AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, Tuesday January 22, 5:56 PM
Muslim militants training Papua militia: rights group
JAKARTA, Jan 22 (AFP) -
Muslim militants from Indonesia's riot-torn Maluku islands have moved to Papua to
train pro-Jakarta militiamen confronting Christian separatist guerrillas there, a human
rights group said Tuesday.
The militants from the island of Seram have for some time been seen training
members of the Merah Putih (Red-and-White) militia in the district of Fak Fak, the
Elsham rights group said in Jayapura, the main town in Papua, which was formerly
known as Irian Jaya.
"The instructors are from Seram and they wear the white robes, turbans and beard
that are typically worn by Muslim militants such as those in the Laskar Jihad," said
John Rumbiak from Elsham.
He could not yet ascertain whether they were members of the Laskar Jihad, a hardline
group accused of fuelling fighting between Muslims and Christians in the Malukus in
which some 5,000 people have been killed since January 1999.
The Laskar Jihad has sent hundreds of its fighters, who are! mostly from the main
island of Java, to fight alongside Muslims in the Malukus and around Poso in Central
Sulawesi.
"They are providing training in self-defence in at least three villages near Fak Fak --
Tananam, Kotamwambar and Perwasak," Rumbiak said.
He said the training involved the use of home-made firearms, machetes and bows and
arrows.
Fak Fak, a town in the western end of the province is mainly Muslim while the rest of
the resource-rich province at the eastern end of the Indonesian archipelago is
predominantly Christian.
Rumbiak, quoting reports from Elsham activists in Fak Fak, said local Muslim people
with family links to Seram composed the bulk of the militia members being trained.
He could not say when the training began.
Rumbiak said the Merah Putih, named for the colours of the national flag, became
active in the region shortly after pro-independence sentiment strengthened following
the fall of dictator Suharto in 1998.
He sai! d he believed the Merah Putih has the support of local officials and security
authorities to counter the pro-independence drive.
Rumbiak said that at least one local Muslim district legislator is known to be behind
the Merah Putih and among its members are many people working for local
government and institutions.
Similar militia groups were set up in East Timor with the tacit support of the army and
police before the August 1999 ballot there which resulted in an overwhelming vote for
independence.
Indonesian relinquished sovereignty over East Timor but is determined not to let any
other provinces such as Papua or Aceh break away.
Rumbiak said police had recently arrested a Muslim from Seram who was caught
trying to bring in a home-made firearm and a video-cassette depicting Muslim battles
in Maluku.
But the police, he said, had failed to act on the report of the training camps made by
local Elsham activists.
"We are even now worried that t! he safety of our six contact persons there are now at
risk. They and their families have received threats following their reports to the police,"
he said.
Police in Papua could not immediately be reached for comment.
Independence demands grew louder early last year after then-president Abdurrahman
Wahid promised that the province could be renamed Papua and could fly the
separatist Morning Star flag.
But the demands have been simmering since 1963 when Indonesia took over from the
Dutch colonists.
Anger at the central government has been fuelled by unpunished extra-judicial killings
and Jakarta's perceived exploitation of Irian Jaya's natural resources.
The province was renamed Papua this month under an autonomy law and promised a
much greater of revenue from natural resources.
Copyright © 2001 AFP. All rights reserved.
|
