Papuan tribe elders ask SBY to come to Papua

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta, Tue, 11/15/2011

Instead of sending another official to Papua to organize dialogue, some Papuan tribe elders expected President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono himself to meet the Papuan people.

“The Papuan people have been longing to talk directly to the President,” A tribe elder from Lapago region, John Haluk, said on Tuesday as quoted by kompas.com.

He said that in order to make sure that the local administration didn’t ignore this aspiration he intended to stage a mass rally in front of the local legislative council building on Wednesday morning.

SBY has sent his former colleague in the army Lt. Gen. (ret) Bambang Dharmono to begin dialogue with the Papuan people as a response to the recent tensions in the easternmost province that have claimed the lives of more than 10 people and injured dozens of others.