PNG police join hunt for Irianese rebels

PNG police join hunt for Irianese rebels

JAYAPURA, Irian Jaya (JP): Papua New Guinea (PNG) police are
helping Indonesian security authorities track down a group of 30
Irianese separatist rebels who, with 11 people they abducted, are
on hiding in the neighboring country.

Chief of Trikora military command overseeing Irian Jaya and
Maluku Maj. Gen. Amir Sembiring said on Saturday that a team from
PNG had patrolled the Bewani valley, near the Irian Jaya border
district of Skow. The rebels are believed to be in a hideout
somewhere in the valley.

"Their (PNG's) positive response is a breakthrough, given the
fact that the two countries do not have an extradition accord.
This coordination is the fruit of good understanding both
countries have built," Sembiring said.

He said four platoons taken from the military command's Garuda
Darat infantry battalion, plus soldiers at the border posts, had
been deployed to find the rebel group, known as the Free Papua
Movement (OPM).

According to Sembiring, the troops are equipped with two
helicopters.

He said security authorities both in Indonesia and PNG had yet
to find traces of the separatist rebels, who killed four
residents and wounded three others on Wednesday in an afternoon
attack on a transmigration settlement in Moor village, Arso
district, near here.

The rebel group also reportedly looted stores of staple
foodstuffs and stole Rp 200,000 (US$25) in cash from a woman.

"Hopefully we can find out how the hostages are or perhaps get
them released as soon as possible, thanks to the PNG police's
assistance," Sembiring said. Most of the kidnappees are women.

Moor is home to workers and their families of a state coconut
hybrid plantation. They migrated from Kebumen, Central Java. A
total of 44 families were resettled there last year.

All the casualties were flown back to their villages in Java
on Friday. The injured are being treated at the state hospital
here. One of them, Suryanto, is in the intensive care unit due to
serious stab wounds.

Antara reported that Governor Freddy Numberi visited the
victims on Saturday. Numberi condemned the OPM rebels, calling
them a group of inhuman people.

Sembiring said he was consulting the plantation company's
management on a possibility of increasing the number of security
personnel in its compound.

"We don't know security conditions there because they have
never talked to us," Sembiring said.

All transmigrant families living in the village have taken
refuge five kilometers away in Arso for fear of another assault
by the separatist rebel group.

Some of the refugees told The Jakarta Post they wanted to
leave Irian Jaya.

"We are not safe here. We want to return to Java or some other
transmigration settlement," one of the plantation worker,
Ngadimin, said.

Separatism has been a long-standing problem in Irian Jaya, the
western part of Papua, and one of Indonesia's biggest and richest
provinces. But it has become an even greater force following the
resignation of president Soeharto in May last year.

The last kidnapping by the OPM occurred in January 1996, when
a group of rebels led by Kelly Kwalik kidnapped 26 locals and
researchers, including seven foreigners, in Mapenduma in
Jayawijaya regency. A military operation four months later ended
the hostage-taking drama and released the remaining nine people
held captive. (34/amd)