The Jakarta Post, 11/30/2003 5:32:41 PM
Police to break up Papuan independence day rallies
JAKARTA (AP): Indonesian police Sunday vowed to break up any rallies in the
country's remote Papua province to mark the failed Dec. 1 declaration of the region's
independence 42 years ago.
"We have told them not to gather tomorrow," police spokesman Adj. Sr. Comr. Daud
Sihombing said by telephone from the province. "If they persist, the police will take
action ... to disperse them."
Independence activists have traditionally protested on Dec. 1 in Papua to
commemorate a 1961 declaration by tribal chiefs of independence from Dutch colonial
rule of the region.
Their bid failed, and two years later Indonesia seized the region, which was formally
annexed in 1969 after a UN-sanctioned ballot of tribal leaders. A low-level insurgency
has rumbled ever since.
In the past, activists have raised the separatist Morning Starflag to mark the day in
the province, 2,700 kilometers (1,700 miles) east of the capital, Jakarta. The
ceremonies have triggered violent clashes between protesters and police.
Separatist groups in the resource-rich region were notimmediately available for
comment.
On Thursday, police in Papua arrested 43 activists after they hoisted the Morning Star
flag in the province. Most have since been released.
In recent years, rights groups have accused the military of widespread abuses in the
province, including forcibly displacing families and killing independence supporters.
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