Media Article

 

               Rick Spier

AN ARTICLE FROM PATSY SPIER SENT TO THE WPNGNC IN MARCH 2004

Murder, She Said

An ambush in Indonesia killed Patsy Spier's husband–and landed her in the middle of a foreign-policy minefield.

By Tim Shorrock

                      Patsy Spier

August 31, 2002, began as a day like any other in the lives of Patsy and Rick Spier. They were teaching school in West Papua, Indonesia, the latest posting in a series of international teaching jobs far away from their home in Denver. The long stays in isolated places worked for the Spiers "because we really liked each other," Patsy says, recalling the years before the tragedy that transformed her into a citizen-lobbyist and an expert on the intricacies of U.S.-Indonesian relations.

That afternoon, the Spiers and eight other teachers working for a school operated by New Orleans-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold decided, on a whim, to go on a picnic. Driving two SUVs with company markings, they wound their way deep into the mountaintop region where Freeport operates a huge mine that is patrolled by Indonesian soldiers on the company payroll. On their way back, they were ambushed by gunmen hiding alongside the road. "I saw two poofs and that's when I was shot in my back," recalls Spier, who almost bled to death. When the shooting was over, three people were dead: the school's superintendent, another teacher, and Rick Spier.

The incident's aftermath has caused deep strains between Washington and Indonesia and triggered a battle of wills between President Bush—who considers the world's largest Muslim nation a key ally in the war on terrorism—and his Republican allies in Congress. The outcome may depend on the Federal Bureau of Investigation and its probe of the ambush, in which the Indonesian army has emerged as a prime suspect.

Within 24 hours of the shotings, the army declared the crime the work of a separatist group that hopes to create an independent state in West Papua. But that story fell apart after the local police chief announced that the evidence pointed toward the military itself. (One motive may have been revenge for Freeport's decision to cut back payments to the army; two Freeport executives, who may have been the killers' intended targets, had driven down the mining road just minutes before the Spier party passed by.) At a meeting in Bali last October, however, President Megawati Soekarnoputri told Bush she had seen no proof that the army was involved. A Freeport spokesman would not comment on the case except to say the company is "fully cooperating with the investigations."

Spier, who is 47, retains the friendly and open air of the elementary school teacher she once was. But she hasn't set foot in a classroom since the ambush; her job now is to serve as a de facto spokeswoman and advocate for the survivors. "I got back to Colorado on September 21, and on the 24th, I started calling people in the government," she says. "It was like I knew how huge this was, how evil." On her many trips to Washington, she has met twice with Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, as well as with senior officials in the State Department and the FBI, including FBI director Robert Mueller. Through her perseverance, she has kept the issue alive—and convinced many Republicans, as well as Democrats, to vote to link U.S. military aid to Indonesia to justice for the ambush victims. "It's the only leverage we can use," she says.

But Spier's appeals have come at an awkward time for the administration, which is seeking to expand military ties with Indonesia despite its army's reputation for brutality. In particular, the White House wants Congress to lift the restrictions on military training funds first imposed in 1991 in response to Indonesian army abuses in East Timor, the former Portuguese colony Indonesia invaded in 1975. Bush stepped up the pressure for cooperation after a series of bombings in Indonesia by groups linked to Al Qaeda.

In January 2003 ollowing intense lobbying by administration officials, the Senate voted to fund the military training program. Then, as the year went on, Congress began hearing reports that the FBI's probe was meeting strong resistance. Agents, for example, were allowed to interview Indonesian witnesses only when army officers were pres ent. "From what I understand, the answers have been pretty well rehearsed and scripted," says Senator Wayne Allard (R-Colo.).

