2,000 Mobile Brigade troops to be sent to Irian Jaya

JAYAPURA, Irian Jaya (JP): Some 2,000 of the police's mobile brigade (Brimob) troops will soon be sent to Irian Jaya to maintain security and order in the whole area of the easternmost province, Irian Jaya police chief Brig. Gen. SY Wenas said here on Wednesday.

"They will be deployed in all regencies in the province," Wenas said, adding that the dispatch was scheduled to take place on July 12.

Responding to the plan, Don Flassy, a leading proindependence figure for West Papua, said that sending new Brimob troops would not guarantee people's security.

"However, it is the Irian Jaya Police chief SY Wenas and Military chief Maj. Gen. Albert Inkiriwang who have the right to add to the number of troops. We, the Papuans, have no say in that," Flassy said.

"They know the situation in the area, but the plan would probably result in chaos."

He criticized the speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly Amien Rais and House of Representatives speaker Akbar Tandjung who announced the smuggling of 12,000 guns to the province.

"They (Amien and Akbar) will just mess up Papua and make the soil like Maluku or Poso in Central Sulawesi, because they knew about the illegal shipping of the guns, while we Papuans did not," he said.

The second Papuan Congress, which took place from May 29 to June 4, recommended that any political case be settled through dialog, negotiation and other non-violent means, said Flassy, who also chairs the Independent Committee of Papua.

"Even the members of the Free Papua Movement (OPM) have pledged since 1997 not to use violence in struggling for West Papuan independence," he said.

Meanwhile, in the West Java capital of Bandung, the Army chief of staff Gen. Tyasno Sudarto said that the government must pay more attention to the development of Irian Jaya.

"Wise, careful, prompt and appropriate action must be taken to deal with the Papuans' demand for independence. The integrity of the nation is at stake," Tyasno said.

The lingering problems relating to welfare, justice and human rights provoked Papuans to separate from the Republic of Indonesia, he added. "Years of ignorance must be compensated soon."

Separately in Jakarta on Tuesday night, President Abdurrahman Wahid met with members of the Papua Presidium at a private residence on Jl. Irian, Central Jakarta.

The head of the presidium Theys Eluay told journalists that he and other presidium members briefed the President on the results of the recent Papuan People's Congress.

"The meeting went well, in an open and honest fashion," he added.

Secretary general of the presidium, Thaha Alhamid, claimed that the two sides had agreed to establish an independent team to peacefully mediate the interests of the two parties.(25/sur)