Hostages tired from continual movement

Hostages tired from continual movement

JAKARTA (JP): Some of the thirteen hostages held by the Free
Papua Movement rebels in Irian Jaya have sent two letters to a
Roman Catholic bishop saying they are exhausted.

The Armed Forces (ABRI) spokesman, Brig. Gen. Suwarno
Adiwijoyo, revealed on Wednesday the latest development in the
drama, which enters its fortieth day today.

"The two letters, addressed to Jayapura Bishop Munninghoff,
said that they are exhausted from moving all the time," Suwarno
was quoted by Antara as saying.

Suwarno said the military in Irian Jaya received the letters,
dated Feb. 5 and Feb. 6, on Tuesday from a courier. The agency
did not say which of the captives -- seven Indonesians, four
Britons and two Dutch citizens -- had written the letters.

The hostages said in the letters that, in order to avoid the
army, the rebels have dragged them from place to place since they
left Mapunduma village, some 4,000 km east of here, where they
first took the hostages on Jan. 8.

The military has deployed troops around the village, mostly
around the nearby Alama village.

Special forces troops cordoned off the area to prevent the
rebels, led by Kelly Kwalik of the Amungme tribe, from taking the
hostages across the border into Papua New Guinea, some 300 km
east of Mapunduma.

In their letters to Bishop Herman Munninghoff, who acted as a
mediator earlier in the drama, the hostages wrote that they were
in good condition and appealed to the army not to use force to
free them, Suwarno said.

"Our primary aim is to free the hostages unharmed," he said.
He maintained that, despite mounting pressure to use force, the
military will continue using other "persuasive" methods to free
the hostages.

Also on Wednesday, the Jakarta office of the International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) defended the office's
involvement in the drama, saying that letters were the result of
the ICRC's recent attempt to make contact with the rebels by
dropping leaflets from an aircraft .

Spokeswoman Sri Wahyu Endah said that ICRC officials would
never have made it into the jungle without the Indonesian
government's approval.

Antara, however, quoted unnamed sources as saying that the
letters had already been sent by the hostages even before the
committee officials arrived in the jungle.

The ICRC said last Wednesday it had made contact with the
rebels and planned to meet them next week at an undisclosed
location. Endah has said that some sort of breakthrough would
probably be achieved before next Wednesday.

The rebels abducted 27 people, including one infant, who were
on a scientific expedition to the Lorentz natural reserve in
Jayawijaya regency, Irian Jaya.

Fourteen hostages have been released, a German and 13
Irianese, in return for food and medicine. However, the rebels
cut off communication when the government refused to meet the
rebels' main demand for a separate West Papua state in Irian
Jaya. (imn)