INDONESIA-IRIAN JAYA: Catholic and Protestant missionaries acting as go-betweens for government and rebel talks

By Pratap Chatterjee Reprint | | Print |

Pratap Chatterjee

JAYAPURA, Indonesia, Feb 11 1996 (IPS) - Helicopter engines daily roar over the dense rainforest in the central highlands of this rugged region as crack Indonesian commandos search for a group of guerrillas who have held 13 hostages for four weeks now.

Army radio operators have been able to talk sporadically with the Organisasi Papua Merdeka (OPM) guerillas, a militant separatist movement, who are believed to be some 400 km south- west of this city — the capital of Irian Jaya.

Irian Jaya is the official name for the western half of this South Pacific island (the other half is the independent country of Papua New Guinea). The OPM calls the region West Papua.

Catholic and Protestant missionary groups, who are acting as go- betweens between the Jakarta government and the rebels, have not had any contact with the hostage-takers for more than a week and there is uncertainty about the fate of those held captive.

“There is enough at stake that both sides need to work together for a peaceful resolution. Any sudden action that leads to the death of the hostages — especially the four British and two Dutch — will bring international condemnation,” says Brother Theo van de Broek, of the Catholic mission here.

The guerrillas have handed Catholic intermediaries a long list of grievances against the Indonesian government, ranging from the annexation of native lands for mining to a history of violent suppression of the 250-odd tribes that inhabit Irian Jaya.

Each of these groups have distinct languages and cultures. Some of them have refused to travel to the world outside their forest while anthropologists say that there are almost certainly tribes that have never been contacted.

The guerrillas, who come from indigenous tribes such as the Amungme, the Dani, the Ekari and the Nduga are mostly armed with bows and arrows.

But they have a crucial advantage over the commandos. They are intimately familiar with these forests — the second largest stretch of rainforest in the world after the Amazon — much of which remains unmapped by outsiders.

To date, both sides have reaped some benefits from the stand- off. The daring kidnap of the environmentalists who were doing biodiversity research at the time of their capture, has brought national and international focus for the OPM’s independence struggle.

Kelly Kwalik, the Amungme leader of the OPM, was on the front cover in “Gatra”, one of Indonesia’s leading magazines last week. This week “Forum” magazine has devoted about a dozen pages to the crisis.