An Indonesian military court has sentenced four special forces soldiers for up to three and a half years jail for the murder of Papuan pro-independence leader Theys Eluay in November 2001. Another three Kopassus soldiers are still awaiting their verdicts. Mr Eluay was killed while being driven home from a dinner hosted at the Kopassus headquarters in the Papuan capital Jayapura. His body was found the following day.

Transcript:

Lopresti: Tim what has been the reaction if any to these sentences?

Palmer: "Very little reaction in Indonesia and I think that's partially because Indonesia sought a low profile to this case. It sought to hide the matter away if you like in a military tribunal in Surabaya rather than have the matter dealt in a more public forum, as demanded by the Papuan Presidium for example in Papua itself."

"So to some extent this matter hasn't received a great deal of coverage in Indonesia, but in Papua the reaction has been of course very strong, especially to the sentences which are considered very light of course. Willy Mandowan of the Papua Presidium said that they reject both the process and the result in this matter and believe this was a crime against humanity and should have been dealt with at some level in either a civil court or in a human rights hearing."

Lopresti: Now Lieutenant Colonel Hartono got three and a half years jail, he was the highest-ranking Kopassus soldier on trial. What did the court say about his involvement in the murder of Theys Eluay?

Palmer: "Essentially the court blamed him for motivating the crime saying that he'd spoken to his subordinates and had told them that he basically wanted Theys Eluay quietened, he wanted them to persuade Theys Eluay and the court said, through mistreatment to stop talking about independence. And so it was that on that night in November 2001 Theys Eluay was driven away from the Kopassus Hero's Day dinner that he'd been invited to, supposedly to be driven home by a number of Kopassus soldiers."

"On the way they sought to convince him they say to stop pursuing the cause of independence, Theys Eluay expressed the fact he wasn't going to do that, he'd lost faith with Jakarta's promises of autonomy, and at some stage when the argument got hot the soldiers claim he started panicking and calling thief at which point the most junior officers, who was also given a three and a half year sentence today covered his mouth for five minutes the officer said, but left him alive when he left the car. The officer said he was still speaking but speaking quietly. Of course the post mortem evidence suggested anything but that, that Theys Eluay was throttled in the car and found the next morning dead in the vehicle with his eyes and tongue protruding, and that his driver had also disappeared and hasn't been seen since."

Lopresti: Now Tim, these soldiers could have faced a fifteen year jail term, they got three years. Is there any sense especially from the Papuans that basically they got off scot-free?

Palmer: "Oh the Papuans think that this whole process has been botched, I think other international observers will be very concerned about the lightness of the sentences, and there will be strong questions asked about whether these sentences will be served in full. Two of the officers who were given sentences today remain officers in the Indonesian army, they weren't even discharged."

"So there will of course be some serious concern about the levity of the sentences, but of course the whole issue turns more spotlight on Indonesia's handling of the Papua situation given the events of the Freeport shooting last year, and of course the death in custody of another Papuan independence figure just last week in Papua."

Lopresti: There are three other Kopassus soldiers awaiting trial. Are they likely to also be sentenced?

Palmer: "We are awaiting details of the sentence, we thought they would be sentenced in the hours following the initial four sentences, we're still waiting to hear exactly how the process is going to deal with those three men."