John Garnaut – A Sydney University professor has described as "outrageous" claims by Indonesia's Security Minister, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, that the university could be linked to the murders two weeks ago of two Americans and one Indonesian on a road near the Freeport mine in Indonesia's Papua province.

Mr Yudhoyono ordered Indonesia's National Intelligence Agency to investigate a conference at the Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution and attended by eight Papuans. He said the Papuan group left for Australia within hours of the killings on Saturday, August 30 and that the investigation "will prevent any assumption that Australia is involved in this case".

But Sydney University's Stuart Rees said the Papuan visit had been endorsed by the Australian and Indonesian governments and that Mr Yudhoyono's allegations inferred the university had convened the conference for the purpose of promoting a push for violence and independence in Papua province. "The conference looked at the whole issue of non-violence," he said. "I think it's outrageous that men and women who've worked hard in peace talks for the past year should be identified as possible killers. They've [also] tarred my name."

Professor Rees said Mr Yudhoyono's comments were an attempt to divert responsibility from the Indonesian military. "It's convenient for the Indonesian military to raise a smokescreen over their own conduct to divert attention to somebody like me," he said.

The Papuan Police Chief, Made Pastika, has confirmed his forces will investigate allegations that it was the military who ordered the killings. Professor Rees said he was concerned that his conference was being used to justify what could become a crackdown on members of Papua's indigenous leadership who had attended, including John Rumbiak, "a future leader of Mandela proportions".

A spokesman for the Australian embassy in Jakarta, Kirk Coningham, said he was "bemused" by Mr Yudhoyono's linking the Papuan murders with a Sydney peace conference.