Forgotten rebels: Indonesia. (the Free Papua Movement kidnaps group of people to gain publicity for its goal to obtain freedom from Indonesia)(Brief Article)

Economist (US), The, January, 1996

A chance encounter with a group of Europeans offered an unexpected opportunity for a raggle-taggle guerrilla army in one of the world's most inaccessible regions. The Free Papua Movement, known as the OPM, has been fighting an intermittent war against Indonesian troops in the province of Irian Jaya for the past 30 years, without attracting much attention anywhere else. The decision by a local OPM commander to kidnap a team of four British students, two Dutch researchers and one German, along with a group of Indonesians, has served as a reminder that it is not just in East Timor (see page 16) that Indonesia faces armed opposition.

Diplomats representing the hostages were at first anxious that the Indonesian army would charge in with guns blazing. The soldiers sent...

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