Port Vila – The West Papua National Coalition for Liberation and National Authority has invited members of all the Indonesian province's resistance organisations to a "reconciliation meeting" in about June this year.
The invitation is contained in a New Year message from the organisation's deputy chairman, Dr John Ondawame, issued from its headquarters in Port Vila, Vanuatu.
The message mourns the slaying of West Papuan National Liberation Army commander Kelly Kwalik in Gorong-Gorong, Timika, in the early hours of Wednesday, December 16 but says the death of "General Umeki Kletus Kolalok Kwalik" will not inhibit efforts to seek negotiations with the Indonesian government.
The commander had strongly believed in peaceful dialogue, it says. The statement also says the commander's death was the result of a "dirty game" that had been played by the Indonesian military and policeworking with local militia and internal enemies.
Previously Dr John Ondawame and the organisation's secretary general Rex Rumakiek issued a statement saying the killing was intended to undermine any peaceful settlement in the restive province.
No witnesses had been allowed to survive, their statement said. Eight of the commander's men were also slain in the attack.
Their statement said the land-owner commander had opposed the Freeport Mine because of the human rights abuses it had delivered his people and the irreparable damage it had done to the environment
The Antara news agency quotes West Papua Police Chief Inspector General Bekto Suprapto in Jayapura as saying the number of police guarding the Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold Corporation Grasberg gold and copper mine in the eastern highlands of West Papua, about 3,400 kilometres east of Jakarta, would be maintained despite the commander's death.
Kelly Kwalik had many loyal supporters who might strike at any time, the police chief said.
Sydney-based Australia West Papua Association secretary Joe Collins has suggested that Australians may well have trained the Indonesians who shot and killed the commander. The training could have been done as part of Australia's commitment to Indonesia to the Lombok Treaty, he said.
Mr Collins said his association was also worried that Indonesia's military and police forces will now try to make the commander a scapegoat for the fatal shootings within the corporation's massive consession for its Grasberg mine.
The Australian Government dispatched two Australian Federal Police officers to investigate the shootings.
West Papua police chief Inspector General F.X. Bagus Ekodanto confirmed about two months ago that his officers, together with those of Indonesia's anti-terrorism squad, had met with Kelly Kwalik to discuss attacks on security forces and mine employees. "The meeting was held in the vicinity of Timika, but the place and the officers present cannot be publicly disclosed," he said.
Kelly Kwalik denied that he, or his supporters, was responsible for the attacks.
The attacks within the concession began when unidentified assailants shot and mortally wounded Australian technician Drew Nicholas Grant, 29, on Sunday, July 11.
In Jakarta last week, national police spokesman Inspector General Nanan Soekarna spokesman said five West Papuans arrested during the raid were likely to be relocated in Jakarta.
The relocation was intended to protect Jeep Murip, 24, Noni Sanawarme, 35, Martimus Katarame, 21, Yorni Murip, 10, Yosep Kwamtik, 60, from possible retaliation by Free Papua Organization members, the policeman said.