(RSF/IFEX) – The following is a 19 July 2001 RSF press release: RSF calls on Belgian and Indonesian authorities to step up their efforts for the release of Philippe Simon and Johan van den Eynde While Philippe Simon and Johan van den Eynde, Belgian TV documentary filmmakers, are beginning their sixth week as hostages in […]
(RSF/IFEX) – The following is a 19 July 2001 RSF press release:
RSF calls on Belgian and Indonesian authorities to step up their efforts for the release of Philippe Simon and Johan van den Eynde
While Philippe Simon and Johan van den Eynde, Belgian TV documentary filmmakers, are beginning their sixth week as hostages in the Indonesian province of Irian Jaya (West Papua), Reporters sans frontières (RSF) calls on Belgian authorities to intensify their efforts to obtain the release of the two journalists. RSF calls on Indonesian authorities to create political conditions that will allow Philippe Simon and Johan van den Eynde to be released soon. Taken hostage on 7 June 2001 by members of the Free Papua Movement (OPM), and notably by the chief, Titus Murib, the two filmmakers are in good health and are being well-treated according to two priests who met them recently.
On 17 July, one of the two priests in charge of negotiations appealed to the Illaga village (centre of the province) chiefs for a new meeting with the hostage-takers for 19 July. The priest hopes to quickly organize a third meeting that could lead to the release of the two Belgians. The Dutch priests, Father Van den Broek and Reverend Benny Giay, residing in Irian Jaya, already met with the two hostages, their kidnapers and village chiefs on 6 July near Illaga. They came back with three pictures of the two Belgian hostages and letters expressing new demands. In one of them, the OPM asks that Belgian authorities defend the Papuan cause on the international scene. Another demand by the kidnappers is the broadcast, by the American news channel CNN, of a report on the conflict between Papuan rebels and the Indonesian army. In the past, Papuan rebels asked Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid to bring West Papuan issues before an international forum. According to recent information, Jakarta authorities refused to negotiate with the rebels but promised Belgium that they would not use force. The hostages’ families already received a letter in Indonesian (a language spoken by Johan van den Eynde) signed by the two journalists in which they explain that they are well-treated and enjoying a certain freedom of movement. According to the families, the kidnappers probably dictated some parts of the letter.
RSF was surprised by the words of the commanding officer of the Indonesian army in Irian Jaya province, reported on 12 July by the daily Jakarta Post. He suggested that the two journalists voluntarily accepted being taken hostage by the Free Papua Movement. This is not the first time that Indonesian authorities have accused foreign journalists of supporting the Papuan rebels’ cause. On 2 December 2000, Indonesian police in Jayapura arrested Oswald Iten, a Swiss journalist with the daily Neue Zürcher Zeitung and an ethnologist. He was detained for eleven days with about thirty Papuan separatist militants, one of whom was tortured to death by Indonesian police. Also, in October 2000, Ashley Gilbertson and Timothy Gruzca, freelance photographer and cameraman, respectively, were heckled and expelled by Indonesian police when they covered demonstrations in Jayapura.
Philippe Simon, 49 years old, and Johan van den Eynde, 47 years old, arrived in West Papua in early June 2001 with tourist visas. According to the head of the production company Underworld, they wished to produce a documentary about some Papuan tribes from the centre of this island ruled by Indonesia. The kidnappers confiscated their passports and their video material. The two Belgian filmmakers used to work for the French-German TV channel Arte and had already gone to Irian Jaya in 1995. Philippe Simon has a press card and has produced several documentaries, notably “Without Reserves” (on the North American Indians) and “Aqui es el mundo” (on native people in South America).
Belgian authorities confirmed the kidnapping on 14 June 2001, and a diplomat based in Jakarta has gone to Jayapura (province capital).
Indonesia has controlled the western part of this Papua island since the 1960s. Armed groups, especially the Free Papua Movement, are fighting against Indonesian security forces. In 2000, separatist leaders claimed independence for the province, but most of them were arrested and the repression killed dozens.
Over the past ten years, armed Papuan groups have frequently kidnapped foreigners. In 1996, leader Kelly Kwalik organised the kidnapping of western scientists. In May 2001, employers of a South Korean forestry company were also taken hostage for several days.
