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Indonesian military sees serious threat on Irian
By Tomi Soetjipto. JAKARTA, Nov 10 (Reuters)

One of Indonesia's most senior generals has warned that the giant and rebellious province of Irian Jaya poses a serious threat to the unity of the sprawling Asian country.

The resource-rich province, under Jakarta rule since 1963, is home to a long-simmering separatist movement.

"There has been a rapid escalation of separatist calls in Irian Jaya...the military has to be prepared," Lieutenant General Agus Widjojo told Reuters in an interview.

"The separatist call there is quite serious," said Widjojo, whose role as the military's chief of territorial affairs puts him in charge of keeping the multi-ethnic country intact.

The distant eastern province is one of several Indonesian separatist hotspots with calls there for independence fuelled by an often brutal military clampdown during the long rule of former
president Suharto.

The military operation, as with similar moves in the rebellious far western province of Aceh and Jakarta's former colony of East Timor, was ended after Suharto fell from power in 1998.

But renewed tension in sparsely-populated Irian Jaya has triggered concerns that the military might reimpose the operation to crush rebels.

Widjojo, in his comments made on Thursday, declined to say whether the military planned fresh intervention in the troubled province.

"Our job is to review the situation on the ground...whatever the decision in the end will depend on the (president)," he said.

After East Timor's break from Indonesia last year, some analysts fear that any formal move by Irian Jaya to seek independence, combined with a separatist push in Aceh, could tear apart the world's largest archipelago.

Lying on the western half of New Guinea island, Irian Jaya, also called West Papua, has a population of around two million people, is rich in natural resources and home to one of the world's largest copper and gold mines, majority-owned by U.S.-based Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.

Irian Jaya was incorporated into Indonesia in 1963 after heavy diplomatic pressure on the Netherlands.

Six years later, a still controversial U.N.-run plebiscite was held among local leaders which resulted in a vote to formally join Indonesia.

Widjojo said the military would support a dialogue with the rebels initiated by the government of President Abdurrahman Wahid.

Indigenous Irianese remain mostly poor and separatist leaders accuse Jakarta of plundering the province's resources.