Military

DATE=10/19/00

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=WEST PAPUA TENSE L-ONLY

NUMBER=2-268143

BYLINE=PATRICIA NUNAN

DATELINE=JAKARTA

CONTENT= ///REISSUING WITH CORRECT DISTANCE--3600 KM--IN NEXT TO LAST GRAF OF TEXT///

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Indonesian security forces have backed down from a threat to pull down flags belonging to West Papua's independence movement, avoiding another possible outbreak of violence. As Patricia Nunan reports from Jakarta, police and independence supporters have agreed to wait for Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid to mediate their dispute.

TEXT: Human rights officials say some 300 people gathered in the West Papuan capital, Jayapura, at a morning flag-raising ceremony, without interference by Indonesian security forces. Calm also prevailed in Wamena, a city in West Papua's central highlands known for its fervent support of the province's independence movement.

The calm comes after independence supporters and security officials agreed to wait for President Abdurrahman Wahid to return to Indonesia from his trip to South Korea. Members of the pro-independence group called the "Papua Presidium" are expected to go to Jakarta to meet with Mr. Wahid -- to determine a policy about the flag-raising.

There have been weeks of tension between security forces and the SatGas Papua or "Papuan Task Force -- a pro-independence militia -- over the issue of raising the "Morning Star" separatist flag.

But John Rumbiak, of the human rights group Elsham, calls the planned meeting in Jakarta "crazy" -- He says no matter what is decided, the West Papuan people will continue to confront security forces over the flag-raising issue.

/// RUMBIAK ACT ///

If they try to lower the flags, or disperse the SatGas Papua or even the presidium council of

Papua --- violence is going to happen.

/// END ACT ///

Earlier this month, at least 40 people were killed after police shot into a crowd of demonstrators angered at the decision to pull down flags raised in the city of Wamena. In response to the shooting, members of the Papuan Task Force went on a rampage throughout the city, killing anybody who was not a native Papuan.

/// OPT /// In addition to its ethnic Melanesian population, West Papua is now home to hundreds of thousands of migrants from other parts of Indonesia. /// END OPT ///

After the incident, Indonesia's cabinet outlawed the raising of the flag and banned the Papuan Task Force.

That decision contradicts a promise made by President Wahid earlier in the year that the West Papuan flag could be raised -- as long as it was

lower than and along side the Indonesian flag.

/// REST OPT ///

Some 3600 kilometers east of Jakarta, West Papua -- also known as Irian Jaya -- makes up the western portion of New Guinea Island.

It became an Indonesian province in 1969 after a special ballot now criticized by independence supporters as not representative of the will of the entire Papuan population. (signed)

NEB/HK/PN/JO/PFH