Theys Eluay

He went to the Jongensvervolgschool (post-primary education) in Yoka, a boarding school, led by the Dutch missionary Izaak Samuel Kijne.

In 1969 Theys was one of those few Papuans selected to take part in the UN-supervised Penentuan Pendapat Rakyat or PEPERA (dubbed Act of Free Choice by its detractors), which unanimously voted for integration with Indonesia.

In 1971 he became a member of the local legislature, Regional People's Representative Council of Irian Jaya Province, from Indonesian Christian Party (Parkindo); in 1977 he moved to Golkar.

He began calling himself Pimpinan Besar Bangsa Papua (PBBP), the Great Leader of the Papuan People, and he appeared almost daily in the papers.

For these projects they have received generous financial support from Yorrys Raweyai, a papuan of chinese descent from Serui,[4][5] deputy chairman of the Pemuda Pancasila, a pro-Suharto youth organisation, consisting of gangsters.

[2] Although the apparent unchecked growth of Satgas Papua and sometimes funding for its activities was a part of counter-insurgency strategy of Indonesian security forces, in order to infiltrate and compromise and “turn” existing separatist groups, in addition to identify other covert independence networks and personalities.

According to people present at the party, the commander of the Kopassus got his microphone and said loudly goodbye to Theys when he left at around 10 o'clock in the night.

He was buried without his heart, as the police told the public it had sent it in a box to Jakarta to a forensic laboratory to look for evidence that Theys had died from a stroke.

This was supposed to become a new "Acre of Heroes", who had died in the struggle of Papuan activists, like Arnold Ap and Thomas Wanggai.

[1] The Commander in Chief of the Indonesian army, General Endriartono Sutarto, however, publicly said that he disagreed with the sentence, as these soldiers should be considered "heroes" as they had killed in order to maintain the national unity of the Republic.

There are, however, five witnesses who have seen Ari enter the Kopassus headquarters in Hamadi, which, by the way, is at the same location as a logging company owned by the Soeharto family.

[10] According to his son, Yanto Eluay, this naming was in honour of his efforts of fighting for the rights of the Papuans, and also as one of the participants in the 1969 PEPERA that help to integrate West Irian with Indonesia.