Freed hostage details last days in captivity

JAKARTA (JP): Five Indonesian and six European scientists held hostage by separatist rebels walked through the Irian Jaya jungle for five consecutive days with their abductors to avoid military pursuit, before nine of them regained their freedom on May 15, one of the freed Indonesian hostages said.

Jualita Tanasale appeared yesterday at a media conference to recount the last seven days of their four-month ordeal and how she and eight other hostages witnessed two Indonesian colleagues hacked to death by the rebels on the last day.

The meeting was held by the Biological Science Club, which organized the scientific expedition to the Lorentz Natural Reserve in Irian Jaya.

Adinda Saraswati, another surviving hostage, could not make it to the conference as she was still under medical treatment. The other Indonesian hostage is Markus Warip. The four Britons and two Dutch citizens have all returned to their home countries.

The two hostages killed were Navy Panekenan and Yosias Matheis Lasamahu.

In a prepared statement issued by the Biological Science Club, Jualita said the trek through the jungle began on May 9, following the latest attempt by the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) to secure the hostages' peaceful release failed, when the rebel leader, Kelly Kwalik, reneged on his promise.

She said that on May 8, they were all gathered in a church in Geselama village for a farewell ceremony. The ICRC team had come with everything asked for by the rebels, including pigs and foodstuff, as well as some donations from the local people.

But at the last minute, Kelly Kwalik refused to free the hostages, saying he wanted to talk to his troops first. Kelly asked the ICRC team to return the next day.

On the morning of May 9, the ICRC team returned, but Kelly not only refused to release the hostages, his troopers also kicked the ICRC team out of the location.

"From then on, we lost all hope. We could only envision a long and tiring walk ahead of us for the umpteenth time. After midday, we were forced to leave the location escorted by the rebels, which were commanded by Silas," the statement read.

The hostages then walked every day from May 9 to May 14, stopping only at night, when it became dark.

During this walk, they heard distant shots fired but they were forced to continue walking.

"It appeared that on May 14, the Armed Forces (ABRI) knew the whereabouts of the hostages and the rebels," it read.

On the morning of May 15, before the walk continued, "we saw a tiny plane, which seemed like a toy, which was possibly used by ABRI to detect the hostages and rebels. All through the day, we kept hearing the roar of a helicopter above us."

At this point the hostages reached a very deep ravine.

"We had to descend to reach the stream at the bottom. Most of the rebels were in front, the British hostages followed, then the Indonesians, then some more rebels, and our fellow Dutch hostages were the last.

Before they reached the bottom, the squad's commander ordered everyone to climb the hill again. The line changed: the Britons were in front and followed by the Indonesians. The Dutch couple refused to climb up again.

"And then something really tragic happened. We never expected it. One of the rebels swung an axe at our colleague Navy, who did not put up a fight at all. This incident was witnessed by all the other hostages.

"We panicked. The Indonesian hostages felt that the rebels were all eying us as if they wanted to kill us all. So we all scrambled to save our lives. Marcus became the next target of the rebels and he simply jumped into the deep ravine. Then the rebels started heading towards Theis (Yosias). Unfortunately for him, they caught him. The others ran towards the stream down below with all the remaining strength they had.

"It turned out that the ABRI troops had been in pursuit all this time and were not far from our location. They were just across the stream. The soldiers gathered us all into a group to protect us from the rebels, who were still chasing us.

"Since it was already getting dark, the soldiers postponed the search for the two missing Indonesian hostages. The following morning, May 16, the soldiers found both men had died in very tragic circumstances. They had both died of wounds received from an axe and machete," the statement said.

Jualita also stressed that a wound on Navy's forehead, which was apparent when he was buried, was from crashing into a tree trunk when he fell, and did not come from a stray military bullet. "He was never shot at," she said. (16/emb)