INDONESIA: Are Islamic militants
operating in Papua?
The Indonesian Government has
denied reports that the extremist Islamic Laskar Jihad army is
operating in it's province of Papua, formerly known as Irian Jaya.
It's been been investigating claims that the Islamic militants,
who were involved in inter-religious violence in the Maluku
Islands, had infiltrated Papua, but found no evidence to support
the claims. However, Christian religious leaders in Papua insist
the militants have set up bases in their province and that they
are planning attacks on Christians.
Presenter/Interviewer:
Tricia Fitzgerald
Speakers: John Martinkus, journalist
FITZGERALD: Indonesian authorities say reports that the militant
Laskar Jihad army is involving itself in the murky world of Papuan
politics, are untrue.
The Indonesian Embassy in Australia points out that the Laskar
Jihad leader, Jaffar Umar Thalib, has been under arrest for over a
month in Java and says Papua's police chief has issued orders for
the arrest of any of his followers if they do enter Papua.
But, those claims conflict with reports from a freelance
Australian journalist, John Martinkus who's just returned from the
province saying he witnessed a night-time Laskar Jihad training
session in an isolated camp in western Papua.
MARTINKUS: In Sorong, which is at the far western tip of Papua I
visited a Laskar Jihad training camp there which was outside of
Sorong on the outskirts in the transmigration settlements. You
know they're basically just open areas full of people wearing
black headbands and they do drilling, and they do like sort of
martial arts, that kind of thing, and practicing either with
weapons or with homemade weapons like muskets and metal tubes
bolted to bits of wood that are like one shot guns. And they use
them in Ambon and they also use them in Timor.
FITZGERALD: John Martinkus says locals believe Indonesian military
and police are giving support to the Laskar Jihad army members.
MARTINKUS: Papuans who lived out there they were saying that every
time training is conducted there members of the police special
unit were always in attendance and that also when training was
conducted Kopassus members who were based in Sorong had started
patrolling through their areas. They basically said that every
time there was any guns were found in Laskar Jihad members' houses
and they were reported to the police, the matter never went any
further. There was also another case of some pro independence
Papuans raiding the house of some Laskar Jihad members and finding
seven M-16s in there. And then the house would actually belong to
a military intelligence captain and also a police officer. And
they then came and took weapons away and then of course nothing
ever went any further.
FITZGERALD: And if proven true in what is a potentially dangerous
development John Martinkus says the Laskar Jihad are recruiting
members from Papua's migrant community, Muslim families who have
moved to Papua from other overcrowded parts of Indonesia,
especially Java.
MARTINKUS: They are recruiting local Indonesians who've lived in
Papua for some time and they're basically telling them that they
have to form self-defence groups to protect themselves and also to
fight separatism in Papua. And this basically means using them as
a shield to intimidate the local Papuans, much the same as they
did in East Timor with the militias.
FITZGERALD: John Martinkus says it's not only pro-Jakarta militias
who are gearing up for a show-down in Papua. He found that the
assassination of the moderate Papuan independence leader Theys
Eluay, last year, has stirred up anti-Indonesian sentiment amongst
rebels of the Free Papua Army, the OPM.
Mr Martinkus visited OPM camps along the Papua-PNG border.
He says the rebels have now torn up an agreement they'd made with
moderate Papuans like Chief Eluay to use peaceful dialogue rather
than violence in their long-running campaign to separate from
Indonesia.
He says the rebels are threatening to launch attacks in mid-August
when Indonesians will be celebrating their Independence Day.
MARTINKUS: When Theys was killed, many West Papuan
pro-independence people basically said OK, now we've tried the
peaceful way, it hasn't really worked. I'm speaking specifically
about the OPM. The reaction of those elements who'd previously
fought the Indonesians in a military way in the bush has been to
say, well look you know now we've tried the peaceful way and now
we're going to have to go back to armed struggle. And this is
something they in a way reluctant to because it's a very uneven
battle, but they feel that that's the only way open to them at the
moment and they're talking about re-opening military activities.
4/7/2002
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