The naming of Special Forces (Kopassus) Commander Maj. Gen. Sriyanto and the alleged involvement of 11 Kopassus soldiers in the ambush which killed two Americans and an Indonesian at the Freeport gold and copper mining site August 31, have brought the elite Red Beret corps back into the spotlight.

The corps developed a reputation since 1966 as the killing machine of deposed President Suharto.

Initially, Kopassus consisted of three groups. Groups 1 and 2 are predominantly combat troops, similar to their counterparts anywhere in the world.

Group 3, which was set up in 1963, features additional training on counter insurgency, including interrogation techniques and torture methods.

Under Lt. Gen. Prabowo Subianto, Group 3 became notorious for its role in state-sponsored terrorism by operations involving the murder, torture and kidnapping of potential and influential opposition figures.

In the run-up to the Consultative Assembly (MPR) session on 11 March 1998 which reappointed Suharto as president for his seventh consecutive term, at least 23 government critics disappeared. Nine of them later resurfaced and told stories of solitary confinement, interrogation and physical abuse. The remainder are presumed to have been murdered.

Under Prabowo's command, Kopassus increased its strength to 7000 troops by 1998, almost double its earlier size. This led to criticism that Kopassus under Prabowo had lost its character as a special forces unit.

Under the pretext of dealing with growing social unrest, Prabowo established Groups 4 and 5, most of whose members were recruited from Group 3. Group 4 and 5 members were trained in German anti-terrorist methods, following the lead of their commander, himself was one of the few Indonesian officers to train with the prestigious CSG anti-terrorist squad in Germany.

One distinctive feature of Groups 4 and 5 are that their members do not wear uniforms. It was not surprising that Groups 4 and 5 were blamed for doing dirty work during the Suharto era.

In August 1998, Prabowo admitted to a military investigation team that he was responsible for a number of kidnappings and disappearances. He and two other senior Kopassus officers were removed from their posts. Eleven Kopassus Group 5 members, known as Tim Mawar (Rose Team), were tried and given minor sentences.

Group 4, which is based in Cijantung, East Jakarta, focuses on infiltrating opposition groups and acts as provocateurs. They grow their hair long, dress shabbily, set up secret cells and have been known to carry out assassinations.

Simply put, terror and violence are their stock in trade and they frequently recruit criminals as auxiliaries. Group 5, meanwhile, was set up to kidnap or kill influential opposition figures in the closing years of Suharto's rule.

Groups 4 and 5 are widely suspected by several military observers to have contributed to the intelligence operation-style terror that swept the country since B.J. Habibie took over the presidency in 1998.

In an interview with Metro TV after the Bali bombing on 12 October 2002, Col. (ret.) Djuanda, who works in the office of Coordinating Minister for Politics and Security Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, said that the perpetrators of Bali bombing must have been well-trained in demolition, thus strengthening the speculation that the Kopassus network was implicated in one way or another in the terrorist attack.

Group 4 is known as the covert-combat unit within the battalion, but because of its character as an anti-terrorist unit (similar to detachment 81, established in 1979), it and Group 5 remain shrouded in mystery. After Prabowo's dismissal, several platoons from the two groups were reported to have defected.

Rumors spread that there had been "phantom troops" operating in troubled areas such as Aceh, Maluku and Papua, which suggesting that the "missing" Kopassus platoons may still be operating, through no one knows who is commanding them.

Accordingly, when police sources stated that they believed that all of the six suspects wanted for the Bali bombing named by the police on Sunday to be at a number of Islamic boarding schools in Banten, Central Java and East Java, the logical question arose whether they were really under the protection of Kopassus elements.

The suspicion arises partly because of the position of the headquarters of Group 2 at Menjangan Kertasura in Central Java. Current commander Sriyanto spent much of his military career in the area around Solo, as commander of Group 2 in 1996, later as regional military commander in 1998.

In 2001, a prominent intelligence officer from the National Intelligence Agency (BIN) told Detak tabloid that some Rp 4 trillion of money controlled by Suharto was hidden at Group 2 headquarters. While there is no confirmation of the allegation, there is no doubt that the area around Solo is firmly under the control of Kopassus.

Another fact that raised suspicion of a link between Kopassus and the Bali suspects is the past connection between Kopassus and several militia groups.

Since the command of Prabowo, it was commonly believed that Kopassus recruited civilian militias, including those committed to pressing the cause of Islam in Indonesian political life.

Members of these militias mostly came from gangs, or were criminals released from prison. The militias were under the direction of Groups 4 and 5.

Habibie's decision in January 1999 to hold a referendum in East Timor demonstrated a tangible link between Kopassus and the militias. Most of the 11,000 militiamen were trained in West Timor by Group 4 and 5 Kopassus members. Many of the militiamen were non-Timorese from other parts of Indonesia.

These new militia gangs or death squads included Besi Merah Putih (red-and-white steel) in Liquisa; Aitarak (thorn) in Dili; Dadurus in Maliana and Mahidi (dead or alive with integration) in Ainaro. These are the thugs who, with their Kopassus masters, were responsible for the killings and devastation that grew in intensity during 1999 and came to a terrifying climax in September 1999.

The connection with the organized crime is also clear, since Kopassus soldiers have often been used by major underworld figures as bodyguards. This created a natural link with a number of existing paramilitary groups that were cover organizations for thug elements, such as Pemuda Pancasila, who were used for more distasteful political jobs.

The collusion between Kopassus members and the civilian militias as shown in East Timor is believed to be similar in other regions, including those with elements committed to Islamic fundamentalism, including Aceh, Maluku and Poso.