Hostages' whereabouts still unclear

Hostages' whereabouts still unclear

JAKARTA (JP): The military authorities in Irian Jaya are in the dark about the whereabouts of 13 people kidnapped by the Free Papua Movement (OPM) gang and their captors.

"There has been no new development today, since rebel leader Kelly Kwalik cut our communication contact with them," Capt. Edi Sulistiadi, an information officer of the Trikora Military Command, told The Jakarta Post by phone last night.

Edi said his office did not know if the rebels and the 13 hostages were still at the same hideout or had moved to another place.

Brig. Gen. Prabowo Subianto, the commander of the Army's Kopassus unit in charge of securing the hostages' release, said on Saturday that his troops had surrounded the rebel hideout and were making every effort to prevent Kelly and the hostages from leaving the area.

"We suspect that he will take all the hostages out of Mapunduma village, their hideout until last week, and the troops will then follow the rebels," he said as quoted by Antara.

Kelly, a former Roman Catholic elementary school teacher, is the commander of the rebels' Base 3, whose territory also covers Tembagapura, the huge mining site of the American company PT Freeport Indonesia.

The director of the Armed Forces Intelligence Division, Brig. Gen. Zacky Anwar Makarim, said over the weekend that the troops had established a stratified blocking system to prevent the kidnappers from leaving the village.

However, he said, without elaborating, that there are areas which the military cannot cover.

The troops started to cordon off the area after two local missionaries, Bishop Herman Munninghoff and Andrian van der Bijl, failed to persuade the rebels to release the hostages, who include four Britons, two Dutch and seven Indonesians.

"Frankly speaking, I am disappointed by the kidnappers, who since yesterday have not made any contact," Munninghoff told the news agency on Saturday.

The abductors are demanding government-recognition of a separate West Papua state in Irian Jaya.

Jakarta has flatly turned down the demand, saying that the majority of Irianese have chosen to be part of Indonesia.

Zacky said there was no possibility of a military operation to free the hostages.

"We will maintain a persuasive approach. A military operation is only a final option," he said.

He said Kelly spoke to Bishop Munninghoff about the rebels' plan to leave the village, using the hostages as shields if necessary. "(imn)