Irian police brace for separatist backlash

Friends and family have been gathering to mourn the slain independence leader

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Police in the Indonesian province of Irian Jaya are bracing themselves for further violence from pro-independence supporters following the death at the weekend of separatist leader Theys Eluay.

Eluay's body was found Sunday inside his upturned car at the bottom of a ravine 30 km outside the provincial capital, Jayapura.

According to the official Antara news agency the local police chief, Senior Commissioner Daud Sihombing, said he believed Eluay had been strangled and his body placed inside the car to make it look like an accident.

However, he added that investigations into the cause of death had not yet been completed.

Media reports said wounds around Eluay's wrists indicated his hand had been bound.

It is not clear what happened to his driver who was accompanying him at the time and, some reports said, made a frantic phone call to Eluay's wife warning her they had been stopped by unknown assailants.

Speaking to the Associated Press Eluay's widow, Yaneke, has blamed the Indonesian military for carrying out the killing.

Police said Eluay was killed as he returned home after dining with local Indonesian army commanders Saturday night although senior military officers in the province have refused to comment

Riots

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On Sunday, as initial news of his death spread, rioting was reported in several areas.

In the rebel leader's hometown Sentani, close to Jayapura, hundreds of independence supporters set fire to a hotel, a market and a bank.

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.

Although there were no signs of further trouble early Monday morning police were "anticipating all possibilities" spokesman Janner Pasaribu told Reuters.

Hundreds of independence supporters went on the rampage Sunday as news spread of Eluay's death

It is not yet clear when Eluay's funeral will be held although some reports in local media said his body could be returned to his hometown on Monday.

Observers say Eluay's death could be a major setback to efforts by President Megawati Sukarnoputri's new government to calm separatist tensions in Indonesia's easternmost province.

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.

Opponents

Eluay with the outlawed Morning Star flag of the separatist movement

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.

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.

Economic crisis

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