PETRUS TABUNI, (TRANSLATION): Papua! Independence! In 1961 the people of West Papua fought with the bow and arrow. Now the year 2003 has arrived. In the year 2003, are the OPM members lined up behind me willing to resist?

Although now effectively locked off to journalists and international agencies, sporadic news has filtered out this year of the killing of highlanders, the burning of villages and up to 5,000 people being driven into the bush without access to their food gardens. For the first time, these tapes reveal eyewitness accounts of the recent military operations in the highlands.

PETRUS TABUNI, (TRANSLATION): The first time the Indonesian army came they burned many houses in the village. One week later they killed two men.

This testimony is consistent with the reports from church and human rights groups like Elsham and Kontras which have appeared this year.

PETRUS TABUNI, (TRANSLATION): When I came back, I saw all the houses, the pastors, nurses, the health clinic - it was all destroyed. When the Indonesian army were killing our people, they put them in the ground for nearly two or three days. Three days later, we found the bodies, which were already decomposed. We buried them in the traditional way.

Of particular concern to the Indonesians are flag raisings like this, the raising of the Morning Star, West Papua's flag of independence. It's a recurring act of defiance, which has consistently provoked savage reprisals from the Indonesians since they formally occupied the country in 1969.

For 30 years the OPM, led here by local commander Petrus Tabuni, has maintained an armed resistance in the bush and literally kept the West Papuan flag flying at secret ceremonies like these.

PETRUS TABUNI, (TRANSLATION): We want to leave Indonesia, we don't want to be part of Indonesia. That is the fundamental principle of Papuans. So from this moment on, we ask the international community that this bow and arrow are no match for Indonesia's weapons.

These nationalist displays were briefly tolerated for a few years after the fall of President Suharto. Over the past 12 months, Megawati Sukarnoputri has made it clear that she's ordered the army to take a hard line on any independence movements and there are now reportedly thousands of troops laying siege to the valley. Petrus Tabuni is known as a hardliner within the OPM. But even he is aware of the futility of armed resistence to the Indonesians in the current campaign. He acknowledges that the ways of his generation need to change in today's political climate.

PETRUS TABUNI, (TRANSLATION): Since the OPM was first set up it's fought for the independence of the West Papuans. A new generation of West Papuans has now emerged. This generation no longer considers physical conflict to be relevant or humane. Why do younger West Papuans hold peaceful demonstrations. To prove to the international community that the West Papuans are a civilised people who can stand beside other nations of the world. To show we are no longer Stone Age cannibals, despite what the Indonesians believe. To prove to other nations of the world that independence is not always achieved by violence and bloodshed.

The tape was also delivered with a formal letter... addressed to the governments of Indonesia, Australia, the United Nations, and various other interested parties pleading for international intervention to end the military assault.

READING OF LETTER, (TRANSLATION): We appeal to the President of Indonesia. There needs to be open dialogue with the people of West Papua in order to reach a peaceful agreement with the help of a neutral country and the United Nations. We issue this message from the highest authority of West Papua on the second of October 2003.

MARK DAVIS: We will, of course, pass on that letter to the relevant authorities. In the last 24 hours, reports have come in about a clash yesterday between the OPM and the Indonesian police. We have also just heard from West Papua unconfirmed reports that the Indonesian military attacked a highland village this morning, leaving 8 dead and 10 wounded.