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Timika, Papua. Tribal leaders in Papua on Tuesday called for the closure of a massive US mine linked to allegations of rights abuses, as they buried slain rebel leader Kelly Kwalik.

Some 400 people followed the casket of the Free Papua Movement (OPM) commander, who was shot in a police raid last week, through the streets of Timika to his grave beside a local church.

Kwalik’s death has triggered days of anti-Indonesian protests and calls for independence for the ethnic Melanesian region.

Anger has also been directed at US miner Freeport McMoRan, which operates a huge gold and copper mine north of Timika that has long been at the center of allegations of rights abuses against ordinary Papuans.

Kwalik, who was 60 when he died after spending 30 years fighting for Papuan independence, claimed to have been dispossessed by the mine and was accused of several deadly ambushes against Freeport workers.

Police blame him for a series of attacks this year that killed three people, including an Australian mine worker, on the road north of Timika. In 2002, Kwalik allegedly led an attack that killed two American Freeport employees in similar circumstances.

Kwalik denied the allegations and some analysts believe the Indonesian security forces launched the attacks as a way of extracting more protection money from Freeport.

“Freeport is responsible for the death of Kelly Kwalik and that is why Freeport must be shut down,” Papua Customary Council spokesman Dominicus Serabut told mourners ahead of Kwalik’s burial.

“General Kelly Kwalik was not involved in the shootings in the area of Freeport Indonesia,” he added.

Poorly-armed OPM guerrillas have waged a war of independence for four decades, often launching hit-and-run attacks against Indonesian troops with traditional bows and arrows and World War II-era rifles.

Kwalik’s casket was draped in the outlawed Morning Star flag of Papuan independence, a last act of defiance given stiff penalties of up to life in prison for anyone waving the separatist standard.

Some 800 people attended a funeral Mass on Monday but disagreements among tribal leaders delayed the burial.

Indonesia gained sovereignty over the Papua region in 1969 in a UN-backed vote that was widely seen as rigged.

Analysts say the killing of Kwalik may only fuel anti-Indonesian sentiment in the restive territory, underlining the need for talks with separatist leaders.

Indonesia has succeeded in resolving separatist violence in Aceh and the Malukus since the fall of the Suharto dictatorship, but the resource-rich region of Papua remains an embarrassing thorn in Jakarta’s side.

Analysts said Kwalik’s shooting by police would not prove fatal to the OPM guerrillas, and could even strengthen the separatist sentiment.

“Kwalik’s death will intensify the Papuan people’s struggle for independence,” said analyst Muridan Widjojo, who has been involved in efforts to foster trust and dialogue between the two opposing sides.

“There will be growing distrust among Papuans toward the central government. This is a strong reason why a peaceful dialogue becomes an urgent need,” he added.

He said that although Kwalik was one of the most active OPM commanders and was the backbone of the insurgency around the strategic town of Timika, which serves the Freeport mine, other militants could take his place.

Another six OPM leaders are still at large across the region who could increase attacks on security forces and other symbols of Indonesian rule as revenge for Kwalik’s death, he warned.

“In this case, there’s no other way but to hold peaceful dialogue in order to prevent a possible backlash,” Widjojo said, adding that Kwalik’s death was a blow to tentative, informal talks that had already taken place.

Analysts said Kwalik had been promoting dialogue through the West Papua National Coalition for Liberation, an umbrella organization of independence groups that has been seeking talks with Jakarta.

Papuan human rights advocate Theo Hesegem condemned the shooting of Kwalik and said his death would only disrupt efforts to promote dialogue.

“If this kind of violent approach continues to be used, the Papuan people will become more convinced that they have to be separated from Indonesia,” he said.

Australian academic Damien Kingsbury, of Deakin University, was involved in the negotiations that clinched a peace deal in Aceh in 2005 and believes Kwalik’s death has created “new opportunities” for a settlement in the region.

“The death of Kwalik, as a hard-liner, may … allow the West Papua Coalition an opportunity to streamline its internal negotiating position,” he wrote in The Sydney Morning Herald last week.

“The question will be, in his second and final term of office, whether Indonesia’s President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is serious about taking up the option of negotiation,” he wrote.



Agence France-Presse