Jason MacLeod – On Wednesday 3rd of December Indonesian security forces detained four West Papuan students in relation to a nonviolent action two days earlier.

The four students released West Papuan flags – known as the Morning Star - attached to a hot air balloons in the central Javanese town of Semarang to commemorate West Papua's independence day. The students called for peaceful dialogue between the Government of Indonesia and the people of West Papua mediated by a third party to resolve the contested political status of the territory.

The detained include Charlie Imbir (22), Chris Ukago (27), Herman Katmu (29), and Markus Jiwitao (a high school student) who could all face up to 20 years in jail if charged with treason said Sergeant Joko Sutanto from police headquarters in central Java.

In the meantime Police in Semarang have been conducting house-to-house searches for banners, posters, books on West Papua, and other Pro-Papua material considered subversive by the State.

The Police action comes after a counter demonstration allegedly involving Indonesians brought in from the Javanese town of Solo who demonstrated outside the police headquarters where the West Papuan students are detained. The counter demonstrators called for the state to crackdown on separatism and the OPM (Free Papua Movement).

The security forces routinely harass West Papuan students studying in Java and many have gone into hiding fearing reprisals from the security forces.

Earlier in November this year unknown men wielding a samurai sword and carrying a Molotov cocktail attacked a West Papuan student dormitory in Yogyakarta in the early hours of the morning. Fortunately no one was hurt but students fear further repression from the state. We are all scared, says one student who asked not to be named and we don't dare return to our dormitories.

Many students believe that the increases in the number and frequency in attacks in Java and West Papua are part of an organised crackdown on the nonviolent movement for dialogue.

Indonesian president Megawati Sukarnoputri, Coordinating Minister for Security and Political Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Chief of the Armed Forces, Gen. Endriartono Sutarto, and Army Chief of Staff Gen.

Ryamizard Ryacudu, have all publicly stated that separatism will not be tolerated and have ruled out the possibility of dialogue over the way West Papua was integrated into the Republic of Indonesia.

President Megawati Sukarnoputri chose December the first to announce the appointment of Timbul Silaen, the infamous former East Timor police chief, an indicted human rights violator, as the new police chief of Papua. At the same time, notorious East Timor militia leader, Eurico Guterres, has arrived in Timika, near the giant Freeport-RioTinto gold and copper mine in West Papua to form a militia group – FPMP (Front Pembela Merah Putih - Red and White Defenders Front) there. Guterres worked alongside Silaen in East Timor during the United Nations sponsored referendum in 1999.

The pair was accused of crimes against humanity following Indonesian military and militia violence in the wake of East Timor's historic vote for independence.

Secretary-General of the FPMP, Norman Sophan said, "You know, there is the Morning Star flag there. We have to fight it, with our blood if necessary. I think it is very normal if you fight back, with or without arms ... So, I told my members, if your area is attacked, you are free to join any militia group to fight the attackers back."

Papua Police chief Insp. Gen. Budi Utomo confirmed Eurico's plan to open a branch of his organisation, saying the former East Timorese militia leader had submitted a request with the provincial police for permission. However, Utomo said he was yet to decide whether to endorse the plan or not. "I would not take a hasty decision on this matter as we are studying the group's purpose here. If it is to support security, it's no problem. Utomo said.

Only weeks ago Indonesia's notorious Special Forces, Kopassus raided and killed ten people while they slept in their beds in Yalengga village in the remote highlands. The night before he was killed in his bed OPM leader Yustinus Murip was seen on Australian televisions SBS Dateline program calling for the United Nations to intervene and support peaceful dialogue to resolve the longstanding conflict.

The attack on Yalengga village was the latest offensive in military operations that have continued in the highlands since April and left a wake of destruction including hundreds of people displaced, countless rapes, assaults, extrajudicial killings, torture, and in standard Indonesian military procedure scores of health clinics, churches, schools, gardens and villages have been burnt to the ground.

Barisan Merah Putih (the Red and White Garrison), another militia group, has also been set up by security forces in the highland town of Wamena, while human rights defenders in Sorong and Fak Fak have reported that the Muslim militia group, Laskar Jihad has established a presence there and enjoys support and protection from the military.

Human rights defenders have also been targeted. In September last year the respected West Papuan human rights organisation ELSHAM (the Institute for the Study and Advocacy of Human Rights) had their offices ransacked by thugs in Jakarta. Since then two senior ELSHAM staff John Rumbiak and Yohanes Bonay were forced to leave as a result of death threats. John Rumbiak is now in exile in the United States while Yohanes Bonay's child and wife were seriously wounded when unidentified men opened fire with automatic weapons on a car they were travelling in, the same vehicle that only hours before Bonay decided not to travel in. ELSHAM staff are currently in court, accused by the military of defamation. They have also received boom threats.

West Papuan civil society leaders in the troubled territory claim that there has been a concerted effort to destroy the peaceful aspirations of a people determined to be free and many fear it is only a matter of time before martial law West Papua is declared.

Yet if the Indonesian military wants the support of the West Papuan people the moves are clearly counter-productive. With each act of violence committed by the Indonesian military dissent deepens and trust in the sincerity of the Government of Indonesia to constructively resolve the conflict dissipates.

The current government strategy is at odds with the approach taken by the Presidents predecessor. Former Indonesian President, Gus Dur allowed the Morning Star to fly provided it was flown lower than the Indonesian flag.

Since Megawati Sukarnoputri came to power the flag has been banned and last Monday peaceful flag raisings in Sentani and Manokwari in West Papua were forcibly repressed. Seven activists (Carlos Yumame, Luter Duansiba, Ishak Toansiba, Han Mandacan, Terry Korayem, Yulianus Indem, and Yohakim Mensi) also remain in detention in Manokwari after a pre-emptive Police action scuttled plans for a December 1st commemoration there.

The 1st of December is the date West Papuans consider to be their independence day. In 1961 the West New Guinea Council – a democratically elected body – adopted a national anthem, agreed upon the name West Papua and for the first time unveiled the Morning Star Flag. The government of Indonesia, however, launched a small-scale invasion to back up diplomatic manoeuvrings, finally securing administrative control of the territory in 1963. West Papua was integrated into the Republic of Indonesia after less than 1% of the indigenous Melanesian population was told to vote for Indonesia or have their tongues cut out in the discredited and fraudulent 1969 Act of Free Choice.

Since the 1960s West Papua has been subjected to an ongoing human rights violations. In recent years and in the face of increasing repression the movement for self-determination has embraced an explicit commitment to nonviolence.