South
China Morning Post Tuesday, July 13, 1999
INDONESIA
Probe sought over corpses
VAUDINE ENGLAND
A year after 30 unidentified
corpses washed up on a beach in Irian Jaya, church
and human rights groups are demanding an international,
independent probe to find out what caused these
and other deaths in the province.
The community leaders want representatives of the
governments of Indonesia, Australia and Papua New
Guinea, along with Amnesty International and Human
Rights Watch, to investigate a litany of abuses
in the territory.
A growing number of pro-independence actions in
Irian Jaya - separate to the hostage-taking and
other activities of the outlawed Free Papua Movement
(OPM) - take the form of flag-raising ceremonies
featuring the morning star flag of the movement.
Last July, one such incident developed into a pitched
battle with security forces. Within days, the 30
corpses appeared, which the military claimed were
victims of a tsunami which hit far-off Papua New
Guinea.
Rights activists reject the military explanation.
"We all know that the tsunami occurred on July 17,
1998, eight days after the bodies were found," said
Yohanes Bonay, executive director of the Jayapura-based
rights group the Institute for Human Rights Studies
and Advocacy.
"Besides, do Papua New Guineans wear Golkar or Indonesian
student group T-shirts?" The local Catholic diocese
and the Christian Evangelical Church supported at
a weekend meeting the institute's call for a new
investigation of the mysterious deaths.
They say the bodies carried marks of torture.
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