ICRC optimistic of meeting with hostages
ICRC optimistic of meeting with hostages
JAKARTA (JP): Officials of the International Red Cross yesterday emerged from yet another meeting with leaders of the separatist rebels holding 13 hostages in Irian Jaya optimistic that they would soon be able to meet the captives.
Henri Fournier, chief of the Jakarta mission of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said through a spokeswoman that another meeting took place yesterday and there was an indication the rebels would let the officials meet the hostages later.
"The plan to meet the rebels was fulfilled to the satisfaction of the ICRC delegates, " Sri Wahyu Endah told The Jakarta Post.
Fournier also met the rebels on Sunday but failed to meet with the hostages, four Britons, two Dutch citizens and seven Indonesians. They are the remainder of the first group of 26 hostages abducted on Jan. 8 in Mapunduma village.
Endah declined to give more details.
Fournier is in Wamena, some 4,000 km east of Jakarta, the headquarters of the Indonesian-led rescue operation -- to coordinate his ICRC team.
There are varying accounts as to the actual number of the remaining hostages. The Antara news agency put it at 13, while Reuters quoted unnamed rescue sources as saying they knew only of 12. The reason for the discrepancy was not immediately clear.
Those still held include Britons Daniel Start, Anna McIvor, Bill Oates and Annette van der Kolk, and Dutch citizens Mark van der Wal, with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), and Martha Klein, who is five months pregnant and reportedly in poor health.
Antara quoted sources at the Armed Forces, who are leading the rescue operation, as saying that the rebels had indicated that any decision to free the hostages depended on an unidentified leader based in neighboring Papua New Guinea.
The agency, however, said that the leader could very well be Mathias Wenda alias Mosea Weror who claimed responsibility for the hostage-taking.
The Red Cross officials have reportedly urged the rebels to name their "highest leader", but to no avail.
"If the name of that leader is revealed, then we can expect the Papua New Guinean government to help ABRI secure the release of the hostages," the agency quoted the unnamed military sources.
Despite the repeated failures to meet with the hostages, the military is optimistic the drama will soon end. "There are glimmers of hope. It's just that we cannot be sure about the exact time," the sources said.
Meanwhile, in Jakarta, chief of the Armed Forces general affairs Lt. Gen. Soeyono said that the military wanted the unconditional release of the hostages.
"Principally, the Armed Forces want the rebels to unconditionally release the hostages soon. We have not made any consideration on giving a pardon," he was quoted by Antara as saying.
He said the military would take stern action if the rebels "acted brutally" and harmed the hostages. (swe)