JAKARTA - Nicolaas Jouwe (85), the founder of the Organisation for an Independent Papua, Organisasi Papua Merdeka or OPM, has said that Papua now is a part of the unitary state of Indonesia. He also apologises for the violence he ordered against the Indonesian army and the police. Jouwe also said that he had already forgiven the violence of the Indonesian army in the region where he was born.

Jouwe said this at a press conference at Schiphol airport in the Netherlands, shortly before he was to board a plane back to the region where he was born. He wanted to return there do spend the rest of his life. Jouwe said that he is old now, and had become more wise over the years. Because of this, he said, he will fight for the people of Papua via politics. He will become a part of the Democratic Party of president Yudhoyono.