Rebels reportedly moving with hostages

Rebels reportedly moving with hostages

JAKARTA (JP): The military said yesterday that Irian Jaya
separatist rebels holding 13 hostages were planning to move out
of their jungle hideout in Mapunduma, Antara reported.

Brig. Gen. Prabowo Subianto, who is supervising the hostage
rescue operation, told a media briefing in the Irian Jaya town of
Wamena that the military was tightening its layers of blockade
around Mapunduma to close the rebels' escape routes.

Prabowo, the chief of the Army's Special Forces, said the
rebels might be using the hostages, including four Europeans,
along with local villagers who support their cause, as human
shields as they attempt to move.

He did not say where the rebels could be heading.

The military has made no further contacts with the rebels
since Friday, when the hostage crisis, earlier expected to be
resolved by midweek, took a new twist. A top rebel leader Kelly
Kwalik had joined up with the rebels on Tuesday and took over the
negotiations.

"We believe Kelly will take the hostages out of Mapunduma. So
the military is on the alert, and has deployed a team to follow
their every move and trail," Prabowo was quoted as saying.

Earlier, two missionaries -- Bishop Herman Munninghoff and
Andrean van der Bijl -- said they had run out of means to
convince the rebels to release the 13 hostages. The two church
officials had been involved in the negotiations with the rebels.

Meanwhile Brig. Gen. Zacky Anwar Makarim, a director at the
Armed Forces' Intelligence Agency, told reporters in Wamena that
the chief concern of the military is the lives of the hostages.

"We will continue to use persuasion as has been directed by
military leaders in Jakarta. A military operation is a last
resort. I repeat, a last resort," he said.

Zacky said the thick jungle around Mapunduma makes it
difficult for the military cordon to be "100 percent effective".

"We admit that there may be holes which the rebels might use
to escape from our blockade," he said.

The hostages were members of a flora and fauna expedition to
the Lorentz nature reserve in Baliem Valley. Besides four Britons
and two Dutch citizens, there are seven Indonesians, including
four from Jakarta.

They were abducted on Jan. 8 near Mapunduma. (emb/mds)