[Indonesia's Armed Forces chief, General Endriartono Sutarto, has agreed to send a special team to the province of Papua, to probe claims of military involvement in killings of three three people at the American-owned Freeport gold and copper mine, 10 weeks ago. Police and human rights investigations into the killings have pointed to military involvement, setting back efforts by Indonesia to strengthen its already damaged defence relations with the US.]

Presenter/Interviewer: Tricia Fitzgerald

Speakers: Stanley Harsha, Jakarta's US Embassy spokesman; Doctor Benny Giay, Papua's human rights group ELSHAM; Greg Polgrain, University of Queensland.

Fitzgerald: The United States suspended its military ties with Indonesia after violence in East Timor three years ago.

Some US military funding has started flowing again, in the wake of the global terrorism threat, but the resumption of full military ties rests heavily on the outcome of the Freeport Mine investigation.

Freeport is the largest gold mine in the world and represents one of America's most profitable commercial projects in Indonesia.

I Made Pastika who now heads the Bali bombing investigation, was Papua's former police chief.

He led the investigation into the Freeport killings, which claimed the lives of one Indonesian and two American school teachers, an investigation which indicated military involvement and which has been closely monitored by the US Government.

Jakarta's US Embassy spokesman, Stanley Harsha.

Harsha: "We consulted closely with the indonesian police throughout the investigation. we're gravely concerned that the Indonesian police suspect military involvement. We also strongly urge the Indonesian police and military to co-operate in the investigation and apprehension of those responsible for the Papuan murders."

Fitzgerald: Immediately after the Freeport killings military officials blamed Papua's independence rebels, the OPM for the killings, and said they should be outlawed as a terrorist organisation. But leaked intelligence reports have suggested Defence Chief Sutarto himself may have been aware an attack was planned on the mine.

Doctor Benny Giay heads Papua's human rights group ELSHAM. He says local Papuans will co-operate with the military investigation team as Papuans don't want to be blamed for any attacks on foreign civilians.

Giay: "It would be wise if the military can come up with their own investigation and put the investigation on the table. So if the military want to do the investigation, that's all right."

Fitzgerald: Doctor Giay says ELSHAM's own report into the Freeport killings, which found the military had carried out the attack in an effort to discredit the Papuan independence movement, provoked an angry response in Jakarta.

He says last month the ELSHAM office in Jakarta was raided by unknown men who seized all the organisations reports on the Freeport killings. As a result that office has been temporarily shut down.

Giay: "There were unidentified people who came over to the office and broke into the office and we thought it was done by the military, or somebody else. That's part of the, I think that's a reaction to ELSHAM's investigation of the killings."

Fitzgerald: Greg Polgrain of the University of Queensland, says the raids on ELSHAM occurred because the office was being used to hold the group's reports on the Freeport killings.

Polgrain: "The fact that some unidentified men can break in and take away computers and information and no charges have been laid, is totally outrageous. In a way it doesn't matter because the police have the information in any case so it seems just like a threat or a warning to the human rights groups that that action was carried out."

Fitzgerald: In Papua the Freeport killings are being overshadowed by ceremonies honouring the first anniversary of the death of independence leader Chief Theys Eluay. The charismatic chief was murdered a year ago, and hundreds of people have participated in peaceful protests over the chief's death.

ELSHAM's Doctor Benny Giay, he has little confidence the killers of Chief Eluay will be brought to justice.

Giay: "They are taking nine military officials to Surabaya to be tried in Surabaya."

Fitzgerald: So are you satisfied with that?

Giay: "No, no we are not satisfied. It's just the Indonesian way of trying to delay the whole investigation of Theys Eluay. We are not satisfied with that mainly because the generals who gave order to kill Theys Eluay are not implicated in those reports." Greg Polgrain says the killings of Chief Eluay and the Freeport school teachers have shown up a weakness in the prosecuting powers of the Indonesian police.

He is sceptical about the value military investigations when its military personal are the suspects.

Polgrain: "It reflects I think the problem between the police and the military, the army. I think there's some inability of the police to press charges or to carry through with accusations like that. You have to put it into the political court, I think, to get anything done and I doubt very much whether Megawati is in a position to accuse the Head of the Army of being involved in shooting Americans right now."