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)