Last November, Allard, who has met with Spier several times, joined forces with Senator Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) to draft legislation prohibiting Indonesia from receiving the training funds until the State Department determines that the army has been cooperating with the FBI. Despite White House opposition, the amendment was expected to pass the Senate this spring—a remarkable victory for Spier, who says she has surprised even herself with her ability to work the system in Washington. In one telling incident, in October, President Bush told an Indonesian reporter that he was ready to go forward with full military ties with Indonesia because Congress had "changed their attitude" on military aid. Spier, in town to press for the Allard amendment, hit the phones. Six days later, the White House retracted Bush's statement, saying that no new military programs had been approved. "They really backtracked," says a congressional aide. "Patsy really set the wheels in motion."

Still, the outcome of the matter is far from clear. Even if the FBI decides that the Indonesian military was responsible for the murders, it's unlikely that Indonesia would turn over a senior officer for prosecution, and the military courts it has established to try army officers are widely viewed as ineffective. "What they do is, they allow a case to go to trial, but they will produce scapegoats," says Ed McWilliams, a former political counselor in the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta and one of a handful of human rights activists in Washington focused on Indonesia. "In the past, we've gone along and allowed this to go forward. My concern is, this time it would be different, because [if not] we'd be conspiring in a case that involved the death of American citizens."

That's what keeps Spier focused. "Whoever did this was arrogant enough to think they could get away with it," she says. "So what in God's name are they doing to the villagers and the average Indonesian who doesn't have a voice?"

 

AN ARTICLE FROM PATSY SPIER SENT TO THE WPNGNC IN MARCH 2004

excerpt: ``It's no longer a question of who did it,'' a senior U.S. official familiar with the investigation, told AP. ``It's only a question of how high up this went within the chain of command''

AP: Indonesian Army Ordered Deadly Ambush

 

         Rick and Patsy Spier

By SLOBODAN LEKIC

JAKARTA, Indonesia, March 3 (AP) - U.S. officials believe local army commanders ordered an ambush that killed two American teachers near a gold mine in a case that has held up resumption of normal U.S.-Indonesia military ties, two
American officials told The Associated Press.

Elements of the military have long been suspected in the 2002 attack, but a much-criticized joint Indonesia police-military investigation proved inconclusive. U.S. authorities said their probe continues with FBI agents now in Indonesia, making their fifth visit to the ambush site.

``It's no longer a question of who did it,'' a senior U.S. official familiar with the investigation, told AP. ``It's only a question of how high up this went within the chain of command,'' said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

FBI officials and the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta have refused to discuss any evidence. ``We do not comment on ongoing investigations,'' said Stanley Harsha, an embassy spokesman.

Privately, U.S. officials say little doubt remains about who was responsible for the attack on vehicles driving down a road to a gold mine operated by New Orleans-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold.

Any U.S. finding against the military, however, could jeopardize the Bush administration's desire to restore U.S.-Indonesian military ties, which were suspended after army atrocities in East Timor in 1999.

The Bush administration regards Indonesia - the world's most populous Muslim nation - as its key Southeast Asian ally in the war on terror.

The Republican-controlled Congress initially backed an initiative to restore military ties, voting in 2002 to approve a resumption of the International Military Education and Training program.

But renewed doubts set in after the ambush. And in January, lawmakers reinstated the ban until the State Department determines the Indonesian government is helping with the FBI probe.

The State Department's annual human rights report, released last week, criticized as ``ineffectual'' the joint Indonesia police-military investigation, saying police and soldiers failed to cooperate.

Immediately after the attack, local police commander Brig. Gen. Raziman Tarigan blamed special forces soldiers. The military brass denied the accusation, and assumed control of the investigation.

Indonesian officials have since blamed rebels, although they are armed only with bows and arrows and antiquated bolt-action rifles. Sophisticated automatic weapons were used in the ambush.

Now and in 2002, army checkpoints control the remote mountain road ambush site, which is not accessible to civilians.

Maj. Gen. Sulaiman Ahmad Basir, chief of the military police, refused comment on the FBI investigation. Freeport-McMoRan officials in Indonesia also won't talk about the case.

