Papuans call for independence

Ayapura - Speaker after speaker at a landmark conference on the future of the province of Irian Jaya called for independence …

Ayapura - Speaker after speaker at a landmark conference on the future of the province of Irian Jaya called for independence from Indonesia yesterday as alarm bells over a possible new East Timor sounded in Jakarta.

The speakers, from the 14 districts of the resource-rich province of some 2.5 million people, speaking at the weeklong Papuan People's Congress, unanimously called for the province to break away from Indonesia.