Jakarta – Indonesia on Tuesday formally set up an inquiry team including an army general to investigate the murder of Papua separatist leader Theys Hiyo Eluay, a crime in which military involvement is suspected.
The 11-man team comprises five government officials – including one each from the national police and the military – and six civilians, said Information Minister Syamsul Mu'arif.
Mu'arif, speaking after a ministerial meeting on political and security issues, said President Megawati Sukarnoputri had signed the decree appointing the commission.
The team will be led by Kusparmono Irsan, a retired police general and a member of the National Commission on Human Rights. The five government officials include national military police chief, Major General Jasri Marin, and Inspector General Engkesman Hillep, chief detective in the national civilian police. The other three government members are Papua-born national legislator Simon Patrice Morin, Papua provincial chief legislator John Ibo and I Putu Kusa of the attorney general's office.
Activists in Papua, which was previously known as Irian Jaya, have called for an independent team to be set up to investigate the killing last year.
Top security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said last week the commission would include a military member to ensure army cooperation, "because there is a TNI [armed forces] unit being investigated in this case." Army chief General Endriartono Sutarto has said that witness testimony has indicated the possible involvement of members of an elite army unit, Kopassus, in the murder last November.
The commission is expected to question all witnesses who have already been interviewed by police.
Many people in Papua, including its police chief, its governor and rights activists, have said there are indications that Kopassus members had a role in the murder. Local police admitted after questioning at least seven Kopassus members that they had hit a dead end in their investigation.
Eluay was found murdered on November 11. He had been abducted the previous evening by an unidentified group as he drove home from a Heroes' Day celebration hosted by the Kopassus unit in the provincial capital Jayapura. Eluay's driver escaped and reported the abduction, which he said was carried out by non-Papuan people. He has since disappeared.
A sporadic low-level armed struggle for independence began after the Dutch ceded control of the territory to Indonesia in 1963. The province was renamed Papua this month under an autonomy law designed to lessen pressure for independence and which also gives it a much greater share of revenues from natural resources.