James Balowski – On August 31, a band of unidentified assailants ambushed a group of mine workers in Indonesia's eastern-most province of West Papua, leaving three dead and 11 injured.
Indonesian officials immediately blamed the Free Papua Movement (OPM), however others have accused the Indonesian security forces of involvement in the attack.
While some details of the attack remain unclear, it is understood that a group of teachers left Tembagapura – a mining town which serves Freeport mine operations – late on the morning of August 31 to drive towards the provincial centre of Timika. On their return they were ambushed and two Americans and an Indonesian were killed. Others suffered gunshot wounds and were flown to Townsville for medical treatment.
Indonesia's response was swift, with two infantry companies being deployed to search and capture the attackers. An ensuing gun battle between troops and the alleged attackers killed one Papuan and seriously injured an Indonesian soldier.
There have also been reports that on September 2 troops arrested 15 people in connection with the attack. West Papuans and human rights organisations have called for a impartial and independent investigation into the killings.
The attack occurred near the world's biggest and most profitable gold and copper mine, which is owned by Freeport Indonesia, a subsidiary of US-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc.
Freeport – which began operations in 1968 – has been criticised over its environmental record and impact on the local community. Thousands of indigenous people from the impoverished Amungme and Komoro tribes have been evicted from the mining area since operations began.
The company, which employs 18,000 people, is Indonesia's largest taxpayer, contributing an average of $US180 million a year. Only $30 million is returned to the province.
There has been opposition to Indonesian rule in West Papua since the Dutch-run territory was transferred to Indonesia by the discredited UN-sponsored "Act of Free Choice" in 1969. Exploitation and human rights abuses by Indonesian security forces have fuelled these demands.
Amnesty International says that operations by the military against the pro-independence activists have resulted in gross human rights violations and the OPM claims that at least 100,000 have died during the conflict.
The Australian Council for Overseas Aid (ACFOA) has suggested that Freeport turned a blind eye while the military killed and tortured dozens in and around the mine site between June 1994 and February 1995. Human rights groups say that although Freeport has not yet been proved to be directly involved, the military used the company's equipment, premises and vehicles to carry out human rights abuses.
Although no group has claimed responsibility for the August 31 attack and the OPM has denied any involvement, the Indonesian military was quick to blame the separatists. On September 2, Papua regional military chief, Major-General Mahidin Simbolon, was quoted by Reuters as saying: "They're indeed separatists. They're OPM. But we don't know which faction yet." Asked whether the group was linked to the separatist Papua Presidium Council (PDP), which seeks independence through peaceful means, Simbolon said: "They have the same idealism. Both of them want to separate this area from Indonesia. One is a military wing. The other is a political one. Whether they have some cooperation in this incident, I won't make any conclusion. You figure it out yourself." On September 3, the Indonesian government also blamed separatist rebels for the attack. Freeport itself has been more guarded, saying it did not wish to speculate but that the attack may have carried out by a faction of the OPM.
Indonesian police say they do not know who the perpetrators are. Police chief Da'i Bachtiar, who arrived in West Papua on September 4, stated at a press conference that he would include the military in his investigations.
According to the September 2 Singapore Straits Times, well-placed sources said that a key suspect was the OPM group in Timika led by Kelly Kwalik, who was involved in the kidnapping of foreign nationals in 1996.
There have also been unconfirmed reports that two US survivors identified their attackers as "Indonesian military". They are now under tight security and being interviewed by the FBI with no media allowed access.
Security analysts familiar with the Freeport operation say they are suspicious about the circumstances of the attack, suggesting that the military were more capable of carrying it out. One told the September 2 Melbourne Age: "It could be somebody in the security apparatus who wanted to justify their security role... It's not the sort of OPM activity that we have seen lately – it doesn't follow the traditional pattern." PDP vice-president Tom Beanal has also accused security forces of "setting-up" the ambush. He pointed to unusual aspects: the fact that bullet casings showed the attackers used M-16 and SS1 rifles (standard issue for Indonesia's security forces), that Westerners were targeted and the group's apparent decision to remain at the ambush site for 24 hours when heavily armed soldiers returned and shot one of them dead.
Indonesian officials have denied the claim. "They [rebels] had in the past seized weapons from police and troops they attacked, as what happened to Brimob police earlier this year", police spokesperson Josef Iswanto told Agence France Presse on September 2.
In an article titled "Army playing at terrorist against itself", the September 4 Australian Financial Review asserted that the attack was "part of 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'".
Brigham Golden, who sits on the US Council for Foreign Relations task force on Papua, told the AFR: "The military in the past has used OPM elements as proxies ... nobody has as much to gain as the military does from instability in this region." Matthew Mayer, the Australian representative of the West Papua National Congress, told the Sydney Morning Herald on September 3 that all OPM units are under clear instructions not to attack Westerners and have not engaged the military for months.
