The Hague considers asylum for Irianese

The Hague considers asylum for Irianese

JAKARTA (JP): The Hague is studying a request for political
asylum filed by six Irianese holed up at the Dutch embassy since
Wednesday, a Dutch diplomat said yesterday.

"We hope our government will come out with its decision as
soon as possible," the embassy staff member, who spoke on
condition of anonymity, told The Jakarta Post.

He declined to name the Irianese asylum seekers who arrived at
the diplomatic mission at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, but said one is a
woman.

According to the staff member, the group managed to reach the
embassy without incident.

The group is the first to ask for political asylum in the
Netherlands since 1984. The Netherlands gave up the western half
of New Guinea Island to Indonesia in 1963.

In 1984, the Dutch reportedly granted asylum to four people
from Irian Jaya after they entered the Dutch embassy in Jakarta.

The Irianese are the fifth group of Indonesian asylum seekers
who have sneaked into the Dutch embassy in the past six months.
The four other groups were East Timorese youths who reject their
territory's integration into Indonesia in 1976. Most of them were
granted asylum by Portugal.

Over the past few years, dozens of East Timorese have obtained
political asylum from Portugal after breaking into foreign
embassies in Jakarta.

Quoting diplomatic sources, Reuter reported yesterday that the
Irianese asylum seekers are from a previously unknown
organization called the Papua Nationalist Forum.

The Free Papua Movement (OPM) is the best known separatist
group in Irian Jaya. The movement has intensified its activities
in the past months.

OPM members have been holding hostage 11 researchers,
including a pregnant Dutch woman and four Britons, since January
in an effort to seek recognition of their cause. (pan)