PDP
leaders defy orders not to welcome body of John
Mambor
>From reports received on 24 and 25 March 2003
from ELSHAM
Members of the leadership of the Papuan Presidium
Council (PDP) defied an instruction from the
police in Papua that they should not welcome home
the body of John Mambor on its arrival in Sentani
airport from Jakarta. A senior member of the PDP
leadership, John Mambor died earlier this week in
Jakarta, after a long illness.
Among those who were present at the airport to
receive the body were PDP general secretary Thaha
Al Hamid, the Rev. Herman Awom, Eliaser Awom,
Melkias Mandosir and a number of PDP Panel
members. Hundreds of people who had travel from
miles away were also present at the airport.
The Rev Awom announced that John Mambor would be
buried on Wednesday 25 March, but he would not be
buried alongside the late Theys Eluay, because the
security forces had threatened to break up the
funeral gathering. Instead he would be buried at
the Christian cemetery in Abepura.
A spokesman for the police also said that the
remains of the late John Mambor, who died in a
hospital in Jakarta after a suffering from cancer
for two years, should not be buried in the Papua
Heroes' Cemetery in Sentani, alongside the remains
of PDP leader, Theys Eluay, who was murdered in
November 2001. The police officer, Slamat Supandi,
warned that troops would be used to disperse the
crowds if these instructions were ignored.
He said the authorities were afraid that such an
occasion might be used by Papuans to raise the
Morning Star flag.
Before his death, John Mambor headed the political
prisoners section of the PDP. During the Suharto
era, he spent 17 years in Kalisosok Prison, East
Java, along with other Papuan leaders. He was also
one of five PDP leaders, including the late Theys
Eluay, who were held in detention and brought to
court in 2001 for activities relating the
unfurling of the Papuan flag in December 2000.
The discomfort shown by the authorities is
reminiscent of their anger when huge crowds
welcomed the return to Jayapura in 1996 of the
body of Tom Wanggai who died in mysterious
circumstances while still a prisoner in Tanggerang
Prison, Jakarta.
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