Papua Presidium stalls on flag lowering until at least 9 November

BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific - Political
November 1, 2000
Source: Radio New Zealand, Wellington, in English 0800 gmt 1 Nov 00
Indonesia: Separatists flags said still flying in Papua/Irian Jaya

A grass-roots organization in the Indonesian province of Papua Irian Jaya says reports from the capital, Port Numbay Jayapura , say separatists have again defied the authorities and refused to lower the banned Morning Star flag. A police order from Jakarta demanded that the flag of the separatist province be lowered by today, in line with an earlier ultimatum which was allowed to lapse because of fear of unrest. The security forces took down flags in Wamena in the Highlands nearly a month ago, triggering a backlash by the Papuans which left dozens of people dead.

A spokesman for the Penis Gourd People Assembly Council in Wamena, (?Sen Koroba), says no Morning Star flag can be seen in town any more as a large number of troops have been deployed, coinciding
with a visit to Wamena by several Indonesian government ministers. He says his movement's call to crowd around the separatists' office in Port Numbay has apparently stopped police action to remove the
flag there.

Koroba, in Wamena The Papua regular commander of the police, Mr Wenas, just came down to meet them and said we need a peace deal now, we don't want war. And he said we are not going to lower down
the flag now.
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BBC Worldwide Monitoring
November  1, 2000
Source: Antara news agency, Jakarta, in Indonesian 0000 gmt 11 Jan 00
Indonesia: Papua Presidium stalls on flag lowering until at least 9 November

Jayapura, 1st November: On 9th November, the Papua Presidium Council (PDP) will meet Irian Jaya provincial government and security officials to inform them of the PDP's plans for lowering
Morning Star flags throughout the province.

After separate meetings with the governor, Military Area commander and Police chief in Jayapura on Wednesday 1st November morning, PDP chair Theys Eluay said that the PDP would deliver their plans for lowering the flags on 9th November.

He said that the meeting would be postponed until 9th November as several PDP members were still overseas. He said that he would be reporting to President Abdurrahman Wahid (Gus Dur) on the results
of a PDP meeting on the matter.

Theys called on the community, particularly transmigrants, not to be overly concerned because the Papuan Independence struggle would be conducted peacefully.