In Indonesia it's been claimed 10 separatist rebels, including a local leader, have been killed by special Kopassus troops in a pre-dawn raid in Papua. The military says it's killed the leader of the local Free Papua Movement (OPM) Yustinus Murib, in an ambush along with nine of his supporters. But just 24 hours earlier, the rebel leader had called on the United Nations to protect Papuans from an ongoing assault by Indonesian troops.
Presenter/Interviewer: Tricia Fitzgerald
Speakers: Petras Tabuni, Free Papua Movement rebel leader; Yustinus Murib, Free Papua Movement rebel commander; Pastor Benny Giay, leading Papua human rights advocate.
Fitzgerald: Free Papua Movement rebel leader Petras Tabuni rallying his supporters in the highlands of Papua last month.
His voice and that of his fellow rebel commander Yustinus Murib, who the Indonesia military claims has been killed, were recorded and smuggled out of Papua and aired on SBS television's Dateline Program in Australia. Mr Murib called for foreign intervention to prevent further killings by the military.
Murib: There needs to be open dialogue with the people of West Papua in order to reach a peaceful agreement with the help of a neutral country and the United nations. We issue this message from the highest authority of West Papua on second of October 2003."
Fitzgerald: Yustinus Murib not only made that call he sent a signed letter to President Megawati Sukarnoputri, the Australian Government and the UN repeating his call for foreign assistance.
The military says it killed Murib on Wednesday just the day before his plea for outside help was broadcast. They say he and his followers were killed after being caught in an ambush in mountain country in Central Papua, where the military says they were preparing an attack on a local government ceremony.
The rebels known as the OPM have been fighting since the 1960's against what they say is Indonesia's occupation of their land. In 1963 Indonesia took over the province after a ballot by a group of tribal leaders. Petras Tabuni says the feelings of Papuans haven't changed since that time and they still want to seperate from Indonesia.
Tabuni: We want to leave Indonesia we dont want to be part of Indonesia ... that is the fundamental principle for Papuans. So from this moment on we ask the international community to see that this bow and this arrow are no match for Indonesians weapons.
Fitzgerald: The Papuan rebel rebel leadership says with the growth in strength of the Indonesian military, it now accepts the need for peaceful dialogue to solve the conflict. Commander Tabuni says many younger Papuans support peaceful protests against Jakarta's rule.
Tabuni: Why do younger Papuans hold peaceful demonstrations, to prove to the international community that the West Papuans are a civilised people who can stand beside other nations of the world ... to show we are no longer stone age cannibals despite what the Indonesians believe.
Fitzgerald: A senior churchman and one of Papua's leading human rights advocates, Benny Giay says Papuans are being overwhelmed by the influx of Indonesian military, and the continuing crackdowns. Pastor Giay says in the highlands thousands of villagers have been forced from their homes because of the military sweep that's been going on for months.
Giay: Many will be starving to death because of military operations which has destroyed not only their homes but also their gardens, their pigs, their chickens were also killed by the military.
Fitzgerald: Pastor Giay says like Aceh Jakarta regards Papuans as the enemy.
Giay: Papua and Aceh has been targetted by the military as regions where they had to send military and military presence is needed. Papuans has been treated as enemies that has to be destroyed.