Irian Jaya separatist leader hails planned talk

NEW YORK (Antara): The leader of the Free Papua Organization, John Ondawame, has welcomed the planned dialog between the Irianese and President B.J. Habibie at Merdeka Palace, Jakarta, on this coming Feb. 26.

"Through the dialog Habibie can listen directly to the inner voice and aspirations of the Irian Jaya people. This dialog will be important, because the government of Indonesia never listened to the screams of those people through 35 years," he told Antara here Monday.

Ondawane is a leader of the organization of separatist guerrilla fighters opposing the government of Indonesia, which was established in 1965. The Armed Forces called such groups "security disturbance movements" or GPK.

On the request of the Indonesian government, Ondawane was arrested in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and deported to Sweden, where he was accepted as an asylum seeker in 1979. At present, he is pursuing his PhD studies at the Australian National University in Canberra.

As an international spokesman of OPM, he is visiting the U.S. this week "to call for international attention to political, human rights, and environmental problems in Irian Jaya."

Ondawane expressed confidence that Habibie would offer new solutions to territorial problems.

Habibie has offered extensive autonomy to East Timor, and will even let go of the troubled province if the East Timorese people reject wide-ranging autonomy.

Ondawane said the people of Irian Jaya have three options: wide-ranging autonomy, a federal state in commonwealth with Indonesia, or an independent state.

"It is up to the Irian Jaya people to choose the best option," Ondawane said.

Under UN auspices, the U.S. administration of President John F. Kennedy, forced the Dutch government to liberate Irian Jaya which it called West Papua under an agreement implemented in New York on August 15, 1962.

Since 1963 Irian Jaya has been under Indonesian control.

In 1969 the government of Indonesia held a referendum called the "Act of Free Choice". The government of Indonesia renamed West Papua "Irian Jaya" in 1973.

According to Ondawane, OPM rejected the referendum and accused the U.S. and the UN which supervised the "Act of Free Choice" of rejecting the self-determination of the Irian Jaya people.

This is the basic difference between the question of Irian Jaya and that of East Timor.

For Irian Jaya, the UN and the international world have recognized the sovereignty of Indonesia, while in the case of East Timor the UN still considers the territory which integrated into Indonesia as Portugal's decolonizing territory.

Irianese groups have threatened to boycott the June 7 general election if the national dialog with Habibie fails to heed their aspirations for independence.

In addition, local groups have started measures to gauge the aspirations of the Irianese on issues such as autonomy, independence and the question of a federal state for the mineral- rich province. Tens of thousands of people in Mimika, Yapen Waropen and Manokwari regencies, for instance, have stated they would opt for independence.