"There is no possibility Kelly Kwalik or any of our people would have done this", Mayer said. "This smacks of Kopassus [Indonesian special forces]. This is just Indonesian propaganda to turn the Americans against us and what we are fighting for." John Rumbiak from the Papuan human rights group ELSHAM agrees. In a Radio Australia interview on September 2, Rumbiak said: "Most of the guerrilla leaders throughout the entire province are now in a position of reforming peaceful movement for their political demand, so I don't believe that this attack on Freeport employees was done by Kelly Kwalik and his group. I do believe that there were Papuans involved in this. You can easily pay-off anyone if you need money and it's not something that it is rare." "This is the tradition of the military in Indonesia as a whole but specifically in Papua, to orchestrate this kind of attack and scapegoat the OPM", Rumbiak told Reuters on the same day.
Rumbiak said that the military could have had three motives: to remind Freeport that they still needed protection, undermine the credibility of the independence movement and to convince the US to speed up negotiations on resuming military ties with Jakarta, which were severed after Indonesia-backed militias ran riot in East Timor.
PDP member Agus Alua told Reuters that the incident would give the military an excuse to launch an operation against not just the OPM, but the entire Papuan political movement. He said that if Papuans were involved, then they had likely been recruited into military-sponsored militia, similar to those in East Timor.
These suspicions are also supported by minutes of internal police meetings and documents obtained by the Australian, which reveal a strategy to put the PDP out of business, possibly by arresting and prosecuting its leaders.
An article in the August 29 Australian reported that a 60-day operation, known as "Adil Matoa", began this month. Its aim is to identify separatists and separatist organisations, arrest and prosecute individuals and shut down organisations conducting separatist activities.
Denise Leith, author of the soon to be published book, The Politics of Power: Freeport in Suharto's Indonesia, argues that the military may have had other motives.
In an article posted by laksamana.net on September 2, Leith says that for years Freeport has turned a blind eye to military theft, such practices being considered part of the cost of protection. In 1991, Emmy Hafild, from the Indonesian environmental NGO Walhi, claimed that the military commander of the area boasted to her that Freeport directly supported military operations and helped pay military salaries. A number of reports have also claimed that Freeport pays US$11 million annually into a military fund which is reputedly topped up on request.
On July 26, the US Congress passed the Corporate Fraud Act which required US companies to file certifications by August 14 declaring that their financial accounts were true and accurate. Leith suggests that while in the past Freeport may have been willing to fund the military and turn a blind-eye to its illegal activities, after filing certifications under the new law the company may have changed its corporate policy.
According to Dr Benny Giay, chairperson of the West Papuan Reconciliation Task Force, two weeks ago a local newspaper reported that Freeport had accused members of the military of theft. On the same day as the attack, Giay said he was told that the head of Freeport's security had been threatened by the military because he had discontinued some or all of the payments.
Leith noted that in March 1996, shortly after the release of the ACFOA report the company attempted to distance itself from the military. In response the military took control of, if not orchestrated, violent riots in Timika which saw the direct targeting of Freeport infrastructure.
The military's official budget only meets around 25% of operating costs and it freely admits that it makes up the difference through various military linked businesses.
Rumbiak told Radio Australia that the military is running protection rackets and selling its services to companies such as Freeport to make up the shortfall. "The company also has to pay for their facilities including cars, housing and even salaries." Rumbiak says the military is stirring up communal conflict, using East Timor style militias and assassinating political leaders. In November last year, West Papua's leading opposition figure, Theys Hiyo Eluay, was murdered. Ten Kopassus soldiers have been detained in connection with the case.
Regardless of who was responsible for the August 31 attack, many believe it will be used as an excuse to intensify military action against the independence movement.
On September 3, the US embassy in Jakarta denounced the killings, stating: "The attack on these innocent victims, who were mostly school teachers, is an outrageous act of terrorism... We urge the government of Indonesia to take all necessary steps swiftly to apprehend and punish the perpetrators of this horrible attack." In a Radio Australia interview on September 2, Dr Richard Chauvel, who heads the Australian Asia Pacific Institute at Victoria University in Melbourne, said that the incident will strengthen the military's hand against the separatists. "I think they'll undoubtedly do that. They're still trying to persuade the Americans to recommence working relations and supplies to the Indonesian military. That, in the current international environment of being able to identify terrorist attacks, particularly that resulted in the killing of two Americans, and the wounding of others, clearly can fit into that political objective." Over the last month military leaders in Jakarta have also attempted to smear the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) with the terrorist brush in an attempt to justify establishing a state of emergency in the province and launching a crackdown against the independence supporters.
Faced with independence movements in West Papua and Aceh which it has been unable to placate with "special autonomy deals" or defeat politically, labelling such movements as terrorist will allow the military to wage all-out war with the blessing of the US State Department.
But a harsh reaction by the military without clear evidence of OPM's involvement is likely to hurt US attempts to renew military ties with Jakarta, which it hopes will form a bulwark in the region against terrorism and secure US business interests in the country.