E/CN.4/1997/71 page 34 terms as 'non-violent flag raising' by Kelly Kwalik is actually a five-month long stand-off in which the OPM took 23 people hostage, including a five-month pregnant United Nations official, and brutally murdered two of them. “The Secretary-General of the United Nations, the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the ICRC urged that the hostages be released to no avail. The appeal by the Federation of Associations of Former International Civil Servants to release the United Nations officials went unheeded. This is, unfortunately, not an isolated incident. Many people have been killed, tortured or threatened by the OPM. There were a number of cases in which whole villages were forced to cross the Indonesian border at gunpoint in an attempt to create the image that the villagers in Irian Jaya were fleeing to the neighbouring country. “OPM is a separatist group which was created in 1961 by the former members of the New-Guinea Raad (New Guinea Council), a body establish by the Dutch colonial power to support Dutch colonization in Irian Jaya. In 1965, OPM attempted to sabotage efforts by the United Nations Secretary-General’s representative in West Irian, Mr. Ortiz Sanz to bring about the process of self-determination by launching armed attacks in the villages of Manokwari, Wghete and Enarotali in Paniai Regency. Mr. Ortiz Sanz went to the Regency and appealed 'to the population to act within the framework of law and order so that the basic conditions for the act of free choice might be preserved.' (para. 156; annex I, doc. A/7723). “These facts have been effectively concealed by Jean McLean and the International Commission of Jurists. It is therefore rather easy for Indonesia to understand why the Australian Section of the International Commission of Jurists invited the OPM, a violent group of people who have sytematically used terror and other human rights violations in its method of work, to provide the so-called 'recommendations' in its report. The Australian Section of the International Commission of Jurists has indeed done a great disservice to its reputation. “This has led the Government of Indonesia to wonder what is the real motivation of Jean McLean and Australian Section of the International Commission of Jurists. The suggestion that there strong racist feelings on the part of one ethnic group against another, specifically the Irianese, in Indonesia, and that due to these racist attitudes the people in Irian Jaya are tortured, arbitrarily detained and extrajudicially executed, is indeed sickening and totally unacceptable. “As you are aware, Indonesia is one of the most diverse nations in the world, with a population of 190 million consisting of 350 ethnic groups speaking 583 languages and embracing five religions. It is clear that Indonesia, if it wants to maintain its unity and harmony, is the last country in the world to harbour racist attitudes. Indonesia cannot afford to be a racist society or allow racism, which in some countries