The Folly of Kidnapping
Foreigners
June 27, 2001 04:57 PM, Editor
|
Laksamana.Net – Separatist rebels in Irian Jaya
(West Papua) earlier this month abducted two Belgian
filmmakers, hoping to draw international attention to
their demand for a referendum on independence. The
plan could backfire and result in serious military
reprisals, as happened when rebels kidnapped a team of
European and Indonesian researchers in the remote
province in 1996.
The separatists have said the Belgians will only be
released if President Abdurrahman Wahid takes the
issue of the troubled province before an international
forum. But the president has enough problems of his
own to deal with now, rather than playing the role of
an international troubleshooter shooting himself in
the foot.
Wahid has been by far the most sympathetic of
Indonesian leaders to the people of West Papua. Last
year he permitted them to raise their Morning Star
flag, an offense that would normally have resulted in
severe military aggression or jail. The president also
provided Rp1 billion (US$88,000) in funding for a
Papuan People’s Congress which resulted in a
declaration that the mineral-rich territory had never
legitimately been part of Indonesia and was therefore
independent. But in a stark reminder of who really
controls Irian Jaya, the military soon put its foot
down on the separatist movement. Rebel flags were
destroyed, security forces clashed with primitively
armed natives, and Wahid’s orders to release
detained separatist leaders were rudely ignored.
Many people from West Papua want an East Timor-style
referendum on independence, but the government refuses
to discuss such an option, saying the most it can
offer is greater development under a limited autonomy
package within Indonesia. “Irian Jaya will remain
part of the country forever," Defense Minister
Mohammad Mahfud said on Tuesday (26/6/2001). "I
think it is better for the people of Irian Jaya to
concentrate more on development in the province,
rather than making demands for a referendum or full
autonomy. We can only approve special autonomy,"
he said.
The House of Representatives is yet to finish
deliberating a bill on the provision of special
autonomy for Irian Jaya. The proposed bill has
reportedly won support from at least 60 legislators
and several House factions, but is opposed by the
powerful Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle
(PDI-P) and the Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI)
because it is seen as a violation of the 1945
Constitution and the principles of the unitary state
of the Republic of Indonesia.
A delegation of leaders from the pro-independence
Papuan Presidium Council on Tuesday met in Jakarta
with Coordinating Minister for Political, Social and
Security Affairs Agum Gumelar to put forward an
alternative draft law on autonomy for Irian Jaya. The
minister responded by calling on the House to heed the
presidium’s demands. "Besides containing Irian
Jaya's uniqueness and accommodating the Irianese
people's aspirations, the former bill also maintains
the province's status as part of the unitary state of
Indonesia… The central government should not force
the Irianese people to accept the government-sponsored
bill because special autonomy should accommodate the
basic values and unique characteristics of the
Irianese people,” he said.
As long as Wahid remains in power, the government will
continue to hold amicable talks with senior figures in
the separatist movement. Such discussions would have
been unthinkable during the 32-year reign of
autocratic former president Suharto. His regime dealt
harshly with any dissent or demands for freedom.
Sporadic uprisings in Irian Jaya in the ’70s and
’80s were brutally suppressed and sources say the
military enlisted specialist foreign help to wipe out
entire villages with bombs and napalm.
Wahid’s likely successor Vice President Megawati
Sukarnoputri is a staunch nationalist with little time
for separatist movements. Although she probably would
not personally order a return to the Suharto era
tactics of murder and repression in West Papua,
certain generals may feel that under her rule they
will able to resume a scorched earth policy in parts
of the territory in order to quash the rebel forces.
Any news of future atrocities committed by Indonesian
troops in West Papua will no doubt increase
international pressure on Jakarta to find a
non-military solution to the territory’s problems.
And although plenty of foreign left-wing groups and
human rights organizations will demand the people of
West Papua be given an independence referendum, it’s
unlikely to happen. One of the main differences
between East Timor and West Papua is that the former
has so few easily exploitable natural resources,
whereas as the latter is home to the world’s biggest
gold and copper mine, PT Freeport Indonesia, a
subsidiary of US-based Freeport MacMoRan Copper and
Gold Inc.
