Indonesia's military has ruled that the killing of seperatist leader Theys Eluay in the restive Indonesian province of Papua was not politically motivated.

The suspects – all members of the army's Kopassus elite special force based in the Papuan capital Jayapura – will face a military tribunal, Military Police chief Major General Sulaiman was quoted as saying by The Jakarta Post.

Eluay was kidnapped and strangled in November by a group of unidentified men after he returned from a dinner at the local Kopassus headquarters.

Sulaiman refused to disclose a possible motive for the murder, which has intensified the distrust felt by ordinary Papuans toward the military and the central government and has led to calls for an international investigation.

Sulaiman said the suspects, among them three middle-ranking officers, had denied any role in the slaying.

The army has admitted that some of its officers may have been involved in Eluay's murder, but said the men were acting outside the chain of command.

Eluay advocated peaceful dialogue with Jakarta rather than violence in Papua's independence struggle.

Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri supported the establishment of the inquiry, but has declared her unequivocal opposition to West Papuan independence.

Indonesia formally annexed West Papua, a former Dutch colony, in 1969 after a UN-sanctioned 'act of free choice' in which about 1,000 hand-picked tribal leaders allegedly expressed their desire for integration. Critics have dismissed the process as a sham.