Tom Hyland, Jakarta – Indonesian police have reportedly made fresh allegations of possible army involvement in the killing of two Americans in Papua province, in a move that could further complicate efforts by Jakarta to respond to United States pressure to resolve the case.
The allegations highlight continuing tension between the army and police, with the Indonesian Government conceding the need to reconcile conflicting accounts by the two security agencies of the August 31 ambush near the giant Freeport mine, in which an Indonesian civilian also died.
The deputy police chief in Papua, Brigadier-General Raziman Tarigan, was quoted by the newspaper Koran Tempo as saying troops from the army's strategic reserve, Kostrad, carried out the ambush on a road near the gold and copper mine.
"We know it [was Kostrad]. The only people who pass along that section of road are the military and employees of PT Freeport Indonesia," he was quoted as saying.
General Tarigan later told the Associated Press that he had been misquoted. But he said the weapons used in the ambush – an M-16 rifle, an SS-1 rifle and a Mauser rifle – were standard issue in the Indonesian military. "What is clear is that these weapons are used by Kostrad in the area," he said.
It is not the first time that police have voiced suspicions of an army role in the ambush – claims that have been consistently denied by the military. Police have complained that their investigation has been hampered because they have no authority to question military suspects.
Military police are carrying out their own investigation of the killings, which took place when gunmen fired on a convoy of vehicles carrying teachers – including the two Americans and the Indonesian victim – from a school operated by Freeport.
The army has blamed the attack on elements of the Free Papua Movement (OPM), which is fighting for independence in the province.
Human rights groups, however, have pointed to army involvement – either as a pretext to crack down on the OPM, or as an attempt to extort protection money from Freeport. Suspicions of army involvement are increasingly shared by the US and other Western governments.
Last Saturday the Herald reported that US President George Bush had told Indonesian President Megawati Soekarnoputri that Indonesia must find and punish those responsible for the killings.
Mr Bush's message, delivered in the past fortnight, called for a joint Bali-style investigation and made clear there will be no resumption of US military aid until Washington is satisfied with progress in the Freeport case.
On Monday the Indonesian Government announced it was open to the possibility of the FBI taking part in a joint investigation, as long as Indonesian authorities remained in overall charge.
The Co-ordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, also pointed to a complicating factor in the Indonesian investigations – the different accounts produced by the army and police.
"There are some things that are not matched between the investigation results of the police as law enforcers with the results of the TNI [army] internal investigation into the case," Mr Yudhoyono said, adding that there needed to be a "synchronisation" of the two investigations at the political level.