Red Cross seeks to make contact with Irian rebels

Red Cross seeks to make contact with Irian rebels

JAKARTA (JP): A Red Cross team is still trying to make contact with Free Papua Movement (OPM) rebels that have been holding seven Indonesians and six Europeans captive in the jungles of Irian Jaya since Jan. 8.

The three-member team from Jakarta, which started its mission on Friday, has dropped seven bags of leaflets around the Mapunduma village.

The hostages are believed to be near the area of Mapunduma, in the Timika regency, which lies on a 4,000-meter-high jungle-clad mountain.

Contact with the rebels was last made on Jan. 25, when Roman Catholic Bishop Herman Munninghoff went by helicopter to Mapunduma and met rebel leader Kelly Kwalik.

As of Saturday evening, the separatist rebels led by the notorious Kwalik had not given any response, the Antara news agency reported yesterday.

The mission called on the OPM guerrillas to establish radio contact.

"We are from the Geneva-based International Red Cross. We have come here as you requested and we look forward to meeting you," said one of the leaflets written in three languages: Indonesian, Amungme and Duga.

The IRC assured the rebels that the team was independent and using civilian pilots.

Meanwhile, Albert Hasibuan and Asmara Nababan from the National Commission on Human Rights left the Irian Jaya capital of Jayapura for Wamena in a separate bid to help release the captives.

Last week, quoting military sources, Reuter reported that the rebels appeared to be heading west from Mapunduma towards Tembagapura, near Timika, where Freeport Indonesia operates a giant gold and copper mine.

Irian Jaya officials attributed the OPM's low-level rebellion to the local tribal people's communal land, which was acquired for Freeport's projects at prices set by the authorities. (pan)