The DPRP team which visited Jakarta this week to discuss the adoption of the Morning Star flag, the song 'Hai Tanahku Papua' and the Mambruk bird as symbols for Papua spent Friday in a meeting with BIN (State Intelligence Bureau) officials.

"We explained our purpose to hold a consultation in order to reach agreement between our perception and that of the central government" said Paskalis Kosy, on behalf of the team.

But the BIN response was no different from that of the Lemhanas, the National Defence Institute. In fact, the BIN officials asked the DPRP team to find some other symbols. According to BIN, the symbols were the creation of the Dutch, with the intention of creating a separate state of West Papua, and therefore these symbols were not appropriate for use as cultural symbols and could only act as an inspiration for Papuans in favour of separatism.

The team explained that it was quite difficult to alter these symbols while BIN officials said other symbols should not be used.

The meeting with BIN last for two and a half hours. BIN officials said they thought that the question of symbols was far less pressing for the Papuans than the question of promoting welfare and development in Papua.

The team replied that this issue relates to the integrity of Papua's position within NKRI, and it was in accord with the provisions of the Special Autonomy Law of 2001, which advocates the need to promote the welfare of the Papuan people through justice and dignity. The discussion with BIN officials was described as being quite "heated" (berlangsung hangat).

According to another member of the DPRP team, Weyland Watori, the Special Autonomy law meant that the symbols now used were a true reflection of the Papuan people and should therefore be used. He said: "In actual fact, these symbols were agreed upon when the OTSUS law was drafted, and the understanding then was that it was about the Morning Star flag".

Bringing in a third party?

He also said that they had suggested in their discussions that negotiations on this matter should perhaps involve a third party, as happened in the talks between GAM and Indonesia which were mediated by Helsinki. They had also said that although this might be going too far, that there was no reason to regard the Morning Star flag as something to be afraid of.

The DPRP team think that a better way reach agreement would be by means of dialogue.

Although the team had planned to hold meetings with other senior officials in Jakarta, these meetings could not take place because of lack of time. The team therefore returned to Jayapura and will make another visit to Jakarta in two weeks' time to holding meetings with the minister for political and security affairs and the minister for the interior.