About 10,000 people, some delirious with grief, gathered peacefully Saturday for the funeral of Irian Jaya independence leader Theys Hiyo Eluay, who died mysteriously last week.
Mourners staged a two-hundred meter (yard) procession from Eluay's home, some 50 kilometers (32 miles) west of the provincial capital Jayapura, to a soccer field where the charismatic leader was buried.
The emotional crowds sang religious hymns as Eluay's body was laid to rest in the field, which has been redesigned a "Papuan Heroes" cemetery.
Members of the pro-independence Papua Task Force militia carried Eluay's coffin, which was draped in the secessionist Morning Star flag. A tribal rite was performed before the procession.
The throngs, many of whom had come from other regions in the sprawling province bordering Papua New Guinea, showered the coffin with flowers. Many mourners shed tears and screamed: "Father, don't leave us behind."
Papua is the name that independence activists use for Indonesia's easternmost province, the scene of sporadic separatist unrest for decades.
Residents climbed trees and roofs of their homes to catch a glimpse of the ceremony, which was attended by senior officials from the local government, police and military.
"We thank God that the ceremony went peacefully. We have passed a critical moment," Reverend Herwan Awom, a member of the pro-independence Papua Presidium which Eluay had headed before his death, told AFP.
In his funeral message, the deputy chief of the presidium, Tom Beanal, called on the United Nations to hold a referendum on self-determination in Irian Jaya.
Security was tight with police deployed along the road leading to Eluay's home, checking visitors who wanted to attend the ceremony. Many had feared violence would erupt during the funeral.
The province was on top military alert against possible rioting, the state Antara news agency reported.
Eluay, 64, who was the chieftain of the Sentani tribe, went missing on his way home on September 10 from a military ceremony. His driver, who is still missing, told the family in a brief telephone call that they had been abducted by a group of non-Irianese.
The Jayapura police chief, Senior Commissioner Daud Sihombing, said he had been informed that Eluay's driver was alive but that his whereabouts were still unknown.
Eluay's body was found the following day in his crashed car. The face was darkened and the tongue was sticking out.
The national police have described the death as "unnatural" and sent investigators to the remote province. Rights groups have described the death as an assassination.
Eluay and four other members of the presidium had been on trial on charges of subversion for demanding independence.
The group had rejected Jakarta's decision to grant the resource-rich province greater autonomy, as had the Free Papua Movement which has been waging a low-level guerrilla war.
The autonomy law, which takes effect next month, renames the province Papua. It will have its own flag and anthem and will keep between 70 and 80 percent of revenues from its natural riches.
Rebels, sometimes using primitive weapons including bows and arrows, have been fighting sporadically for an independent Melanesian state since the former Dutch colony became an Indonesian province in 1963.
Independence supporters say a 1969 UN-sponsored plebiscite, which reaffirmed Indonesian sovereignty over Irian Jaya, was flawed -- Indonesia (AFP)
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