Many West Papuans claim it is only a matter of time,
be it 10 years or 100 years, before their homeland
achieves independence. The desire to break free from
Indonesian rule is spread across almost all sectors of
West Papuan society; from near-Stone Age forest
dwellers to government officials who have lived most
of their lives in Jakarta. They want control over the
wealth produced by their province, an end to
transmigration and the withdrawal of all non-native
military forces. Such aspirations will probably not be
achieved under special autonomy. The only solution for
many dissatisfied locals will be to obtain
independence, even though it appears to be an
impossible dream.
“No matter how long it takes, it has to happen. It
is inevitable. It is our destiny,” says a West
Papuan civil servant who works for a government
department in Jakarta. “Australia supported East
Timor, so Australia will have to support us. We are
Melanesian and have nothing in common with the
Javanese,” he adds.
The separatist movement must greatly improve its
organization, unity and discipline if it is ever to
gain strong international support. Kidnapping
foreigners may put the rebels in the headlines, but it
won’t get them much positive coverage, especially
not if they run out of patience and kill their
hostages.
Two missionaries, Theo van den Broek and Rev. Benny
Giay, have been assigned by church authorities to
negotiate with the rebels for the release of the
Belgian hostages, Johan Elia Theo van Dem Eynde (47)
and Phillippe R.D. Simon (49), who were captured in
early June. Van den Broek on Tuesday said the
separatists would only release the Belgians if Wahid
holds international talks on the West Papua issue. The
demand was made in a letter signed by Papuan
Liberation Army (TPNP) commander Kelly Kwalik. Broek
said he planned to meet with the rebels in Illaga,
Puncak Jaya, pending the return of Wahid later this
week from his ongoing trip to Australia, New Zealand
and the Philippines. Irian Jaya Governor J.P. Solossa
said a copy of Kwalik’s letter had been sent to
Jakarta to be given to the president when he gets
back.
Dealing with the Irian Jaya issue will be one of the
last things on Wahid’s mind as he battles to stave
off impeachment proceedings. Nonetheless, he recently
discussed the matter with Australian Prime Minister
John Howard. There are concerns in Indonesia that
Australia may decide to support the independence
movements in West Papua and rebellious Aceh province,
in the same way that it tacitly backed East Timor’s
bid for freedom in 1999, having previously recognized
the territory as part of Indonesia. However, Howard
insisted that Australia respects Indonesia’s
territorial integrity now that East Timor has achieved
independence. "Both of us are strongly of the
view that the strains over East Timor, understandable
though they were in the context of those events,
should in the interest of a deeper and broader
relationship be put behind us as we move on," he
said. "I repeated Australia's support for and
recognition of Indonesia's territorial integrity. I
welcomed the proposals for special autonomy,
especially in relation to Aceh and Irian Jaya,"
he added.
Howard said the special autonomy package for Irian
Jaya is a unique opportunity to deal with particular
difficulties. "I want to put on record my very
great respect for the great undertaking in Indonesia's
embrace of a different form of government. The
transition to democracy is difficult, it's been
carried out with great courage by the Indonesian
people and by the president himself,” he said.
If rebel leader Kelly Kwalik had been hoping to win
international support for his independence cause by
kidnapping a couple of Belgians he has so far failed
to do so. He should have remembered the military
reprisals that his people suffered in the aftermath of
the 1996 kidnapping of six European and four
Indonesian researchers. At that time he had said the
hostages would not be released until West Papua
received international recognition as an independent
nation.
The 10 biologists and their guides were abducted by
the Free Papua Movement (OPM) on January 8, 1996, at
Mapenduma, a village in the Baliem Valley. They had
been conducting scientific research in the Lorentz
National Park. After being held by Kwalik’s men for
four months, they were rescued on May 15. The rescue
operation was led by the Army’s elite Special Forces
(Kopassus) and allegedly involved members of
Britain’s Special Air Service (SAS). The mission was
hailed by the Indonesian government as a great
success, but it failed to prevent the murder of two of
the biologists.
As the Kopassus soldiers moved in to the rebel
territory, the two male Indonesian researchers on the
team – Navy and Tessy – were brutally killed by
their captors. Leader of the team, Daniel Start of
England, later said he could understand the feelings
of hatred that many West Papuans harbored against
Indonesians, but he pointed out that the whole episode
had not achieved anything positive for the rebels. He
also said that Kwalik seemed to be a somewhat
unbalanced character, possibly because the Indonesian
military had killed his brothers.
