Riots after Indonesian separatist found dead

JAYAPURA, Indonesia (CNN) -- Riots have erupted in Irian Jaya after separatist leader Theys Eluay was found dead after apparently being kidnapped.

Eluay was found inside his car on the road near the Irian Jaya border with Papuan New Guinea with marks around his wrists and blood on his body.

Irian Jaya lies north of Australia, marking the eastern extremity of Indonesia.

Police said he appeared to have been strangled and that his assailants had tried to make the killing look accidental by pushing the car off a remote stretch of road, the Associated Press reports.

There were no clear suspects, and his driver was missing, they said.

Eluay's widow, Yaneke, blamed the Indonesian military, which is often accused of human rights atrocities.

Police said Eluay was killed as he returned home after dining with local Indonesian army commanders Saturday night. Senior military officers refused to comment.

Hundreds of independence supporters set fire to a hotel, a market and a bank near Eluay's home in Sentani, close to Jayapura's airport.

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Others blocked roads with burning tires and threw rocks at police, who responded with warning shots. There were no reports of injuries, and police dispersed the crowds around dusk.

Eluay, the head of the separatist Papuan Presidium Council, had been on bail awaiting trial for subversion, an offense that carries a maximum 20-year prison term.

Local and foreign rights activists had criticized his prosecution and accused Indonesia of muzzling free speech in Irian Jaya, 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles) east of the capital, Jakarta.

However, Eluay also had opponents among enemies of Indonesian rule.

Some more militant independence activists accused him of weakening their separatist fight by trying to negotiate a settlement with Indonesia.

Eluay was friendly with some senior officials, and earlier this year the Indonesian government paid for months of hospital treatment for him. He suffered from heart trouble and diabetes.

Jayapura police chief Lt. Col. Daud Sihombing said Eluay's corpse had lacerations around the neck and wrists that appeared to be rope burns. He said police suspected Eluay was strangled with a rope.

The circumstances of his killing -- a pro-independence figure found dead after dinner with a military chief -- underscore the volatile political situation in Irian Jaya, which covers the western half of New Guinea island and is home to huge mineral and petroleum resources.

With soaring mountains and thick jungles, it has some of world's most remote communities. Tribal warriors sometimes use bows and arrows against Indonesian forces and much-resented settlers from other parts of the archipelago of 13,000 islands and 210 million people.

Irian Jaya is one of several provinces where political movements and armed rebels are fighting for independence.

Thousands have been killed in troubled regions as Indonesia struggles with a tough transition to democracy and a crippling economic crisis that followed three decades of military-backed dictatorship under former President Suharto, who was forced from power in 1998.

It was unclear what effect Eluay's death would have on the independence struggle in Irian Jaya. The separatist movement is a loose coalition that had been making little headway toward self-rule, and Eluay's illness had loosened his grip on leadership.

Indonesia annexed Irian Jaya, a former Dutch colony, in 1969, after a U.N.-sanctioned vote for integration by tribal leaders. Critics have dismissed the process as a sham.

A traditional tribal elder and politician, Eluay supported the vote for Indonesian rule and served on a local pro-Indonesian legislative council for 15 years.

He began calling for independence after he failed to win re-election to the council in the 1980s and later declared himself leader of West Papua, as separatists call the state they want to establish.

On Dec. 1, 1999, Eluay and some supporters raised an outlawed West Papua independence flag in Jayapura. He was later arrested and charged with subversion.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.