Theys Eluay


Dortheys Hiyo Eluay was a community leader in West Papua who was murdered by members of the Indonesian Army special forces command.

Early life and political career

Theys was born in Sere Village in Sentani, in what was then Dutch New Guinea. He went to the "Jongensvervolgschool" in Yoka, a boarding school, led by the Dutch missionary Izaak Samuel Kijne. After the JVS he followed a course in meteorology and worked then as a meteorological assistant. He also became an "ondoafi", a traditional leader of a village.
In 1962 Indonesia took over New Guinea from the Dutch. Theys helped the Indonesian army and police to find Papuans who were anti-Indonesian. This led to a great number of casualties in the Sentani area. In 1969 there was an Act of Free Choice,, under UN supervision, to determine the wishes of the Papuans with regard to their political status. Theys was one of those few Papuans selected to take part in this Consultation, which unanimously voted for integration with Indonesia. In 1971 he became a Member of the local legislature. In 1980 he joined the regional Traditional Council as a representative for the Sentani area, and later for the whole of Papua Province. In 1990 he became its Chairman. From 1996 onwards the Council became more political, while, with the increased political freedom after the downfall of Suharto in 1998, the Council really began to speak out in the open about the political status of Papua and about the right of the Papuans to self-determination.

Great Leader of the Papuan People

In 1999 Theys was elected at the Great Consultation in Sentani as the Chairman of the Papua Presidium Council of West Papua. In 2000, on the Second Papua Congress in Jayapura, he was confirmed as leader of the PDP. Tom Beanal, the Amungmwe leader was elected as his deputy. He began calling himself Pimpinan Besar Bangsa Papua, the Great Leader of the Papuan People, and he appeared almost daily in the papers. He organized young Papuans in the Satgas Papua and had them trained. The Satgas Papua managed to establish, with success, order at large mass demonstrations and at the Mubes and the Papua Congress. The Satgas were led by his son Boy Eluay. Theys also initiated the Posko Papua, Pos Komando or Commanding Post, established at the entrance of many villages to control who would go in or out of the village, to prevent provocators, to create a situation of violent conflict as in neighbouring Ambon. From his home in Sentani the Morning Star flag of independent Papua was being raised. For these projects they have received generous financial support from Yorrys Raweyai, deputy chairman of the Pemuda Pancasila, a pro Suharto youth organisation, consisting of gangsters.

Death

On 26 September 2001 Theys Eluay approached officially the consultation of leaders of Papua, the Muspida, to ask for the reasons for the killing of Willem Onde, a Papuan leader, on 14 September in Merauke. Willem Onde was, apparently, killed by the army or by Kopassus. On 10 November 2001 Heroes Day was celebrated at the headquarters of Kopassus. The people who were invited had some link with the integration of Irian into Indonesia in 1963. According to people present at the party, the commander of the Kopassus got his microphone and said loudly goodbye to Theys when he left at around 10 o'clock in the night. "Goodbye to the Great Leader of the Papuans. Have a safe journey home!" Now people feel that this was to warn his men outside to be ready. On that night he was killed by Kopassus officers, whom he had a given a lift in his car on his way home. A few days after the abduction and murder Kopassus soldiers were seen cleaning the place of the abduction in Skyline very thoroughly. Theys was given a hero's funeral. He was buried without his heart, as the police told the public it had sent it in a box to Jakarta to a forensic laboratory to look for evidence that Theys had died from a stroke. The heart was never returned and no laboratory in Jakarta knew anything of this request. It was quite clear that Theys had died because of suffocation. He was buried on a soccer field his family owns, close to the airport in Sentani. This was supposed to become a new Heroes Acre of heroes, who had died in the struggle of Papuans for their rights, like Arnold Ap and Thomas Wanggai.
Though it was from the beginning clear that only a very well organized group could have killed Theys, it took some time to have the investigation on its way. Elsham, the Jayapura-based human rights organization, published a report, which suggested that the murder was organized at the instigation of elements in the central government, which want to maintain national unity, at all cost. A special national investigation commission was set up by President Megawati to investigate not only the brains behind the murder, but also to look for possibilities of involvement of government departments or sections of the army. In the end four Kopassus soldiers were convicted and sentenced to 3 - 3.5 years in jail. The Commander in Chief of the Indonesian army, General Endriartono Sutarto, however, publicly said that he disagreed with the sentence, as these soldiers should be considered "heroes" as they had killed in order to maintain the national unity of the Republic. Nobody was charged with the murder of Ari, the driver of Theys, who "disappeared". There are, however, five witnesses who have seen Ari enter the Kopassus headquarters in Hamadi, which, by the way, is at the same location as a logging company owned by the Soeharto family. People, and also his parents, fear that Ari is dead.

A period of increased repression of all forms of protests against Indonesian rule began. Theys was succeeded as chairman of the PDP by Thom Beanal, his deputy. The PDP, however, never regained the authority and worldwide publicity it had had under the short leadership of Theys Eluay.