(1 Dec 2000) English/Nat
A pro-independence rally in Irian Jaya went ahead peacefully Friday, but the Indonesian province's separatist movement appeared to be buckling under police pressure.
Protest leaders said they were too afraid to openly demand secession.
Several thousand separatist supporters, some wearing traditional costumes of feathers, shells and bones, turned out for the rainy sunrise ceremony to mark the 39th anniversary of Irian Jaya's first attempt to form a nation.
But hundreds of heavily armed police and troops were watching in the provincial capital, Jayapura, and the previously vocal, albeit ragtag, independence movement was feeling the heat.
Moreover, its main organization, the Papuan Presidium Council, was in disarray with the detention of four of its leaders by police this week.
At least two have been charged with subversion against the Indonesian state and if convicted could be imprisoned for 20 years.
Senior activist Willy Mandowen said the people are limited in they can do and say.
He fears the police will intervene if demonstrators make political statements.
Mandowen said the demonstrators don't want violence and don't want the police to intervene.
Meantime in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, police fired tear gas to disperse around 200 Irianese separatists demonstrating outside the U.S Embassy.
Several protesters were beaten after they refused to hand over rebel flags.
Irian Jaya, a mineral-rich, jungle-covered province 2,500 miles west of Jakarta, is one of several regions pushing for more freedom from the sprawling Indonesian nation of 17,000 islands and 210 million people.
In 1961 - 39 years ago Friday - tribal chiefs here declared independence from Dutch colonial rule of the region, which covers the western portion of New Guinea island.
The independence move failed, and two years later Indonesia seized the region.
Irian Jaya was formally annexed in 1969, making it the country's easternmost province.
Independence activists have been battling Indonesian rule ever since.
In June, 501 tribal leaders declared independence and named their homeland West Papua.
Across the region, people pulled down the Indonesian flag and raised the red, blue and white "Morning Star" independence flag.
But Muslim-dominated Indonesia has vowed to prevent Irian Jaya and other restive provinces from seceding.
On Thursday night, Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid went on national television and called for tough action against independence enthusiasts in the regions, including mostly Christian Irian Jaya in the east and predominantly Muslim Aceh in the west.
Analysts say a failure to end spiralling bloodshed could push Wahid out of office little more than a year after he became Indonesia's first democratically elected president in more than four decades.
They say Wahid, who is facing resignation demands over a range of crises, has dramatically hardened his stance against the provinces just months after promises of greater freedom.
Rallies also were planned for other parts of Irian Jaya, but there were no immediate reports of trouble.
However, hard-line separatists might defy the ban on Saturday - an act that could trigger violence.
SOUNDBITE (English)
"Today on the same day in 1961 West Papua once was a sovereign state, but it was taken away and that's why people are celebrating and they want to push the dialogue with central government to peacefully sit round a table and discuss why there is a flag, why there is a song and why there was once a sovereign state which is called West Papua"
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