On Aug. 31, 2002, armed assailants staged the ambush near the world's largest gold mine at Timika in Papua province on the island of New Guinea. Two teachers were killed - Rick Spier of Littleton, Colo., and Ted Burgon of Sunriver, Ore. - and eight other people were wounded.

FBI investigators believe local army commanders were trying to extort protection payments from Freeport after the company reduced its regular contributions to them, U.S. officials told AP. The attackers likely were unaware the convoy carried Americans, the officials said.

Spier's widow, Patsy, suffered multiple gunshot and shrapnel wounds in the attack. She's pressing lawmakers for justice.

``Why would we want to improve ties with Indonesia and re-establish ties with the military if the police have accused them of being behind the killing of Americans?'' she told AP. ``The people who carried out that ambush were arrogant enough to think they could get away with it because they've gotten away with so many crimes in the past.''

Indonesia's army has a history of human rights abuses, during and after ex-leader Suharto's military-backed dictatorship that ended in 1998.

In 1999, the army led the destruction in East Timor following the U.N.-organized independence referendum.

In 2001, a special forces squad assassinated Theys Eluay, West Papua's leading politician. Other units have been involved in attacks on civilians in the province, where a pro-independence rebel movement has operated since the 1960s.

The latest State Department report cites numerous extrajudicial killings by security forces in West Papua's central highlands, which include the Timika mine.

``The entire case of Timika reinforces the view that getting close to a violent, unreformed military is a very risky prospect,'' said Jeffrey Winters, an Indonesia expert at Northwestern University in Chicago.

The United States and Indonesia have had a seesaw relationship since Indonesia gained independence from the Netherlands in 1949.

In the mid-1960s, Washington forged close ties with Suharto, whose government slaughtered left-wingers and in 1974 invaded the former Portuguese colony of East Timor. But in the 1990s, ties worsened amid accusations of human rights
abuses.

In 1999, the Clinton administration placed strict curbs on military-to-military relations in response to army atrocities in East Timor. A law banned contacts until the military is held accountable for those crimes.

But as President Bush took over the White House, an effort spearheaded by Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz - a former ambassador to Jakarta and unabashed Suharto supporter - was launched to improve relations with Indonesia.

This was justified by the need to build up Indonesia into a bulwark against al-Qaida infiltration into Southeast Asia.

Murder at the Mine

Time Magazine (USA)

