ICRC joins hostages search
ICRC joins hostages search
JAKARTA (JP): A team has ventured into the Irian Jaya jungle to locate the 13 people, including six Europeans, still held hostage by Free Papua Movement (OPM) separatist rebels.
Four members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), a missionary, paramedics, and several tribal leaders set off on Tuesday, spokesman for the Trikora Military Command, Lt. Col. Maulud Hidayat, said yesterday.
The attempt was the first to look for the rebels and their hostages since the ICRC joined the effort to release the hostages on Feb. 9 on the request of the rebels and the Indonesian authorities.
"So far there's no information whether the team has made contact with the rebels," Maulud was quoted by the Antara news agency as saying.
The team was set up by the military in an effort to free the hostages seized in Mapunduma village in the Jayawijaya regency on Jan. 8. The military has not been able to determine the whereabouts of the rebels and the hostages since they left Mapunduma on Jan. 25.
The 13 hostages, mostly members of a scientific expedition to the Lorentz nature reserve, consist of four Britons, two Dutch, and seven Indonesians. The rebels' main demand is for recognition of a West Papua state in return for the release of their captives. The Indonesian government has turned it down.
The rebels have already released 13 hostages, including a German scientist, in exchange for food and medicine.
Maulud said that the team is also carrying two messages from the chief of the Trikora Military Command, Maj. Gen. A. Dunidja, who is leading the operation to rescue the hostages.
Dunidja assured rebel leader Daniel Yudas Kogoya that military personnel put on alert around Mapunduma are seeking a peaceful solution to the crisis and will avoid bloodshed.
Secondly, he stressed that the rebels would not be prosecuted if they voluntarily surrender to the military authorities.
Maulud said that Dunidja has requested the ICRC representative Henry Fournier to deliver the messages directly to the rebels if makes direct contact with them.
Fournier said that the guarantee of the rebels' safety could be of great help in the effort to release the hostages.
Maulud expressed his confidence that the efforts to release the hostages will continue to run smoothly. (31)