WEST IRIAN REVOLT

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31981, 7 May 1969, Page 17

WEST IRIAN REVOLT

Indonesian T roops Sent To Area

C.V.Z.P^.-Reuter— Copgright;

DJAKARTA, May 6. West Irian tribesmen had revolted against the Indonesian Government and have blockaded five airfields in the former Dutch territory, the West Irian Affairs chief, Dr Sudjarwo, announced today. Dr Sudjarwo said 500 paratroops had been dropped into the area to deal with the trouble which, he said, started two weeks ago. Some local West Irian police armed with rifles had joined the rebels, he said.

Dr Sudjarwo was speaking to reporters after a 90 - minute emergency meeting at the Foreign Office with the heads of the West Irian and United Nations desks. The meeting came after Australian radio reports of the revolt in West Irian. The territory will decide whether to remain part of Indonesia in an act of free choice later this year. Dr Sudjarwo said the tribesmen “have resorted to terrorist methods. “Two weeks ago they blockaded the Army airfield at Enarotali in the highlands with bamboo,” he said. “Then at another Army airfield at the nearby town of Waghete they cut large furrows across the field to prevent planes landing.” The Australian Broadcasting Commission, quoting a dispatch by its Djakarta correspondent who returned yesterday from West Irian, said an Indonesian bomber made a rocket attack on the remote central ranges town of Enarotali before sending paracommandos in to advance on the town.

A later A.B.C. broadcast said an Indonesian naval officer told an AJJ.C. reporter that a warship was standing by to help in the Biak Island operation.

In a report from Djakarta, an A.B.C. staff reporter said the Indonesian Government had appointed a member of the West Irian Parliament to negotiate with the rebels. The reporter said the Government negotiator was scheduled to arrive soon at Nabira, a coastal town some 50 miles from Enarotali.

The broadcast said the negotiator told the A.B.C. in Biak yesterday that he would try with all his ability to negotiate with the tribal chief. He was quoted as saying that attacking the primitive natives with rockets would not give a solution, adding that such attacks “would make the act of free choice hard to implement in the most populated interior.” Dr Sudjarwo said that to prevent Indonesian forces landing, the rebels had also blocked three missionary airfields in the area with furrows—believed to be the only other airfields giving access

to the remote district inhabited by about 35,000 tribesmen. The revolt was seen in Djakarta as the first news of organised resistance to Indonesian rule in West Irian. But Dr Sudjarwo said only a handful of the population was involved. There had already been a demonstration by about 200 people in the capital of Djayapura calling for a one-man one-vote plebiscite instead of the decision by discussion of 1000 people out of the territory’s 800,000 people. Dr Sudjarwo said three problems had caused the flare-up of trouble.

A district chief in the regency refused to be transferred to another area by the Indonesian

Government. "He was not a good district head and was inciting the people there.” Some tribesmen wanted the town of Enarotali to become the capital of the Paniai Regency instead of the less-central coastal town of Nabira. Police salaries had not been raised as had civilian salaries. “Some people were therefore easily influenced by the rebels,” Dr Sudjarwo said. Dr Sudjarwo denied the Australian Broadcasting Commission report that rockets had been used in Enarotali, saying: “No, there were no rockets . . . why should we, that’s an expensive business."