Feburary 17, 2003

By Simon Elegant, reported by Jason Tedjasukmana/Timika

Investigations into an ambush outside a remote gold mine in Indonesia might reignite controversy about the nation's military
Patricia Spier was heading home from a mountaintop picnic in Indonesia's eastern province of Papua when the ambush began. Out of nowhere, a hail of automatic-weapon fire perforated the two Toyota Land Cruisers in which the American schoolteacher and a group of her colleagues and husband were traveling in. "I was shot in the back and fell to the floor," Spier recalls.
"The attackers kept shooting and shooting for about 45 minutes ... it felt like thousands of bullets and pieces of shrapnel [were] ripping through the vehicle... People were screaming." By the time the gunfire stopped, three people were dead, including Indonesian instructor Bambang Riwanto and two Americans: Edwin Burgon, the 71-year-old principal of the International School of Tembagapura; and Spier's husband Rick, 44, a fourth-grade teacher from Colorado.
For months after the Aug. 31 attack, it seemed likely that no one would unravel the mystery of why these teachers were targeted on a mountain road leading to the giant Grasberg mine, which is run by P.T. Freeport Indonesia (PTFI), a subsidiary of New Orleans-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold.
The military blamed the attack on the Free Papua Movement, a ragtag group of Papua rebels fighting a desultory war to free the province from Indonesian rule, but produced scant evidence to back the claim. Meanwhile, relatives of the slain teachers have grown increasingly frustrated by the inability of local police and the U.S. government to find answers. "We respected our government and Freeport," says Dirk Burgon, son of the dead school principal, "and nothing has happened."
Until now. Reports are finally leaking out that may shed some light on the case. A preliminary police-investigation document obtained by TIME posits that members of the Indonesian military-who were supposed to protect miners, international teachers and other expats connected to the Grasberg mine-may have been behind the killings, not the separatist Free Papua Movement. The evidence cited by police is at best circumstantial but intriguing. Investigators found 100 spent shells in the area of the attack, yet the poorly armed rebels are not known to waste precious ammunition. In addition, the military produced the body of an unidentified Papua man shot by soldiers the day after the ambush, and claimed it was one of the assailants. But an examination of the corpse revealed that not only had the man been dead longer than the military insisted, he also had a medical condition-massive enlargement of the testicles-that would have made it difficult for him to be a guerrilla fighter. Eyewitnesses say that the gunmen wore military style paraphernalia such as boots and camouflage face paint, although no insignias were seen. The report concludes that it is "very possible" there was military involvement in the attack.
Indonesian soldiers have been accused of murder before. Last week, during a tribunal on the 2001 killing of Papua independence leader Theys Eluay, an army officer admitted that Eluay had been strangled to death by a private. The officer testified that the private had been ordered to pressure Eluay to stop agitating for independence. The controversy over the killing of the teachers is now intensifying questions about the dependability of Indonesia's armed forces. At the same time it complicates relations between Indonesia and the Bush Administration, which wants to preserve ties to the world's largest Muslim nation to bolster its global war on terror.
Since the deadly nightclub bombings on the Indonesian island of Bali-an attack that was recently shown to have al-Qaeda connections-the U.S. has fostered closer links with Indonesia's military, offering funding and training to help root out dangerous Islamic elements in the nation's society.
If soldiers were involved in the murder of Americans, that effort could be derailed-as could Indonesia's broader standing with the U.S. "This is not an issue where just the military-to-military component of our relationship could be affected," says a senior U.S. official. "It's the whole relationship."
Nevertheless Washington has made it clear in recent weeks that it is determined to get to the truth. In December, George W. Bush sent a personal envoy to Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri to underline the importance he attached to finding the culprits in the Papua killings. With Megawati's consent, four FBI agents were dispatched to Indonesia, arriving in Jakarta on Jan. 23 and traveling to Papua earlier this month to begin an inquiry into the attack. The FBI has conducted two previous probes into the matter but lacked the authority until now to complete a thorough investigation.
Indonesia also has its own team of police and military investigators on the case, but it's not clear how effectively they are navigating this political quagmire. No arrests have been made and the former deputy chief of police in Papua, Brigadier General Raziman Tarigan, was recalled to Jakarta in mid-January after speaking publicly about the possibility of military involvement in the killings.
There is more at stake for Jakarta than just a diplomatic breach with Washington, grave though that would be. The Grasberg mine sits on the largest gold deposit and the third largest copper deposit in the world. The mine supports a company town of some 110,000 employees and residents; PTFI, its operator, is one of the largest individual contributors to the Indonesian government's coffers, paying taxes last year on a revenue of $1.9 billion.
"I think a lot of people will be concerned if the people who are supposed to be protecting us turn out to be the same ones who carried out the attack," says an American PTFI contract worker who asked to remain anonymous. "Several families I know have already left, and I'm pretty ready to go myself." In addition to paying hefty taxes, PTFI also gives millions of dollars a year directly to the armed forces in exchange for security services. The Indonesian military receives only about a third of its budget from Jakarta, so it must raise the rest by other means. A 2002 report by the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based research institute, says the army posted in Papua derives a large portion of its income from "logging and other activities and protection fees paid by resource companies." PTFI has little choice but to boost its contribution in troubled times. In 1996, after a riot by local tribespeople halted mining operations, the company agreed to spend $35 million to construct military barracks and additional facilities, according to a report by the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights.
Indeed, some foreign analysts and diplomats believe the company's deep pockets may have provided a motive for the ambush. PTFI officials decline to comment on any aspect of its security operations, but a source close to the company says PTFI had been in discussions with local military officers prior to the attack about the possibility of reducing the firm's reliance on the nearly 650 soldiers and police who guard the mine. That could have meant a sharp drop in the cash given to troops. In other words, goes the theory, the teachers may have been slaughtered by rogue elements in the military who wanted to send a message to the mining company that full payments should continue. Military officers strongly deny any connection to the killings. "I am sure my men wouldn't do that," says Colonel Mangasa Saragih, the district army commander overseeing the town of Timika near the Grasberg mine. "We do not want to cover anything up."
A U.S. official familiar with the case acknowledges that, while there are indications of military involvement, "investigators have not yet gathered enough evidence that would stand up in court." Indeed, the preliminary police report seen by Time offers no smoking gun. Dirk Burgon fears that his father's killers won't be found because the political price of justice - broken bonds between Indonesia and the U.S., embarrassment for the Indonesian government - is too high. On Feb. 20 the Bush Administration's budget package is expected to be passed by Congress. The package includes $400,000 in funding for the Indonesian military-a modest sum but symbolically important. For one thing, it would override a 1999 congressional ban on providing money to the country's armed forces - a punishment for alleged human-rights violations by troops during East Timor's drive for independence.
If funding is approved, the Indonesian military might appear "to have exonerated itself of the implication that its élite special forces recently murdered two U.S. teachers," says Kurt Biddle, coordinator of the Indonesia Human Rights Network. Burgon says that in January he met with members of the FBI, U.S. State Department and congressional aides to press for a resolution to the case.
The reaction to his lobbying gave him little solace. "We were told [an investigation implicating soldiers] was not conducive to the Pentagon's goal of restoring ties with the Indonesian military," Burgon says. If so, the truth about the ambush might prove to be another casualty of America's all-consuming war on terror.

