inauguration of the newly established Central Papua Province.

Supporters of the Megawati Government's push to split the region clashed with anti-government protesters and police. In the end, Jakarta announced it would delay the partition but wasn't backing away from it.

West Papua's located on the western half of New Guinea. The bloody protest occurred in the mining town of Timika. The region has Indonesia's greatest store of wealth in minerals, timber, oil and gas.

Dr Chris Ballard, Pacific and Asian Studies: The key reasons being given by the government for splitting Papua into three provinces is that with three new provincial administrations, development will proceed much faster.

This is questionable, however, because you have, in fact, in Papua a proportion of the national population that's only just over 1%, and to split that 1% of the population into three different provinces is an enormous administrative overkill, if you like.

Meena David: The partition plan has caused so much unrest because it directly challenges the Special Autonomy Law first foreshadowed by the previous Habibie and Wahid administrations, and enacted last year. That gave hope to Papuans they'd have a greater share of political power and profits from the region's abundant resources.

But in January, President Megawati issued a decree to split the province, as Jakarta feared the special autonomy status would act as a lightning rod for independence aspirations.

In 34 years of Indonesian rule, 100,000 Papuans have been killed or disappeared, the assassination of pro-independence leader, Theys Eluay, another grim addition to the toll.

Though seven of Indonesia's Kopassus special forces soldiers have been found guilty of the murder, they received hand-slap sentences.

Dr Chris Ballard: The army, in particular, has been very keen to see Papua split into three provinces. It would give the area of Papua three provincial administrations but also three military commands, and there's a move afoot in parallel with this to almost double the size of the military detachment based in Papua, and that's going ahead as we speak.

Meena David: Brutal clashes aren't out of the ordinary here. The military's often blamed attacks on guerillas from the Free Papua Movement, or OPM.

But analysts acknowledge most of the open conflict has some sort of military involvement, sentiments shared by pro-independence activists who have been urging the world's community to insist on a path of peace.

Helen Vatsikopoulos: Well, to discuss those issues further, I spoke ... with Jakarta-based Sidney Jones from the International Crisis Group, an international think tank conducting field-based analysis.

Sidney Jones, the West Papuans were promised special autonomy. What they're in the process of getting is a division of their province into three. Now, those two policies seem to be incompatible and contradictory, so what is Jakarta's real agenda?

Sidney Jones, International Crisis Group: You're absolutely right that those are contradictory policies. What we have now is a review under way because there was so much outrage against this division.

Jakarta's policy is to divide the independence movement to weaken the independence movement, but also in the process, perhaps, to get some political benefits for the ruling elite in Jakarta.

Helen Vatsikopoulos: Well, the Free Papua Movement may be small and perhaps disorganised at the moment, but what do you think will be the cumulative effect of these repressive policies and other events like the killing of Theys Eluay?

Sidney Jones: I think we have to wait and see what the outcome of this review is. Certainly the killing of Theys Eluay just galvanised the independence movement in a way nothing else had. There couldn't have been a more counterproductive policy if it had been sat down and designed on a table.

On the other hand, you also have a divided Papuan elite and you have some people that are willing to go with Jakarta's policies because they see in it for themselves an opportunity to become a governor or a high-level provincial official, so it's not as though the whole province is up in arms.

Helen Vatsikopoulos: What is in it for the military in terms of holding on to West Papua? Because General Sutarto has been deploying extra troops since July. Is it the cash cow for the military they say it is?

Sidney Jones: Well, I think you have to see the Indonesian military as an organisation that has used resources – in a number of different areas, not just Papua – to gain additional income, when only 30% of its budget is actually supported by the central government.

So there is this push to get additional resources from elsewhere. But I don't think that resources, in and of themselves, is the main driving force behind this division.

It really is a political decision to try and break up and weaken support for independence, particularly when the government realises that what they're dealing with is not an armed guerilla movement like Aceh that is a real security threat in the same way that the Acehnese guerillas is. It's very much the nonviolent movement that's much more of a concern to Jakarta.

Helen Vatsikopoulos: Well, the Pacific Islands Forum did express support for greater autonomy, and certainly, Australian Greens' senator Bob Brown and the New Zealanders have called for a greater input in terms of mediating. Would that be a good idea at this point?

Sidney Jones: No, the worst thing that Australia could do now is offer to mediate, because there's already concern, particularly on the part of the conservative Muslim groups in Indonesia, that Australia and other Western powers have always come to the aid of Christian separatists, and they give East Timor as an example. It would be disastrous, politically, if the Australians were to make such an offer.

Helen Vatsikopoulos: Will we be looking at a military campaign, do you think, in West Papua in the future? The 'Jakarta Post' newspaper certainly has warned that this will take place.

Sidney Jones: The 'Jakarta Post' has acknowledged that 2,000 troops have been sent, or are being sent, to Papua, and I think that this is the result of many considerations.

One is that there is indeed a concern on the part of conservatives in Jakarta that foreigners are going to try and do in Papua what they did in East Timor, and that therefore the Indonesian military has to be prepared.

There also is a concern that Indonesian territory is being chipped away at, and there's a concern that because the border with Papua New Guinea is not well demarcated, that the troops are necessary there to prevent little pieces and chunks of Indonesian territory from being taken away.

But I don't see a military emergency being declared in Papua the way we have martial law now in Aceh.

Helen Vatsikopoulos: But what about when they're finished with Aceh? I think that's what the 'Jakarta Post' is saying – once the Aceh war is over, West Papua's next.

Sidney Jones: But I don't think you can compare the two, because you really do have a strong, well-organised guerilla movement in Aceh that was going after military and police on a systematic basis, and we had about 1,600 casualties taking place per year.

You simply don't have that kind of level of violence in Papua, although you do have isolated targeted assassinations and so on. But you don't have that kind of military threat that you do in Aceh that would permit or justify a kind of military campaign. The two aren't comparable.

Helen Vatsikopoulos: Well, with an election due next year, and given that President Megawati Sukarnoputri relies on the military for support, do you think she will now give them free reign to do what they like in West Papua?

Sidney Jones: No, I don't think they'll get free reign, but I do think that it may be the case that Megawati and people around her decide to play the nationalist card, and what we may see is ... there may be more of an effort to restrict access to Papua, there may be more of an effort for the military to take action against little pockets of the OPM – the guerilla group in Papua.

But I don't think there's going to be a green light in the sense that the military will be told "OK, do whatever you want to, wipe out the Papuan people." That's not going to happen.

Helen Vatsikopoulos: Sidney Jones, thank you.

Sidney Jones: You're welcome.