Sydney – Britain's crack SAS army regiment was involved in a 1996 mission to rescue hostages from rebels in Indonesia's Irian Jaya province during which eight civilians died, an Australian television report claimed Monday.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation's (ABC) Four Corners program also alleged the Special Air Services (SAS) worked with mercenaries in planning the operation, and used a helicopter with International Red Cross markings.
Some of the mercenaries came from Executive Outcomes, a South African company involved a year later in the so-called Sandline scandal which ended with Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Sir Julius Chan leaving office.
A helicopter with International Red Cross markings was claimed in the ABC report to have been used by soldiers who shot the villagers in the southern highlands of Irian Jaya in May 1996.
The report, to be broadcast late Monday, said the truth about the mission had been concealed and the Indonesian military was credited with a rescue that triggered a crackdown in which many Irianese were massacred, raped, tortured or dispossessed.
The report does not allege the SAS directly took part in the mission, to rescue a team of European biologists and Indonesian researchers, but claims SAS personnel were implicated at least as advisors and planners.
Four Britons, a German, a Dutchman and his pregnant wife, and four Indonesians had been held for four months while the International Red Cross negotiated for their release.
Free Papua Movement (OPM) guerillas had captured the team to draw international attention to their battle against Indonesia for independence in the western half of New Guinea.
Indonesia was accused in Monday's report of bombing and strafing villages whose loyalties were regarded as suspect during a campaign that brought famine to the region.
One villager told the ABC that between 1,000 people and 5,000 people were killed in the years leading up to the capture of the hostages. "Others fled into the forest never to return, not even to visit any government controlled area again," he said.
Officially, eight OPM soldiers were killed by Indonesian Kopassus special forces in a battle that reached its climax after two of the Indonesian captives had been killed by the OPM.
But Daniel Start, leader of the British team, was quoted as saying the Indonesians were not killed by their OPM captors, but by grieving civilian friends and relatives of innocent people "murdered days before under extraordinary circumstances."
Start said those murdered had been lured to their deaths by a Red Cross flag and gunned down by four or five white people and Indonesians behind them. Eight were killed and many more were wounded.
The International Red Cross denied it had authorised the use of the helicopter with Red Cross markings, but had failed to make any further inquiries, the report said.
OPM leader Kelly Kwalik said the International Red Cross had been "used" by the Indonesians and the military involved in the rescue mission.
Britain appointed military attache Ivor Helberg, a former SAS colonel, to provide specialised assistance and advice to Kopassus commander Major-General Prabowo.
Helberg admitted Britain had also provided sophisticated surveillance equipment to help in the operation, but denied the SAS or any British troops were involved in the rescue mission.
Executive Outcomes' now retired chief executive officer, Nick Van Den Bergh, said he led a team of five mercenaries in Irian Jaya during the hostage crisis, providing advice and training for a helicopter assault, but denied he or his men took part in it. Van Den Berg also said he could name two of the SAS team who were in the area.