WSWS : News & Analysis : Asia : Indonesia

Ambush near US-owned mine in Papua suggests Indonesian army involvement
By John Roberts
13 September 2002

Patsy Spier

In the early afternoon of August 31, an estimated 15 gunmen opened fire with M-16 assault rifles on three Land Cruisers travelling on a mountain road near the huge US-owned Freeport gold and copper mine in the Indonesian province of Papua. Three people, one Indonesian and two Americans, were killed and 10 others wounded. All were staff members at the mine’s international school.

Indonesian authorities immediately blamed armed Papuan separatists of the Free Papua Movement (OPM) for the ambush. At this stage it is impossible to say with any certainty who was responsible. But the evidence available so far casts doubt over the official version of events and points to the possible involvement of the Indonesian military in the attack—either directly, or indirectly through various surrogates.

The OPM had very little to gain from an attack, which was immediately condemned by the US embassy in Jakarta as an “outrageous act of terrorism”. On the other hand, the Indonesian armed forces (TNI), which has been pressing for a crackdown against separatists, certainly had a number of motives, as well as the opportunity and the means, for the murders.

If the OPM carried out the attack, it chose a particularly unsuitable site. The ambush took place 20 km from the mine on the jungle road to the town of Tembagapura, but just a few hundred metres from a manned military security post. Even in the prevailing foggy conditions, there was the risk of a counterattack by the Indonesian military.

Moreover, the attackers were armed with M-16s—standard issue for the TNI and the police, but rare among OPM fighters, who have relied on primitive weapons, including bows and arrows. None of the OPM factions have a history of murdering foreigners.

Because of the misty conditions, none of the victims saw their attackers. But Indonesian security chiefs immediately rushed to blame a number of OPM culprits—apparently without much coordination.

The provincial police chief, Major General Made Pastika, speculated that people from the village of Bantu, three hours walk through the jungle from the ambush site, may have been involved. “It is very possible that the killers were based there. There is no other base camp in the area,” he said. Police reported that they shot and killed a man near the ambush site on September 1 but have released few details of the gun battle.

