Irian Jaya dialog needed: Rights body

Irian Jaya dialog needed: Rights body

JAYAPURA, Irian Jaya (JP): President Abdurrahman Wahid must
hold a dialog soon on Irian Jaya's problems with all related
parties, a rights institution said.

Yohanes Bonay, an executive of the Institute for Human Rights
Studies and Advocacy (IHRSTAD) said here over the weekend that
the dialog, expected to be held before December, would hopefully
settle the lingering problems and prevent further rights abuse in
the easternmost province.

Bonay told a media conference on Friday that the Indonesian
government had given too much attention to the demand for a
referendum in restive Aceh, and had failed to respond to the
outcry of the Irianese.

"This indicates that President Abdurrahman's administration
has deliberately belittled Irian Jaya's case," he said.

It would be better for the President to invite all related
parties, including the Irianese, Indonesian government
representatives and international community, to a meeting to find
the root of the problem, he said. "The meeting would also seek a
solution in a peaceful, just, and democratic way."

The peaceful dialog was urgent because the rights institution
saw possible riots happening on Dec. 1 when Irianese hoist the
Morning Star flag in the natural resource-rich province.

According to IHRSTAD, the Morning Star flag had been flying in
Timika since Nov. 10. Timika is the capital of Mimika regency,
where U.S. mining giant Freeport McMoran operates.

Irian Jaya's police chief, Brig. Gen. SY. Wenas, and the
province's military commander, Maj. Gen. Amir Sembiring, have
said that the plan to hoist the Morning Star on Dec. 1 would be
alright. They said that the action was an expression of
aspiration.

News on the plan to hoist the Morning Star flag has already
spread all over the province, and has been spiced up along the
way.

Unidentified people have spread rumors in Arso, a district
close to Papua New Guinea, that there would be a war on Dec. 1.

In Jayapura, another rumor has it that if the people's demand
for independence was not responded to, the Free Papua Movement
would attack there.

"All these news and rumors have brought unrest to all the
people living in Irian Jaya," Bonay said. (eba)