Indonesian Army Chief general Endriartono Sutarto rejected allegations that the military was behind the murder of an Irian Jaya pro-independence leader and vowed to punish any soldier implicated in the case.
"There is no policy to kill Eluay. If there are personnel involved, we will act firmly against them," Sutarto told journalists referring to Theys Hiyo Eluay, the leader of the pro-independence Papua Presidium, who was found dead on November 11. Eluay had been abducted the previous evening.
Sutarto noted allegations in Irian Jaya that soldiers were responsible for the abduction and murder and said the military will not attempt to cover up any role of soldiers in the case. "There will be no tolerance, we will not cover up," he said.
The Institute for Advocacy and Human Rights (Elsham), a leading human rights group in Irian Jaya, on Tuesday said state institutions were implicated in the murder. John Rumbiak, of Elsham, said the military's special forces unit Kopassus was closely implicated in Eluay's killing. He said military or government representatives should not sit in on an independent inquiry proposed by the national Human Rights Commission.
"Here in Jayapura we are calling it an assassination, not a murder. This is an extraordinary crime involving the state. It is a highly political killing," Rumbiak said by phone from Irian Jaya, known locally as Papua.
Eluay, who headed the pro-independence Papua Praesidium, was abducted by an unidentified group as he drove home from a military Heroes' Day celebration hosted by the local Kopassus unit in Jayapura on November 10. His body, bearing signs of asphyxiation, was found in his car at the bottom of a ravine the following day. Eluay's driver, who escaped and reported his abduction by 'non-Papuan' people, has since disappeared.
After questioning at least seven Kopassus agents over the killing, police have admitted they have hit "a dead-end" in their inquiries, Commission member Bambang Suharto told AFP. Suharto led a fact-finding mission on Eluay's death to Jayapura from December 3 to 7.