Indonesian army chief General Ryamizard Ryacudu and Papuan provincial military chief Major-General Mahidin Simbolon had a second, equally unsubstantiated theory. They claimed that an OPM splinter group headed by Kelly Kwalik had carried out the killings. Kwalik, who has previously been accused of kidnapping but not harming foreigners, issued a statement denying any involvement.

According to a Washington Post report, other military officials named another OPM group led by Titus Morib, as the possible organiser of the killings. But a Papuan-based police investigator dismissed the possibility, saying that the attack was too far from Morib’s area of operation for him to be a likely suspect.

The official response to the latest murders recalls the reaction following the killing of Theys Eluay, president of the pro-independence Papua Presidium Council, last November. Eluay was found dead in his car after leaving a dinner with the provincial commander of Kopassus—the TNI’s notorious special forces unit. His driver fled the scene and has not been seen since.

In the immediate aftermath of Eluay’s murder, Indonesian police and army spokesmen floated a series of mutually contradictory explanations—ranging from suicide, to a heart attack, to murder at the hands of his own supporters. So crude were the methods of the killers, however, that the police were eventually forced to indict 12 Kopassus soldiers, including the local commander.

The OPM itself has denied any involvement in the Freeport ambush and joined human rights groups in Papua and Jakarta in calling for an independent international inquiry into the incident.

The Papua Presidium Council, a legal organisation based in the provincial capital Jayapura, issued a statement on September 2, declaring: “It is becoming more and more evident that the Indonesian security forces are involved in creating provocation and instigating violence.

“An attack on foreign nationals and on Freeport and consequently blaming the OPM is on the one hand an effort to discredit the OPM as a terrorist organisation and on the other hand a warning to Freeport that it cannot operate without the protection of the Indonesian army.”

A protection racket

An article in the Australian Financial Review pointed out that the Indonesian military has operated what amounts to a protection racket to milk money from Freeport, the world’s largest copper and gold mine. It reported “a pattern of incidents over the years that have the hallmarks of stand-over tactics by the Indonesian military to extract more money and resources from Freeport in exchange for their role in providing ‘security’.”

The mine has certainly provoked anger and resentment over its impact on local villages. Even when the TNI has not had a hand in attacks on the mine, it has exploited any expressions of opposition for its own purposes. After major riots in 1996, the TNI prevailed upon Freeport to build a new army base in the area at the company’s expense, at a cost of $US37 million.

As the article pointed out, even if Papuans or an OPM splinter group did carry out the ambush, that did not rule out the involvement of the Indonesian security forces. It noted that “over the years a number of so-called independence leaders in Papua have worked with the military”. Brigham Golden, a member of the US Council of Foreign Relations task force on Papua, told the newspaper: “The military in the past has used OPM elements as proxies.”

The TNI has a direct interest in maintaining a monopoly over security at the Freeport mine. The Indonesian state budget provides less than half the funds required to maintain the security apparatus. TNI officers have long supplemented their resources by legal and illegal business ventures, which in Papua have included logging operations and extortion of money from local and foreign-based companies. These operations in Papua were part of the extensive and highly lucrative commercial network operated by the military at all levels throughout the archipelago, of which the vast Suharto business empire was just the apex.

Since the fall of Suharto in 1998, Indonesian had been under pressure from international investors to end these practices, including the “security arrangements” at places like Freeport. Military officials were reportedly angered by the mine management’s decision to appoint Tom Beanal, a leader of the Amungme tribe that claims traditional ownership of the mine lands, to the board of its Indonesian subsidiary. Whoever carried out the August 31 ambush, the military will use the opportunity to emphasise that the mine requires its protection.

More broadly, the TNI will also use the attack to insist on a crackdown on the OPM—a move that will strengthen its hand not only in Papua but elsewhere in Indonesia. The military played the key role in the protracted process of ousting Abdurrahman Wahid last year and installing Megawati Sukarnoputri as president. The generals were particularly critical of Wahid over his attempts to negotiate a deal with separatist movements in Papua and Aceh. Under Megawati, the TNI has intensified its operations in both provinces.

