Republic

They Want A

From our Hollandia Correspondent Because NNG’s newly formed political parties did not take a very active part in the elections for the New Guinea Council last February some observers have believed that political parties wouldn’t amount to much in this Terri tory for the time being.

But it is now clear that Herman Wajoi’s National Party (Parna), which unites most of the younger Papuans, is very active. In May, Parna decided that its previously set target date of 1970 for the Papuanisa tion of the Police and Civil Service was not nearly ad vanced enough; so now 1970 becomes the date in which the party wants independence for the Papuan people. It then wants NNG to become a re public.

Parna has passed on its new decision to Queen Juliana, the chairmen of both Houses of the Netherlands Parliament, the chairman of the New Guinea Council and the chair man of the UN Commission on Non-self-governing Territories.

Parna decided that one of the reasons why Papuanisation should be speeded up was that Euronesians and Dutchmen were leaving the country—a fact about which the party ex presses concern.

Parna also wants the name of the Papuan Voluntary Corps to be changed to National Army, as Voluntary Corps ‘had an aggressive sound’ to Indonesian ears, it says.

Meanwhile in Sorong, seven members of a secret pro- Indonesian “Army of the Brave Paradise Bird” have been sentenced to gaol terms ranging from seven months to four years for their activities. Some of the men had maps of Biak airfield, Manokwari shipyard, and Sorong Navy camp and had planned to seize the motor vessel Kasimbar from Merauke and sail it to Indonesia.