Sentani - Mourners wept and flung themselves across the casket of Theys Eluay yesterday as more than 10,000 supporters from Irian Jaya (West Papua) attended a funeral in the slain independence leader's home town of Sentani. Hundreds of police and soldiers stood guard. Others manned road blocks, confiscating knives and slingshots from attendants.
Eluay (64) was kidnapped and killed on November 10th. An autopsy report said he had been strangled. Nobody has claimed responsibility, but his family and members of the independence movement have accused the Indonesian military of being behind it.
Senior officers who met Eluay before his death deny any wrongdoing.
Thousands of people have been killed in the province since Indonesia occupied the former Dutch colony in 1963.