If it can pin the attack on the OPM and brand it as “terrorist” organisation, the TNI can bolster its case in Washington for the resumption of ties with the US military. For months, under the guise of its “global war on terrorism,” the Bush administration has been pushing for the overturn of a US Congressional ban on training and support for the Indonesian military. The attack on Freeport could provide a convenient pretext for the US to provide support for Indonesian operations in Papua.

If that is the case, however, the exercise could easily backfire. After initially pointing the finger at local Papuans, police chief Pastika indicated in an interview this week that he was examining possible army involvement. He said the military might have carried out the attack to extort money from the mine. “This is also one of the possibilities,” he said. “We are police and cannot ignore any of the possibilities.”

 

WPNGNC  Query:

Why was Police Chief Pastika taken off the case by the Indonesian Government?

The answer is obvious - His investigation would have concluded, that, the Indonesian Military orchestrated the Freeport Mine ambush on the Americans.

There is one more important fact - Pastika, who was responsible for the investigation of the Bali bombings, was from Bali not Java. 

Javanese make up the majority of the Indonesian military.

WSWS : News & Analysis : Asia : Indonesia

Further indications of Indonesian military involvement in Papuan mine murders
By John Roberts
15 October 2002

In the six weeks since the murder of two American teachers and one Indonesian employee of the international school at the US-owned Freeport gold and copper mine in the Indonesian province of Papua, further evidence has emerged pointing to the involvement of the Indonesian military (TNI).

The attack on August 31, which also wounded 10 others, occurred on a misty mountain road about 20 kilometres from the mine and only a few hundred metres from an army security post. Gunmen armed with M-16 rifles opened fire on three four-wheel drive vehicles early in the afternoon. The ambush was immediately denounced by the US Embassy in Jakarta as an “outrageous act of terrorism”. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents have flown to Papua after interviewing injured survivors in Australia as part of a US inquiry into the incident.

Indonesian authorities at first blamed local villagers or separatist guerrillas fighting for the separatist Free Papua Movement (OPM). Later they accused two OPM splinter groups of being responsible. The TNI commander in Papua, Major General Mahidin Simbolon, continues to maintain that the OPM carried out the attack.

From the start, the TNI’s claims have been questioned. No OPM group was operating close to the site of the ambush, nor does the organisation have any history of attacking foreigners. The OPM is not well-armed and has been forced in the past to resort to bows and arrows. One of the security personnel investigating the ambush told Reuters that even an initial investigation virtually ruled out the poorly-equipped separatists: “If we look at OPM, it’s not possible, because from the assault some 200 bullets hit the vehicles.”

Local Papuan organisations and human rights groups have rejected claims of OPM involvement. They have accused the TNI of attempting to paint the OPM as “terrorist”, as part of a stepped-up military campaign against the organisation over the last year.

The case against the OPM was so tenuous that in early September the local police informed the media they had begun investigating possible military involvement. The TNI has a history of using security incidents to extract money from foreign-based companies for providing protection for their enterprises. After major riots against the mine’s operations in 1996, the Indonesian military pressured the mine’s operators, Freeport-McMoran, to build a new base for the TNI, at a cost of $US37 million.

New facts, reported over the past few weeks in the Washington Post, cast further suspicion on the TNI. On September 1, the day after the incident, the military claimed to have killed a Papuan guerrilla in a confrontation near the scene. This appeared to give credence to the TNI’s claim that an armed group was operating near the ambush site.

According to the Papua-based Institute for Human Rights Study and Advocacy, however, relatives identified the dead man as 24-year-old Danianus Waker. He had been employed by the Indonesian Special Forces (Kopassus) as an informer.

An autopsy raised even more questions. Regional police chief I. Made Pastika told the press that the examination found Waker had had a chronic disease for at least a year, which produced a massive enlargement of the testicles. It would have been physically impossible for him to carry out guerrilla activity or trek the 100 kilometres from his tribal area without transport.

