The widow of one of two American teachers shot dead in Indonesia's rugged Papua province last year has been lobbying the United States administration and congressmen to halt the recently resumed training of Indonesian military officers.

Nancy Spier, who was in Washington on January 16-17, tells the Review that she wants Congress to cut funding for the officer training until an investigation into the killing of her husband, Rich Spier, has been completed. Spier claims there is evidence that the Indonesian military was behind the August 31 ambush, which also left another American teacher and an Indonesian dead.

"It's unbelievable that we'd give them [training] now. It would be a green light to continue their abuses," says Spier, who was wounded in the attack. But she adds that officials told her it was "virtually impossible" to drop the military training from an aid budget earmarked for Indonesia over the coming year.

Washington has been pressing Jakarta to wrap up its investigation of the ambush, which took place near a massive gold-and-copper mine run by US firm Freeport McMoRan. Some intelligence reports received by US investigators indicate that senior Indonesian military officials had discussed using the attack to discredit a local separatist group.