Red Cross sets date with Irian rebel chief<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): A team from the International Committee of the
\nRed Cross (ICRC) has set a date to meet with Irian Jayan
\nseparatist leader Kelly Kwalik next week, raising new hopes about
\nthe fate of 13 hostages who have been held captive by the rebels
\nsince Jan. 8th.<\/p>\n
A spokeswoman for the ICRC office in Jakarta confirmed
\nyesterday that the Red Cross team finally made contact with Kelly
\nafter trying for a week.<\/p>\n
\"They have contacted us and we received a letter from them
\nearlier this week,\" Sri R. Wahyu Endah, ICRC's information
\nassistant, told The Jakarta Post last night.<\/p>\n
She said there was some confusion because the letter was dated
\nFeb. 6, and suggested that it might have been wrongly dated.<\/p>\n
Asked to comment on the latest developments, she quoted the
\nICRC head representative to Indonesia, Henry Fournier, who is in
\nIrian Jaya, as saying \"anything can happen next week.\"<\/p>\n
Kelly proposed in his letter to meet with the head of the
\nteam, but only at a location and time of his choice, Endah said,
\nadding that this meeting would probably take place in the next
\nseven days.<\/p>\n
Kelly sent the letter in response to an appeal by the ICRC
\nteam, which has been in Wamena for the past week to try to break
\nthe hostage impasse.<\/p>\n
The appeal was made to a meeting of leaders of the Amungme
\ntribe in Timika, Kelly's home village, and by dropping thousands
\nof leaflets from the air over a large area in the mountainous
\nJayawijaya regency.<\/p>\n
Kelly's letter was the first contact since the rebels cut off
\nall radio communications on Jan. 25. The rebels, along with the
\nhostages -- four Britons, two Dutchmen and seven Indonesians --
\nhave also abandoned the Mapunduma village where they had settled
\nfor the first two weeks. With no further contacts, their precise
\nwhereabouts became unknown.<\/p>\n
Antara also quoted Endah as saying that Kelly had insisted
\nthat no other people would be present at the proposed meeting.<\/p>\n
She said the hostages sent letters to their relatives back
\nhome through the courtesy of ICRC. Generally, their letter
\nsuggested that they were in fine condition and appealed for a
\n\"positive solution\" to the hostage problem.<\/p>\n
Before the ICRC intervention, the military and local
\nmissionaries have failed to convince the rebels to release all
\nthe hostages. Some had already been freed.<\/p>\n
The rebels abducted 27 people, all members of a scientific
\nexpedition to the Lorentz natural reserve in Jayawijaya. Fourteen
\nhostages were released -- a German and 13 Irianese -- in return
\nfor food and medicines but the negotiations stopped when the
\ngovernment refused to meet the rebels' main demand -- a
\nrecognition of a separate West Papua state in Irian Jaya.<\/p>\n
The military has stressed that it would continue to use
\npersuasion to obtain the release of the hostages in spite of
\npressures to use force.<\/p>\n
Yesterday, the chief spokesman of the Trikora Military Command
\nLt. Col. Maulud Hidayat said the military has also left supply of
\nbatteries with tribal leaders in the hope that the rebels would
\ntake them and use them on their radio communications and re-
\nestablish contacts with the military once again, Antara reported.<\/p>\n
Maulud said the radio contact might have been stopped because
\nthe rebels had ran out of power. (emb\/mds)<\/p>",
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