Start, who revisited Irian Jaya in 1997, recalled his
memories of Kwalik in an interview with Australian
Broadcasting Corporation’s Radio National. “Kelly
Kwalik was educated in a seminary. He's fairly
notorious within the area for having led OPM
operations from ambushes on the Freeport mine - they
blew up their slurry pipe in the late '70s, to
organizing rallies more recently in the early '90s.
The Army actually came into those areas and they also
began trying to find his family within the
resettlement camps down in the lowlands. In fact his
brothers, all his brothers, were detained on the very
same night in 1994, to try and find out if they could
find Kwalik, and I think about four months later it
was confirmed that they had been tortured and
murdered.”
Fellow hostage Anna McIvor said the OPM had been
planning to release the captives in an effort to
generate good publicity, but Kwalik opposed the move.
“He more than anyone else seemed to have a very
split personality and would just completely flip
around in what he'd think and what he'd do, and we
always really saw him as someone who was a bit
deranged, because perhaps of what had happened to his
family in the past. And perhaps that twisted him,”
she said.
The Lorentz kidnappings were initially been hailed as
a success by Moses Werror, chairman of the OPM
Revolutionary Council (OPMRC). In a document dated
between March 6-10, 1996, Werror proudly listed the
top dignitaries who were calling for the release of
the hostages. Among them were UN secretary general
Boutros Boutros Ghali, Pope John Paul II, the High
Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, and the
president of the European Union.
Werror described the publicity generated by the
abductions as a great achievement. “Since the
kidnapping drama began the worldwide community has
become very well aware of the OPMRC/WP struggle. This
has brought our cause and our demands for our rights
and for our dignity to be recognized back into the
international arena. This is a major victory under
Stage 6 of the ongoing OPMRC campaign -
internationalizing the plight of the indigenous people
of West Papua - which began with our very successful
T-shirt campaign in 1993. Enormous credit for this
latest achievement must go to the OPMRC commanders
Kelly Kwalik and Daniel Judas Kogoya and their
members,” he said. After gushing so much praise,
Werror then ordered Kwalik and Yudas to release the
hostages to the International Committee of the Red
Cross (ICRC), but the order was ignored.
Start said that if the OPM had accepted a peaceful
resolution offer from the ICRC, villagers in the area
would have gained a health program and long-term
international support. “But the OPM had rejected it
and now they had only the military for company.” He
said the rebels had refused to release the hostages
and killed the two Indonesian men because “after the
shame of 30 years of occupation and abuse it restored
in them a sense of pride, a belief that one day they
could take control of their lives again”.
The West Papuan rebels have little chance of winning
their war against Jakarta, but according to Kwalik,
the territory’s natives should be prepared to die
rather than live under Indonesian rule. “It is
better we all die as Papuans than live to watch our
children grow up as Indonesians,” he said.
Strong words, but Kwalik must realize that his latest
bid to attract international attention is not winning
him any kudos. He must also understand that dealing
with Irian Jaya is no longer one of Wahid’s top
priorities. Gus Dur is struggling to hang on to the
presidency and would therefore be unwilling to further
alienate the military and nationalist politicians by
inviting the international community to discuss West
Papua’s separatist struggle.
Kwalik should re-examine his tactics. Hostage-taking
is what terrorists and dangerous extremist groups do.
Such action won’t help the cause of the rebel boss
and his men. East Timor managed to achieve
independence without having to take any foreign
hostages. Unless the situation in is dealt with
carefully, it could end in tragedy, not only for the
Belgians, but for the impoverished people of West
Papua.
Separatists have been fighting a low-level campaign to
make Irian Jaya an independent state since Indonesian
troops started entering the territory in 1962. In
1969, the UN held a so-called 'Act of Free Choice' in
which just over 1,000 tribal leaders voted to ratify
Indonesian sovereignty over Irian Jaya. Independence
leaders and human rights activists say the vote was a
total sham because the representatives of the natives
had been ordered to comply or be killed.
Wahid is perhaps the only member of the political
elite who would have been happy to question the
veracity of this 1969 decision. Don’t forget that
before becoming president he had stated his support
for a referendum in Aceh. Sources say that he was keen
for a review of West Papua’s status, but opposition
from the military and his political opponents forced
him to back down. The contentious issues of Irian Jaya
are likely to remain unresolved for many years to
come. The separatist rebels would be better off biding
their time and waiting for another Wahid to come
along, rather than trying to force freedom by
kidnapping and threatening to kill foreigners.
|
 |
|
|
© Copyright 1999-2001. All rights reserved. Contact: 