Andrew Kilvert, Jayapura – A group of Indonesian settlers held hostage by self-proclaimed Irian Jaya rebels were returned home yesterday after a 27-day ordeal in the remote Bewani valley across the Papua New Guinea border.
The 11 hostages, seven women and four men, were released by PNG army and police units on Sunday, after a three-day operation.
Terry Friel, Wamena – Indonesia's first democratic election in four decades has hit trouble in remote Irian Jaya, where separatist passions have prompted some voters to boycott the poll and some ballots may not be delivered in time.
Separatists say they cannot accept the election and are prepared to die for their cause.
Sander Thoenes, Wamena – If people here are wary of the Army, they have a reason to be. In Irian Jaya, Indonesia's easternmost province, thousands have died during three decades of a small but persistent antigovernment guerrilla war.
So when Army troops last week chased away the pedicab drivers and took up positions, a tremor moved across Wamena's marketplace.
Jakarta – An angry mob vandalized seven shop-houses in the eastern Indonesian province of Irian Jaya following the death of a college teacher in police custody, a report said Monday.
Jayapura – Irian Jaya Governor Freddy Numberi has confirmed that the government has rejected the Irian Jaya people's demand for the independence of West Papua (Irian Jaya) which representatives of the Irian Jaya people conveyed to President B.J. Habibie during a recent dialogue.
Jakarta – Community leaders from the far-eastern Indonesian province of Irian Jaya met President B.J. Habibie on Friday, some asking for independence for the resource-rich western half of New Guinea island.
But the 100-strong delegation was split, with some members instead pushing for autonomy within Indonesia instead.
Canberra – Irian Jaya's expectations of self determination had been raised by a softening of Indonesia's stance on East Timor, a leading church official said today.
Executive member of the World Council of Churches, Clement John, said he had perceived a definite change in expectation in a recent trip to Irian Jaya.
Jakarta – Irianese leaders, rebuking President B.J. Habibie for supporting the expansion plan of mining company PT Freeport Indonesia, demanded on Friday their people have a say in the process of licensing the development.
Jakarta – Separatist guerrillas and the military in the Indonesian province of Irian Jaya have agreed on an immediate ceasefire, the official Antara news agency on Wednesday quoted a local military chief as saying.
Peter Waldman, Mount Jaya – At 13,000 feet up this remote crag, Steve Drake, operations chief of Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.'s huge Grasberg mine, looks out uneasily across Lake Wanagon. The dazzling turquoise pool is loaded with copper leached from the mine's waste-rock dump, so much copper that Freeport intends to mine the lake water some day. Mr.
Jakarta – The Irianese community in Jakarta called on President B.J, Habibie yesterday to grant immediate autonomy to their home province and accused the central government of failing to bring prosperity to their territory.
Louise Williams – Food stocks in drought-stricken regions of Irian Jaya are almost exhausted and up to 20 per cent of the population of some villages has already died, according to the latest report on the famine by the Australian Red Cross.
Linda Kaucher – President Suharto is refusing to declare West Papua a disaster area despite calls from within his own government to do so. More than 400 people have died from the drought, mainly in the Jayawijaya highlands district, adjacent to the PNG border.
Jakarta – Another 17 people have died in drought stricken Irian Jaya, taking the toll to 462, a report says.
On the other hands, another 90,000 people are now facing serious food ortages, the report added.
Jakarta – At least 416 people in Indonesia's remote Irian Jaya province have died of famine and disease and nearly 90,000 face serious food shortages because of a severe drought, relief officials said on Thursday.
Jakarta – One villager was killed and three soldiers were injured when tribesmen used bows and arrows to attack an Indonesian army patrol near the Freeport copper mine in New Guinea on Friday, a military source said.
Attempts by the Indonesian security forces to quell disturbances which began on 21 August 1997 in the Timika area of Irian Jaya - Indonesia's easternmost province - have resulted in two local tribespeople being shot dead and 15 others being beaten, in some cases severely.
Landowners in Indonesia's Irian Jaya province have burned down six new houses built for migrants under a transmirgration resettlement scheme.
A leader of the Kwimi village 40 kilometres south of the provincial capital of Jayapura says he ordered the burning because the project had cut down a sago tree forest without adequate compensation for the villagers.
Jayapura, Irian Jaya – Twelve members of a security disturbance group (GPK) along with 10 adults and 11 children who had been hiding near the Irian Jaya-Papua New Guinea borders have surrendered to the military in Opkim village, Merauke district.
Jakarta – At least six people had been killed as tribal clashes in the Indonesian province of Irian Jaya entered a second day yesterday, local sources said.
"War broke out again this morning, fiercer than yesterday, and three people have already been killed, shot by arrows," said Mr Tom Beanal, head of the Institute for the Amungme Society from Timika, in Irian Jaya.
Washington DC – In the wake of last week's announcement that Freeport-McMoRan Cooper and Gold would be developing the Busang gold reserves in East Kalimantan, Indonesia, a broad coalition of organisations has express concern that the new mine will give rise to substantiaal new environmental degradation and human rights problems and has urged the New Orleans-based company to take sta
Jakarta – Three tribal chiefs in Fakfak regency, Irian Jaya have given 390,000 hectares to the Ministry of Transmigration and the Irian Jaya transmigration office for a resettlement site. "No compensation has been offered in return," said the head of the Irian Jaya transmigration office, N. Hutapea, in the provincial capital of Jayapura yesterday.