Jakarta – Indonesia's armed forces – widely suspected of involvement in the murder of a Papua separatist leader – will be represented on a proposed national commission to investigate the crime, it was announced Wednesday.
Top security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the commission would include representatives from both inside and outside the government. It would include several members of the Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI) and native Papuans, he said.
"One should not misunderstand the involvement of the TNI in the commission. TNI is there so that the investigation is not hindered because there is a TNI unit being investigated in this case," Yudhoyono was quoted saying by the Detikcom online news service.
Many people in Indonesia's easternmost province Papua, including its police chief, its governor and rights activists, have said there were indications but no proof that members of the Kopassus special army force had a role in the murder last year of Theys Hiyo Eluay.
Activists in Papua, which was previously known as Irian Jaya, have called for an independent team to be set up to investigate the killing. Local police admit their investigations have hit a dead end. Earlier this month Home Affairs Minister Hari Sabarno promised that the military and police would not be represented on the commission.
Eluay was found murdered on November 11. He had been abducted the previous evening by an unidentified group as he drove home from a Heroes' Day celebration hosted by the Kopassus unit in Jayapura. Eluay's driver, who escaped and reported the abduction which he said was carried out by who he called non-Papuan people, has since disappeared.
After questioning at least seven Kopassus members over the killing, police have admitted they have hit a dead end in their investigation.
Yudhoyono said the establishment of the "National Commission of Investigation" was awaiting final approval from President Megawati Sukarnoputri. "On the matter of the commission, I have already submitted the presidential decree to President Megawati for her to sign it," he said,
A sporadic low-level armed struggle for independence began after the Dutch ceded control of the territory to Indonesia in 1963. The province was renamed Papua this month under an autonomy law designed to lessen pressure for independence and which also gives it a much greater share of revenues from natural resources.