Washington – Indonesian soldiers were the ones who carried out a deadly ambush that killed two American teachers returning from a picnic last summer, senior Bush administration officials told the New York Times.
"There is no question there was military involvement," said a senior administration official. "There is no question it was premeditated." The conclusion follows an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Times reported from Jakarta in yesterday's edition.
Last month, United States President George W. Bush dispatched an influential emissary secretly to tell Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri that the country must mount a serious probe with FBI participation, the newspaper said.
The emissary, Ms Karen Brooks, who is the National Security Council's senior Asian specialist, also has a personal and professional relationship with Ms Megawati, according to the Times. Two FBI agents arrived in Indonesia last week to help in the investigation, the newspaper reported.
The Indonesian military has denied any involvement in the ambush, which also killed an Indonesian teacher and wounded eight Americans. But a report by the country's police force last year suggested that the military was behind the killings, the Times said.
"The administration official and diplomats from other countries said there was still a mystery about who ordered the killings and why," the officials told the Times.
"They said the most likely explanation was that soldiers were trying to send a message to the teachers" employer, an American company that operates one of the world's largest copper and gold mines in the area.
"The company, Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold, had reduced payments and other benefits to soldiers." Freeport has declined to answer any questions about the killings or about payments to the police and the military.
"This is a police matter, and we cannot comment on the ongoing investigation," company spokesman Siddharta Moersjid told the newspaper. "Freeport hopes the perpetrators, whoever they are, will be brought to justice."
The victims, who taught at Freeport's international school, were ambushed last August near Tembagapura, a town in eastern Irian Jaya province, also known as Papua.
Gunmen who shot at the school vehicles with automatic weapons killed principal Edwin Burgon, 71, and Mr Ricky Lynn Spier, 44, a fourth-grade teacher from Colorado, along with Indonesian teacher Bambang Riwanto.
Some Indonesian army officials have blamed the ambush on a poorly armed group of separatist rebels who have been waging a long-running but sporadic guerilla campaign in Papua.
Reports of military involvement could seriously undermine US efforts to resume with Indonesia full military ties which have been restricted since 1999 because of the military-backed violence in Timor Leste, then known as East Timor.