The New Zealand Herald - May 8, 2002

Fighting talk as independence movement gambles on action

By JOHN MARTINKUS

JAYAPURA - Free Papua Organisation (OPM) spokesman, Silas Obambok, has returned from across the border in nearby Papua New Guinea to deliver a message from his commander, Mathias Wenda.

It is directed at his supporters and the OPM guerrillas who still  control areas in the central mountains. But it is also directed at the pro-independence West Papuan elite in the towns who have committed  themselves to a non-violent struggle for a referendum for the province and have 
accepted the Indonesian Government's offer of autonomy. 

"We will attack the Army, close down airstrips and attack Government  offices" said Obambok.

He goes on to describe how four "battalions" of 160 men each have been in training on the other side of the border and how next month they will  begin infiltrating back into the provinces of Wamena, Jayapura, Timika, Puncak Jaya and Nabire.

He claims they are armed with 400 weapons bought in PNG from Chinese and Malaysian businessmen and will fight the Indonesians in a series of  attacks scheduled for August.

The weapons, he said, were easy to buy in PNG. Prices start at 7000 kina ($4300) for an automatic rifle.

He said that across the border, near the PNG town of Vanimo, the OPM has 2040 full-time fighters, and 130 crossed over to join the training in the  past month.

The OPM's aggression is in response to an Indonesian attempt to pacify  calls for independence from all levels of West Papuan society.

"When we hear of the autonomy programme we know this is only for the Indonesian administrators, not for West Papuans - now we really want to get the Indonesians to prove we do not support this programme."

The Indonesian Parliament passed the programme last year. The province  of West Papua, renamed from Irian Jaya as part of the package, is to receive 80 per cent of revenue from the province, and only 20 per cent will go to Jakarta. The OPM and many pro-independence activists here say this is
meaningless, given the nature of the Indonesian Administration.

OPM commander-in-chief Mathias Wenda said in a faxed message this week that "autonomy time was 30 years ago. Now it is time to make our land free.

"Every time they manipulate the West Papuan people with these programmes and if they do not stop we will have to implement our programme with the West Papuan army."

Largely inactive since the fall of Suharto and the rise of the urban-based pro-independence movement led by the Papuan Presidium Council, the OPM  has refrained from the use of violence for the past four years.

"Now we have more soldiers and we have some help from other countries, now we hope we win during this year," said Wenda. "Indonesia is a terrorist country now for what they are doing here. We want the United Nations to look at this situation and see that for Indonesia every programme is just to finish off the West Papuan people."

Nordin Wenda, OPM commander in Paniai district, is returning from the  border headquarters to his region to prepare them for the new offensive. He  has lived in the forests of that area, fighting the Indonesian Army, since the struggle began in 1962.

Until last year, when he came to the border to look for weapons, he had  never seen the inside of a town. "Before, during the big Indonesian  operations in the 1970s, we have only bows and arrows. We got some weapons by killing Indonesians but now we only have one gun in the region."

Nordin said that OPM delegates from each region met at the border on  November 12, immediately after the death of pro-independence Papuan Presidium  council leader Theys Eluay - widely believed to have been assassinated by  Indonesian special forces.

The delegates decided to prepare for renewed conflict, he said.

"We have already made this agreement with every commander to go to war.  This year is the time to act. For many years Papuan people talk, talk, talk.  We have delegations travelling everywhere and we do not win. Now we must  fight and maybe die or win.

"The UN people don't talk about this, that is why we are very sad, we have to go to war again with Indonesia."

These are the kind of sentiments that Thom Beanal, vice-president of the presidium council and now acting leader following Eluay's death, is trying to play down.

"Before, they killed Theys so that the Papuans would be angry and  resist so that the Army can kill us," he said.

Beanal believes the only way to independence is through an East Timor-style, UN-supervised referendum. "If not this year, next year. That is what we  hope for."

But he said it could take place only if the Indonesian Army withdrew  and the UN sent in peacekeepers before a ballot.

"We don't want to be like East Timor. Them coming in and shooting  people, that's what we are afraid of."

Ever since he led a team of 100 Papuan leaders to Jakarta in February  1999, where they requested that Papua be allowed to secede, Beanal has been  at the forefront of Papuan talks with Indonesia, but is disappointed with the  lack of progress.

"There is no thought, they don't think ... We talk about dialogue, it's as if they don't want to listen."

Beanal and the human rights group Elsham (the Institute for Human  Rights Study and Advocacy), which monitors abuses in Papua by the military,  have documents that prove the killing of Eluay was part of a campaign  against the independence movement. 

He said the documents also listed himself and Presidium council secretary Thaha Al Hamid as people to be killed.

Elsham director Johannes Bonai has also been threatened following his accusations that the military were behind Theys' death.

"The information we get from a number of military so we have to take it seriously," he said.

The human-rights group alleges that abuses by the military are  continuing.

"The proof is in the killing of Theys Eluay. It's been happening here  since 1962. We don't have the data. Of course when we calculate it, thousands  of people have died."

Indonesian military operations in the 1970s killed as many as 7000 people in the Wamena area, creating a legacy of fierce pro-independence sentiment  among the Highland Dani people that remains today.

Elsham said one man was killed on March 23 following police questioning of Wamena residents who had attended meetings with an Amnesty delegation  in January and a European Union delegation in March.

Elsham was also concerned about the buildup of the Islamic group Laskar  Jihad in the eastern towns of Papua. It claimed that the group already had  more than 2000 members in Papua and that the Army was behind their presence,  which was aimed at provoking conflict between the predominantly Christian  Papuans and the Indonesian Muslims.

Bonai said the OPM had, until now, stood by its commitment not to use weapons and had remained across the border in PNG.

But now the OPM is talking war and, according to Commander Nordin  Wenda, seems set on one last gamble to gain the world's attention. "They must  send intervention troops. This is the last time you must help".