Thursday, September 07 - 2000
Irian Jaya police get tough on rebel flags
JAKARTA (IO) — Irian Jaya Police Chief Brigadier General S.Y. Wenas
yesterday ordered his personnel to continue a crackdown on separatist
flags flying in the country’s troubled easternmost province.
West Papuans are no longer allowed to have T-shirts, caps, bags or any
other belongings featuring separatist slogans, Wenas told Antara in the
Irian Jaya town of Fak Fak.
He claimed the decision was taken at the request of locals who do not want
security conditions to become unstable in the province, also called West
Papua.
Wenas made the statement following Tuesday’s violence by pro-independence
supporters who rampaged through a village after police pulled down
separatist flags.
At least one woman was wounded when police fired in the air to disperse
the rampaging mob, Aloysius Renwarin of Institute for the Study and
Advocacy of Human Rights (ELSHAM) was quoted by AFP as saying in the
province’s capital of Jayapura.
“The housewife was about to close the door when she was hit on her arm by
a stray bullet,” Renwarin said, adding the woman, a settler from Sulawesi
identified as Zainab, was still being treated in hospital.
Earlier reports of Tuesday’s incident said there had been no casualties.
ELSHAM leader John Rumbiak said Tuesday the clashes broke out around
midday after 30 Mobile Brigade (Brimob) police personnel pulled down the
separatist “Morning Star” flag in several villages in Manokwari.
“More than 100 Papuans reacted by going into the streets and burning
tires, smashing bottles, breaking trees and blocking the roads,” Rumbiak
told AFP.
President Abdurrahman Wahid declared during a New Year visit to the
province that the separatist flag could be raised, but later said it must
only be raised alongside, and lower than, the Indonesian national red and
white flag.
Wahid has said Jakarta will not tolerate any independence move by Irian
Jaya, but has said it would instead accord the province special broad
autonomy before the end of the year.
Last month, the president told military leaders in the East Java town of
Malang that Papuans could hoist separatist flags until after the national
assembly in August.
Separatists in Irian Jaya are demanding Jakarta recognize its
independence, claiming a United Nations-conducted “act of free choice” in
1969, which led to the former Dutch territory becoming part of Indonesia,
was unrepresentative.
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