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DATE=10/09/00

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=INDO / IRIAN JAYA L-ONLY

NUMBER=2-267647

BYLINE=PATRICIA NUNAN

DATELINE=JAKARTA

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Officials in the remote Indonesian province of West Papua -- formerly known as Irian Jaya -- say thousands of people remain at police and military posts after Friday's separatist violence left at least 30 people dead. As Patricia Nunan reports from Jakarta, the chaos broke out after police removed the flag belonging to a pro-independence group.

TEXT: Officials in Indonesia say few of the more than one-thousand people who sought shelter at military posts and police stations since Friday have returned home. Many local businesses in the West Papuan city of Wamena remain closed, but police say the situation is calm.

Clashes broke out in Wamena, some 22 hundred kilometers east of the Indonesian capital Jakarta, on Friday after police took down several

"Morning Star" flags -- the symbol of the West Papua independence movement.

A pro-independence militia group called Satgas Papua -- or the Papua Task Force -- had raised them during a demonstration -- an act that is illegal under Indonesian law. Human rights officials say police killed at least two people when they fired into a crowd of protestors.

Then, police say, members of the Papua Task Force began attacking settlers from other parts of Indonesia -- firing poison arrows and

hacking people to death with axes and knives.

Authorities say 15 people are being charged in connection with the bloody riot.

West Papua is one of several Indonesian provinces pushing for independence. It has been part of Indonesia since 1969 after a UN vote.

But independence supporters now reject that ballot as not representative of the entire population.

/// OPT /// Earlier this year, a pro-independence group declared West Papua independent. But they dated the declaration back to 1961 -- the year West Papua broke free of Dutch colonial rule -- because they feared an outright declaration of independence would anger authorities in Jakarta. /// END OPT ///

Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid has promised the provinces of Aceh, West Papua, and Riau -- all home to simmering separatist movements -- more revenue derived from their own natural resources and more control over provincial affairs. But Mr. Wahid has ruled out the possibility of independence for West Papua or any other province. (signed)

NEB/HK/PN/JO/PFH