Students protest divisions plan for Irian Jaya province

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)