Police probe Irian guns

JAKARTA (JP): Police said on Monday they were investigating a report that 12,000 guns were smuggled into the easternmost province of Irian Jaya, Antara reported.

News reports quoted People's Consultative Assembly Speaker Amien Rais as saying on Saturday that sources told him weapons had been sent to the country's easternmost province.

Amien, however, did not name his source.

"Is there really smuggling of firearms on a large scale? We are still investigating the information," Irian Jaya Police chief Brig. Gen. S.Y. Wenas was quoted by the news agency as saying.

A low-level separatist insurgency has for decades simmered in Irian Jaya. Analysts and politicians here fear that pressure for independence in some provinces, particularly Irian Jaya and the troubled Aceh, could lead to the country's disintegration.

Calls for independence have mounted since East Timor voted to break away from Indonesia last year.

Last month, a congress of local leaders and activists declared Irian Jaya independent in a move that Jakarta dismissed as not representing the wishes of the province's majority.

Irian Jaya was incorporated into Indonesia in 1963, after heavy diplomatic pressure on the Netherlands, the country's former colonial ruler. In 1969, a UN-run plebiscite was held among local leaders, which resulted in a vote to join Indonesia. (byg/swa)