The autopsy found that the bullet wounds in Waker’s body had occurred at least 24 hours prior to when the military claim he was shot. Pastika also reported that soldiers had deliberately smudged fingerprints and moved bodies on August 31 at the scene of the ambush, thus corrupting crucial evidence.

On September 27, the Washington Post reported the allegations of a 23-year-old Papuan who said that on the day of the incident he was ordered by a Kopassus commander to accompany his squad of nine soldiers from the town of Timika to Tembagapura, a town near the Freeport mine. He was left with four soldiers on the outskirts of the town, while the others continued on.

The informant told the Washington Post that the soldiers started to ply him with whisky and beer and all five became drunk. He claims to have overheard a mobile phone call from the commander telling his men to get ready, followed by audible gunfire. When the other squad members returned, the vehicle was driven by the commander, who ordered them to get in quickly as they had to leave the area.

The man told the newspaper that he was “100 percent sure” that the Kopassus soldiers had ambushed the Freeport convoy. The journalists were told by a former senior US Embassy official not to discount the man’s story because of drunkenness as the TNI “would often use drugs or alcohol to get people in a pliable mood, to counter the possibility of any resistance at the last minute to what they want them to do.”

Police chief Pastika said that the informant had come forward as he feared for his life and was now under police protection in the provincial capital Jayapura. He had been a member of the Kopassus-trained Tenaga Bantuan Operasi militia for 11 years and had previously participated in several Kopassus operations. The informant has been interviewed by human rights activists who found his account credible.

While the police claim there are discrepancies between the militiaman’s account and what was found at the scene, they are now questioning 19 soldiers from the Kopassus 515 battalion who were stationed in the area at the time of the ambush. At this stage the case seems to be broadly similar to the assassination of pro-independence Papua Presidium Council president Theys Eluay last November. After accusing Papuans of the murder, the authorities eventually charged the local Kopassus commander and 11 of his men.

If the TNI was responsible, it has no lack of motives. The Indonesian military is currently the subject of US congressional bans on assistance. Both the Indonesian government and the Bush administration have been pushing for these to be lifted so that the US and the TNI can collaborate more closely in a crackdown on alleged Muslim extremists in South East Asia. An attack on US citizens would reinforce the argument for cooperation—if it could be sheeted home to the OPM.

The TNI would also be able to push for the OPM to be included on the US list of “terrorist” organisations, giving a green light for escalating military repression in Papua. The military played a major role in ousting former president Abdurrahman Wahid last year, after he attempted to reach a compromise with separatists in West Papua and Aceh. When Megawati Sukarnoputri assumed the presidency, she signalled a tougher stance against the Papuan separatists by appointing Major General Simbolon, a former commander in East Timor, as the TNI chief in Papua.

Police chief Pastika

Police chief Pastika indicated that elements of the army were disgruntled over Freeport’s remuneration arrangements for providing security at the mine. The money is vital for both the police and TNI as the state budget provides less than half the funds required. For decades, the TNI has been engaged in legal business operations and is widely accused of being involved in illegal rackets including extracting protection money, drug-running and prostitution.

Under Suharto, the police were part of the military but, following his fall in 1998, have been established as an autonomous body. There are signs of increasingly bitter rivalry over state funding and other sources of money. On September 29, TNI soldiers attacked a police station in Binjai on the island of Sumatra after police refused to release a soldier charged with drug dealing. Animosity between the two arms of the Indonesian state may well be a factor in the willingness of the police to push for an investigation of the military’s role in the Freeport ambush.

Whatever happened on the mountain road in Papua on August 31, the least likely explanation is that provided by the military—those responsible for providing security at the Freeport mine. The weight of evidence is increasingly pointing to their involvement.

See Freeport Mine Links

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e-mail: wpngnc@optusnet.com.au