Mystery has shrouded the death in September 2001 of Willem Onde, a local OPM commander in Merauke, together with a colleague. Investigations conducted this year by the Catholic Diocese in Merauke point to the involvement of Kopassus in his murder, just two months before Theys Eluay, the pro-independence leader was put to death by Kopassus officers. These revelations point to a systematic Kopassus intelligence operation directed against pro-independence West Papuans.
This is the story of a local OPM commander who thought he could make peace with the Indonesian military but who never relinquished his pro-independence loyalties. In the end, he fell victim to an intelligence operation by the army's masterly intel operators, Kopassus.
The name of Willem Onde, a local OPM (Organisasi Papua Merdeka) commander in the Merauke region first came to prominence when he took sixteen employees of a Korean logging company hostage in January 2001, on which occasion he was said to be "working with military".
After the hostages were released following negotiations with the military, nothing more was heard until reports began to circulate that he and his assistant, John Tumin, had been found dead under suspicious circumstances in September 2001. But now, the Peace and Justice Commission of the Merauke Diocese has published a detailed investigation of the events leading up to these deaths, in a report published on the authority of Archbishop of Merauke, Mgr Jacobus Duivenvoorde MSC, and endorsed by leaders of the Merauke Protestant churches.
The main events highlighted in this very detailed report commence with peace talks in May 1997 between Willem Onde and the local military commander, resulting in a local ceasefire. To the dismay of other OPM units in the region, Onde's men handed in dozens of weapons to the TNI after which Onde was quoted as saying he was now "close to the TNI" in the interests of peace.
In January 2001, a group of men under Onde's command took sixteen employees of Korindo, a Korean timber company, hostage, including three Koreans. One of Onde's demands was for the withdrawal of Brimob troops from Merauke, following the shooting dead of eight Papuans while raising the Papuan flag in Merauke in December 2000. Rumours circulated at the time that this action had the backing of Kopassus.
After two weeks the hostages were released. Brimob troops were not withdrawn but Onde's demand to be taken to Jakarta to meet top-level government officials was met. Kopassus renews pressure on Onde In May 2001, when the government was trying to win support for Special Autonomy status for West Papua, Onde met the Kopassus commander in West Papua, Lieutenant-Colonel Hartomo (now the main suspect in the assassination of Theys Eluay who asked him to arrange a meeting with the OPM commander in Merauke, Bernard Mawen and persuade him to speak out in favour of special autonomy.
These efforts proved futile and in a letter dated 1 June 2001, a senior army intelligence officer from Kopassus wrote to Onde saying that he would no longer enjoy their protection unless he agreed to "return to the fold of the Motherland". This was something that Onde had no intention of doing. Thereafter, Onde visited the Pacific island of Nauru at the time of the annual gathering there of the Pacific Islands Forum (though other Papuan representatives were denied visas). He used this occasion to circulate information about brutalities inflicted on the Papuan people by the TNI.
The last time Willem Onde and John Tumin were seen alive was on 10 September 2001 when they visited the director of the Korean timber company, Korindo. Later that day, witnesses reported seeing the abandoned motorbike on which the two men had been travelling, and items of their clothing. Witnesses are quoted as saying they saw Kopassus soldiers acting suspiciously and loitering in the area where the men had been seen, ordering a logging truck not to stop and asking others whether they had sighted John Tumin.
On 11 September, some children spotted a corpse floating in a river under a bridge. The corpse was pulled out of the river and found to be that of John Tumin. His body was covered with bruises and there were several bullet wounds, indicating that he had been tortured and shot.
On 14 September, the national news agency, Antara, reported that Onde was thought to have been murdered because some of his belongings had been found, including his blood-stained hat. That evening, a second corpse was found in the river which was bound in a way as to prevent it from floating away. This was soon identified as Willem Onde. His body also bore distinct signs of having been tortured and shot.
Ten days later, Theys Eluay, chair of the Papuan Presidium Council, asked the regional government in Jayapura for an explanation as to why Onde had been murdered. The team of investigators points out that the bodies of the murdered men had been disposed of in such a way as to ensure their early detection, suggesting that one aim was to terrify local residents.
The investigators also report many scare stories that circulated in the area at the time of the disappearance of the two men. The investigators conclude by asking why the police and civil authorities have made no attempt to investigate the murder of Onde and Tumin. They also raise the possibility of a link between these murders and the murder of Theys Eluay two months later and point to similarities because both events can be linked to Kopassus.