Students protest divisions plan for Irian Jaya province

JAKARTA (JP): Students from Irian Jaya in Ujungpandang, South Sulawesi and Yogyakarta, protested plans on Saturday to divide the province into three. They also charged that their demands for independence had been ignored by the government which instead responded to the claims with the above plan.

Jeffry F. Kareth, chairman of the Alliance of Papua Students in Ujungpandang, reminded the government that the Irianese had asked for a dialog on independence.

After attending a gathering of hundreds of Irianese students held to commemorate 36 years of integration with Indonesia, Jeffry said that President B.J. Habibie promised a workshop on the status of Irian Jaya after receiving 100 delegates from the province in February.

Nothing more was heard of about the plans and instead Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Feisal Tanjung said on April 23 that Irian Jaya would be divided into three and Maluku into two before the elections. Minister of Home Affairs Syarwan Hamid said he was not aware of the division plans.

On Tuesday, Syarwan said the plans were impossible to be carried out before the June elections.

The expansion program would be based on laws which were yet to be drawn up, he said. The outcry of the plan, however, has continued.

The plan is part of a "high level conspiracy to maintain imperialism in West Papua," Jeffry said.

The alliance's secretary Alex Fethool said the plans were evidence that the government had "never intended to settle seriously the political status of the Papua people".

Students also demanded an end to "all kinds of military approaches in West Papua". They demanded that Governor Freddy Numberi reject the plans and that the Irian Jaya Police revoke an instruction from March 20 to disperse all posts supporting the movement of Independent Papua.

In Yogyakarta, some 200 students called the "West Papua students" demonstrated on the grounds of the local administration, also stating their rejection of the plans.

Spokesman Yulius Kambu said if there was no positive response from the President for the demands of independence by the time of the elections, "we will mobilize the people of West Papua against participating in the polls".

The protesters failed to meet the Governor, Sultan Hamengkubuwono X, whose father, they said, played a role in the annexation of West Papua into Indonesia 36 years ago. Sultan Hamengkubuwono IX gave "permission to use the palace square where the Trikora movement which destroyed the West Papua nation was declared".

The government under the late first president Sukarno launched the movement to wrest the province from Dutch rule. Activists contend, however, that on Dec. 1, 1961, a free West Papuan nation had already been declared.

Cendrawasih Post reported on Thursday from the province's capital of Jayapura, that the idea to divide the province into three should not be done in a hurry.

Scholars and officials have in the past raised the need to divide the province given its size of 419,660 square kilometers or around a fifth of the archipelago's size.

The paper quoted the rector of the Cendrawasih University, F.A. Wospakrik, as saying good preparations regarding the plan could render it feasible in some 10 years. "Without adequate studying of the plan, new problems will arise," he said.

Irian Jaya does not even have enough locals in high positions, he said.

Governor Freddy told Habibie in February that the Irianese wanted to be masters of their own land.

On Friday, a student of the Cendrawasih University, Hugo Ricky, told The Jakarta Post a hurried division of the province would see all its positions go to outsiders.

An activist, John Max, raised fears of large-scale transmigration given its scarce population if the province were divided. A resident, Sawy, said the plans were only raised to suppress aspirations of independence.

The chairman of the Traditional (Adat) Council, Theys H. Eluay said the government should understand it needed to settle the issue "of returning the sovereignty of the Papua people" regardless of whether the province would be divided into two or 20.

"As long as the government continues to stupefy people with its nontransparent policies with hidden intentions, the Papuans will continue to demand separation," Theys told the Post Friday. The government had better concentrate on the crisis, a former official, Roland Sarwom of Manokwari regency, said. (34/44/27)