Irian Jaya rebels free one hostage

Irian Jaya rebels free one hostage

JAKARTA (JP): Irian Jaya separatist rebels released yesterday one of their 12 hostages, who have been held captive since Jan. 8, a military official said.

"The rebels released Abraham Wainggai at 10 a.m. local time today," chief spokesman of the Trikora Military Command, Lt. Col. Maulud Hidayat, told The Jakarta Post by phone from the Irian Jaya capital of Jayapura.

The Trikora military command oversees security in Maluku and Irian Jaya.

Abraham is a civil servant at the Jayapura office of the Ministry of Forestry. He was a member of an expedition team to study conservation measures in the Lorentz natural reserve close to the Baliem valley where the drama in taking place.

The Free Papua Movement (OPM) rebels took 25 people hostage on Jan. 8 and have freed 14 since then. Abraham is a relative of Thomas Wapay Wainggai, an OPM activists who died in a Jakarta prison last week.

Maulud, however, declined to confirm details of the release, saying that he was yet to receive complete information.

Bishop Herman Munninghoff of the Jayapura diocese, who has played mediator in the effort to release the hostages, said that Abraham's release might have a connection with Wangai's death.

A relative of Thomas Wainggai told the Post yesterday that Abraham was a cousin of Thomas.

The rebels freed nine Indonesian hostages on Jan. 12 and later a researcher from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Frank Momberg, a German citizen, on Jan. 15.

They released three more hostages: Yacobus Wandibai, a guide to the expedition team, Yacobus' wife and his six-month old baby, on the following week.

The rebels are still holding 11 hostages, including five Indonesians; four Britons: Daniel Start, William Oates, Annette van der Kolk and Anna MacIvor; and two Dutch citizens, Mark van der Wal and Martha Klein, who is five-months pregnant. (imn)