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JAKARTA, Indonesia (November 28, 2001 - AFP/Antara/Kabar-Irian)---Two rebels were killed and two wounded when some 100 members of the separatist Free Papua Movement attacked a police outpost on Wednesday in Indonesia's easternmost province of Irian Jaya, a report said.

Police reinforced by soldiers drove off the separatists who attacked the post at Kimaam in the southern district of Merauke, Irian Jaya deputy police chief Brigadier General Raziman Tarigan told the Antara news agency.

He said police had been tipped off that the Kimaam police post was a target and called in military reinforcements.

The two wounded rebels are in a hospital under strict guard.

The Merauke district police could not immediately be reached for comment.

The Free Papua Movement, made up of small, poorly armed groups spread across the vast resource-rich province, has been fighting for a free state since the 1960s.

Jakarta has ruled out independence but approved a new...

HONIARA, Solomon Islands (November 30, 2001 - Solomon Star/PINA Nius Online)---Solomon Islands police officers said they might withdraw their threat to boycott election duties next week if their salaries are paid.

The chairperson of the Senior and Subordinate Police Officers' Association, David Bale, said: "It will all depend on the payment of our salaries. If we receive our pay today we may lift the threat."

Mr. Bale said that during a meeting among representatives of the government, police, and the Electoral Commission it was agreed police officers should get one of the salary payments they have not received.

The government has been struggling to pay public servants as a result of the growing financial crisis following two years of ethnic conflict, and continuing uncertainty peace in the country.

The general elections next Wednesday are seen as a major test for the country's political and economic future.

Mr. Bale said during the meeting that it...

JAKARTA, Indonesia (November 28, 2001 - MSNBC/Reuters/Kabar-Irian)---Meeting public demands to quickly solve the murder case of a top Papuan separatist leader is not easy, a police official said on Wednesday as a critical date for the remote Indonesian province neared.

Papua police chief Made Mangku Pastika also said the possibility that elements of Indonesia's military were involved had not been ruled out.

Many in the rebellious Papua province hope investigations over the November 11 killing of charismatic Theys Eluay could shed some light before December 1, a key anniversary for the pro-independence movement. Eluay had regularly led the commemorations of the date.

''I think the public demand to solve this case as swift as possible is also my desire. We also want to solve it immediately but the problem is it's just not that simple,'' Pastika told Reuters by phone from the provincial capital of Jayapura, 3,700 kilometers (2,300 miles) east of Jakarta.

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