Angry supporters demand justice for Theys' 'killers'

The Jakarta Post, Jayapura

Some 7,000 people, mostly youths, marched to the Irian Jaya provincial legislature on Monday, demanding that the legislators be firm in having what they termed the murderers of proindependence leader Theys Hiyo Eluay arrested soon.

They yelled outside the building, urging that the alleged murderers be arrested and punished, after laying out Theys' body in the building.

The crowd was unable to meet with any legislators, who were holding a meeting with officials of the Papuan Presidium Council (PDP).

The crowd had started to form at about 10 a.m. in Sentani, the hometown of Theys, located some 40 kilometers away from the Irian Jaya capital of Jayapura.

Chanting "Free Papua!", the people encouraged all Papuans (Irianese people) to join them. "All Papuans with curly hair, join us," they shouted, before joining with other groups of people from the neighboring districts of Waena and Abepura.

A cameraman from a private TV station, who was shooting the event, had to leave the scene after the crowd shouted, "Hey you are not curly; you are from Java, go away!"

They then proceeded on foot, with a white Toyota Kijang van running slowly in front of them. Theys' eldest son, Boy Eluay, who is chief of the PDP's youth wing, Papuan Task Force, was in the Kijang van.

A huge crowd of about 7,000 people is unusual in Irian Jaya, which is known to be a sparsely populated province. Fortunately, no violence occurred during the event.

Sentani district has a total population of around 49,400.

In response to the crowd's demand, deputy speaker of the Irian Jaya legislative council John Ibo told the crowd that the legislature would soon urge the police to thoroughly investigate Theys' death. The legislative council would also hold a special emergency meeting to discuss his death, said John.

In the meeting with the legislative council, the officials of the Papuan Presidium Council demanded that an independent team be set up to investigate Theys' death.

They also demanded that an open discussion on the history of Papua be held, involving international experts. Their other demands were police and security protection for the Papuan people, especially PDP officials, and the reimbursement of transportation expenses for PDP members from 14 regencies who wanted to attend Theys' funeral.

John Ibo did not say whether or not the demands would be met.

Meanwhile there has been no decision made yet on when, where and how Theys' body would be buried. A relative said that the decision would be made after a meeting of tribal chiefs and an internal meeting among members of the Ondofolo tribe, to which Theys belonged.

The crowd gradually left the legislative council at about 8 p.m. local time. "They traveled in trucks belonging to locals," a security officer confirmed.

On Sunday an angry mob damaged stores in Abepura, while another big mob in the neighboring area of Abepantai became angry upon seeing a convoy of vehicles traveling behind the car that was carrying Theys' body from the site of the incident.

Holding stones, the crowd allowed only the car carrying Theys' body and a truck loaded with police officers to pass. They started pelting the other cars with stones.

In Sentani, another angry mob set ablaze some shops, a hotel and a Bank Rakyat Indonesia branch office located close to Theys' residence. -- R.K. Nugroho