"In an authoritarian system like Indonesia, the culture of abuses has to be ended and replaced. It is going to be difficult since we are dealing with a 32-year-old system that was cultivated by the former dictator Suharto," said John Rumbiak. "The perception of the security forces towards NGOs is that they are seen as a 'national enemy'. Here they see human rights activists as 'enemies'.

" Asked about the very obvious fact that native Papuans operated few if any businesses in West Papua, he said: "You go to the shops everywhere in West Papua, in Jayapura, none of the Papuans own shops. Some sell vegetables. The migrants control all the business assets."

Photo: Fruit-sellers in Wamena: native Papuans own few if any businesses

The chairperson of Mr Rumbiak's organisation was forced to go into exile in Australia after receiving death threats. Pointing to the increasing levels of state violence, he said: "Aceh and West Papua have entered critical stages."

The delegation discovered the existence of a secret Indonesian intelligence document, formulated at a high level security meeting in 2000 following the successful Papua Congress in June. Mr Rumbiak said: "There are three main strategies that came out from this meeting: first, clandestine activities. This is to infiltrate within the movement itself to obtain information and to destroy the movement. Second: to cause the international isolation of the West Papuan movement. Thirdly: to offer autonomy to West Papua in order to turn people away from independence."

"We believe that if it is going on as it is now with the latest developments, and the security using violence, more and more civilians will be killed. And if there is to be a breakthrough, it will have to be international pressure on the Indonesian government to enter dialogue. Representatives of the Papuans will have to sit down with the Indonesians and all other parties in the conflict. But the international community will have to pressure the Indonesian government to end the culture of militarism here, and also the culture of impunity. Otherwise Papuans will have little trust in the government. There should be a dialogue first to discuss the problems before offering a solution, not the other way around."

Br Theo van den Broek is the Director of the Office for Justice & Peace in the Catholic Diocese of Jayapura in West Papua."A lot of things are wrong. People here who are in the police or in the army get used to the idea that they can do anything. There is nobody that will stop it. People come in from outside with a very low esteem for local people."

On the subject of impunity, he says: "If the police are so intent on finding people who break the law, then they should go after their own members, and army people as well as those in the government who do the same thing. They get away with it."

Br Theo sees three different aspects in the Papuans' struggle: the struggles for development, human rights and dignity, and for rectification of history. "Development over the last thirty years has been too centralised in Jakarta, and didn't respond to the local people. Others say they want to be rid of all kinds of oppression. Independence means that you can speak out, feel free, have a different opinion and not be shot - be recognised in our cultural identity and as human beings. Yet others want a change in the political status and keep talking about what went happened in the 1960s. We have to fight for a rectification of history." Br Theo sees the three aspects as equally vital and complementary.

The delegation met with the Chairperson of the Papuan Presidium Council in September. He was assassinated in November. On going to press, no-one has been arrested in connection with his death.

"We offered the hand of friendship to Jakarta, but they have brushed it aside," he said. "We have offered dialogue, and they have answered with violence. They don't know anything else - only violence. We do not want to be part of Indonesia any more. We are a separate people with our own culture and identity."

[The context for this interview is the Biak massacre of 1998 in the aftermath of a peaceful flag-raising ceremony, at a water-tower. Biak is an island on the north coast of West Papua.]

I come from the village of K- . Before the 1st of July, [1998] Mrs W. came to my house and we prayed as we always do before we raise the flag. Because we didn't have a flag and no-one to do the speeches, we decided to cancel. When we heard they had raised the flag in Jayapura [the capital], we met together again in B's house, and we divided the women into different groups and so on, discussing how they would get the flag and who would do the speeches. Mr Philip Karma was travelling from Nabire to Jayapura, stopping over in Biak. We got the cloth and the paint to paint the West Papuan flag.

After we got the flag, Mrs. W gave it to her son and they took it to the tower and they gave it to the youth of Paray village and they put up the flag on the tower. The next morning at 6 o'clock, Philip Karma came to give the speech. And people were coming, and I and some other women were staying to cook for all the people who were there at the place, and after that, they cooked in 3 different places, so on the last day, most of the people had already gathered at the tower, … I joined the people.

On the way back to the water-tower, we were shouted at from a military truck. We decided not to look. We were walking, we decided not to run. We were told to raise their hands, our hands were [full], we were kicked by the army, and beaten up, we were down, then they dragged up towards the truck, they told us to run to the truck, they hit us and poured the water from the kettle over us.

After I was beaten up, we were dragged by the Brimob [Mobile Police Brigade], holding one leg, nakedly on the street, and they told us to run, in the direction where they were going to shoot, we were scared, we decided not to run, one from North Sumatra, when they dragged me, they said, why don't you ask your Jesus to help you if you are afraid, he will come down and save you. Afterwards, two [Brimob] came and said they were from the same faith, and they told us to run and hide, so we stayed [in a house] until seven o'clock. We found clothes. When they asked us who we were, we said, we had just come off the bus. We went back to the village of Paray, and then ran into the forest for two months where my husband brought me food, and then I came out, and the police interrogated me and told me to report every day to the police.

I was kicked in my sexual organs, it is really painful there, and there is something wrong with my womb, I have to go to Jayapura to check it. When we were beaten up, they also used fire ... on our sex.

What do you feel when you see the police who did this to you on the street?
We did recognize the perpetrators but we couldn't do anything about it. Some were from Ambon, but they had left already, but I don't really want to be with people in military or police uniform. When they get on the bus, I get off, even in my family, when military or police visit my house, I tell them I don't want you in my house in uniform, even though you are my relatives, I won't serve you.

After the incident, [human rights] organizations such as KomNas Ham and Elsham visited the villages. I saw what happened to me also happened to other Papuan women. I will continue to fight until I get my independence.

What kind of insults did you receive?
We were intimidated and interrogated. While we were being interrogated, they put our feet under the leg of a chair to hurt us. We were told if we don't answer their questions, we would be sent to prison in central Java [about 2,000km away].

Did you receive any racist abuse?
Many insults. That's what makes me feel we are different to them. We will never be the same. That's what encourages me to fight for independence. Even though they put some of us in prison, I cook for them, I wash their clothes; I visited my friend in Jayapura and went to hospital with her. When there was the forum on special autonomy in Biak, I told the other panel members, the pride of West Papuan women is expensive and it will not be paid for by special autonomy.

On November 11, non-violent Papuan leader, Theys Eluay was found strangled near Jayapura. The killing is widely seen as a political assassination, and Indonesian special forces, Kompassus, have been implicated. International observers, including former Irish foreign affairs ministers Dick Spring and David Andrews have called for an independent inquiry into his death.

The inaugural meeting of the West Papua Forum took place on Wednesday, 6 February, 2002, 7.30pm in Comhlámh, 10 Upper Camden Street, Dublin 2.
Forum will meet first Wednesday of every month. Next Forum meeting: Wednesday, 3rd April, 2002, Portobello Hotel, Richmond Street, Dublin 2. 7.30pm to 9.00pm. All Welcome!