General admits Irianese victimized in army operations

JAKARTA (JP): The military commander overseeing Maluku and Irian Jaya, Maj. Gen. Amir Sembiring, has acknowledged that many Irianese were victimized during military operations to hunt separatists.

Antara reported on Thursday that Amir was responding to students in a dialog with the authorities in the provincial capital, Jayapura.

With the end of Irian Jaya's status as a military operations region on Oct. 1, Amir pledged that the Armed Forces (ABRI) would not repeat its past mistakes in the area.

Villages where locals became victims of operations were Jila, Bela, Hoya and others around Timika and Tembagapura in the Mimika regency and Mapenduma in the Jayawijaya regency.

Amir said ABRI members were now helping to renovate homes, roads, churches and schools in 14 villages.

In the dialog students said ABRI should, in the future, act as peoples' protector so it would not be hated for policies of overt cruelty.

Amir was also quoted as saying that there would no longer be armed contact between the military and separatists. He hoped he would soon be able to meet the leader of Free Papua Movement, Mathias Wenda.

Antara also reported that Governor Freddy Numberi said President B.J. Habibie was willing to attend a dialog with residents on the condition that there would be no agenda "leaning toward disintegration."

The dialog is scheduled for mid December.

"The message was conveyed to me when I met him with Minister/State Secretary Akbar Tandjung recently in Jakarta," Freddy said. He quoted Habibie as saying, "If anyone wants to talk about Papua, I won't come."

He said that Habibie wanted to meet residents to hear their complaints on matters such as "health, education, the economy and sociocultural issues."

The opportunity should be taken up as soon as possible, he said, "because the President would be willing to hear all sorts of complaints which do not relate to demands of independence."

Freddy added, according to the agency, that it would be a great pity if a small group of people insisted on raising the independence issue.

Freddy said the government would not concede "a single plot of land" to demands for a separate state, which were thus a waste of time and "deceiving the people". (anr)