Irian abductors do not represent locals: Ex-hostage
JAKARTA (JP): The rebels who kidnapped researchers in Irian Jaya were a dangerous and unpredictable small group not representative of the majority of Irianese, a former hostage stated yesterday.
Mark van der Wall said the abductors, who claimed to represent the Free Papua Movement (OPM), appeared not to have much interest in the locals' desires and needs.
"People in the villages were always kind and hospitable. They treated us as guests, as brothers and sisters," the researcher from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said.
Van der Wall was one of the nine Lorentz researchers held captive from Jan. 8 until the Army freed them on May 15.
The WWF had two of its personnel kidnapped. The other was Frank Momberg, who was released with one other hostage less than two weeks after they were seized by the rebels.
Two Indonesian hostages were hacked to death by their abductors. Six of the hostages were Europeans. Rebels Kelly Kwalik and Daniel Yudas Kogoya initially seized 26 people, but soon released most of them.
Van der Wall said the people living in Lorentz, where the four month drama took place, want only to live their lives with dignity and to share the fruits of development, such as health services and education.
"These are not matters which seemed to be of any concern whatever to the leader of the kidnappers," the Dutch citizen said in a statement made available to the press by WWF.
Van der Wall recounted that until the Army rescue, the local villagers shared their food and made sacrifices on the hostages' behalf.
"Toward the end, they told us that they were as anxious as we were that we be allowed to return to our families and our normal lives.
"But Kelly Kwalik proved he had no interest in the will of the people or in their welfare when he broke his promise to release us peacefully on May 8," he said.
Van der Wall said the local people faced food shortages and mistrust arising from the rebels broken promises.
"The villagers deserve our thanks and will need help from the outside in recovering from the problems that the OPM caused them by forcibly holding us in their tribal areas," he said.
The researchers were held captive in the mountain village of Mapnduma. The government at first tried peaceful approaches, involving church leaders and the International Committee on the Red Cross, to secure their release.
Russel Betts, former director and senior adviser to the WWF Indonesia Programme, praised the Indonesian Armed Forces (ABRI) for launching the military operation after the persuasive approach failed.
"WWF Indonesian Programme gladly joins the many others in thanking ABRI for the way in which it managed the overall consistent pursuit, until the very end, of its policy of peaceful persuasion," he said.
"WWF's only deep regret is the brutal murders of its two colleagues from the Biological Sciences Club only minutes before the surviving hostages were rescued," he said. (pan)