Don Greenlees – Agents from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and Western diplomats believe Indonesian soldiers fabricated evidence after the August 31 shooting of two American and one Indonesian employee of the giant Freeport copper and gold mine in Papua.

The belief that soldiers tried to plant false evidence and removed other evidence from the scene of the killing has fuelled concerns that elements of the Indonesian military were involved in the ambush of the Freeport employees. Western diplomatic sources also claim communications intercepts pointed to Indonesian officers and soldiers either trying to cover up the identity of the perpetrators or to strengthen their case that the killings were carried out by members of the rebel Free Papua Organisation (OPM).

But they said it was not yet clear whether this was a case of "planting drugs on the drug trafficker" or trying to confuse the identity of the true perpetrators. The Indonesian military has insisted from the beginning that the killers were a hardline element of the OPM. An FBI team made a second visit to Papua last month to assess the conduct of an investigation by the Papuan provincial police and came away with a stronger conviction that military elements might have been involved, according to sources familiar with their conclusions. But the sources said the FBI expressed doubts about the credibility of a witness being held in police custody who claims to have first-hand knowledge of the involvement in the killings of members of the army's special forces, Kopassus.

Among the issues concerning diplomats and police is the discovery of the body of a Papuan man allegedly killed by Indonesian soldiers in a shoot-out the day after the ambush of the Freeportemployees. A later post-mortem revealed he was dead hours before the shoot-out reportedly occurred. The position of the body and the wound was inconsistent with accounts given by soldiers of the exchange of fire in which the Papuan died. A brand new M-16 magazine found on the body is also believed to have been planted. The Washington Post newspaper, quoting a senior military officer and a high-ranking spy, reported yesterday that Indonesian police carrying out theinvestigation had told military counterparts they believed soldiers were responsible for the killings. I Made Pastika, the Australian-trained chief of the Papuan police, now heading the investigation into the Bali bombing, told the head of the Indonesian military police of his conclusions about a week ago, according to the paper.

Security sources said Papuan police so far had compiled about 30 dossiers on Indonesian soldiers. They said Mr Pastika was leaning to the culpability of members of the military, but had not reached a firm conclusion. A respected officer, Mr Pastika led the Papuan police during the investigation into the murder of independence leader Theys Eluay, which concluded that Kopassus was responsible.