A dispute over the killing of two Americans in a remote Indonesian province two years ago shows no sign of abating, despite a recent US indictment against an Indonesian man believed to have been involved.
Indonesian human rights groups are worried that by focusing on a separatist group in West Papua, Attorney General John Ashcroft has diverted attention away from the country's military (known locally as Tentara Nasional Indonesia, or TNI), which has long been suspected of involvement in the crime.
Some members of Congress, too, would like to see further FBI investigation into allegations of TNI collaboration in the killings, and they are urging the administration to hold off on resuming military-to-military ties with Jakarta in the meantime. The relations were severed over TNI human rights abuses in East Timor in the 1990s.
In June, Ashcroft announced that a grand jury had indicted an Indonesian separatist on two counts of murder in connection with an armed ambush in Aug. 2002 in Papua.
Two American teachers and an Indonesian colleague were shot dead and 11 other people, including seven Americans, were injured when gunmen attacked them as they returned from a picnic.
The group was attached to an international school operated by a nearby mine, owned by New Orleans-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold. The approaches to the mine are guarded by the TNI and closed to outsiders.
Initial Indonesian police investigations pointed to military involvement in the ambush, as did research undertaken by Papuan human rights groups. The TNI strongly denied involvement, but suspicions persisted when police later accused the military of failing to cooperate in a joint investigation.
After subsequent FBI investigations, however, the US authorities named as the perpetrator Anthonius Wamang, a member of the separatist Free Papua Movement (OPM).
The OPM has for the past 40 years been waging a low-intensity rebellion for independence for Papua, a resource-rich, predominantly Christian territory formerly known as Irian Jaya, which has been ruled by Indonesia since the early 1960s.
Armed mostly with bows and arrows, OPM members have on occasion taken Europeans hostage – most recently in 2001 – but according to researchers had never been known to attack foreigners before the Freeport incident.
Papuan human rights campaigners worry that the focus on the OPM will provide the military with an "excuse" to step up repression in the province. Noting that Ashcroft had used the word "terrorists" in his June 24 statement, they are concerned the TNI may try to characterize a clampdown against any Papuan dissidents as part of the "war against terrorism."
Veteran human rights campaign John Rumbiak of the Institute for Human Rights and Advocacy (known as ELSHAM) earlier helped the FBI with its inquiries, providing information including statements from Wamang, the indicted man.
Rumbiak said in a phone interview Thursday that he had been "very surprised" when Ashcroft's announcement was released that no reference had been made to the likelihood of military collaboration in the ambush. In effect the statement had cleared the TNI of any role.
In fact, the statement did say the Indonesian police and FBI were continuing efforts "attempting to identify additional participants in the murders."
Rumbiak did not call into question Wamang's involvement – in fact the wanted man had in one statement admitted to a role in the attack, although in a later statement he denied this. But he said a full investigation was needed to reveal the whole picture, including who gave the orders.
Motive questioned
Rumbiak said Wamang had admitted conducting business with the TNI – specifically, trading eaglewood, an important source of revenue in Papua. More importantly, he added, Wamang had admitted getting ammunition from TNI personnel. Why soldiers would provide ammunition to a separatist rebel was a mystery, unless he was operating on their behalf.
With about 100 rounds fired at the two vehicles carrying the teachers, Rumbiak said it was ludicrous to think the small faction of the OPM led by Wamang would have had access to that amount of ammunition without help from the military. In fact, the group was known to have just three ageing weapons – an M16, an AK47 and an old "wait-and-see" Dutch rifle, he said.
Rumbiak also questioned what motive the OPM could have had for attacking foreigners. ELSHAM and other rights groups have suggested a couple of possible reasons for military involvement.
Foreign oil, gas and mining companies in Indonesia have long looked to the military for security, and Freeport has admitted paying millions of dollars for security.
One theory put forward was that the TNI was worried it would lose this important source of revenue as a result of legislative in the US designed to ensure greater corporate accountability.
Elements in the military, according to this scenario, decided foreign firms needed a scare to justify continuing the protection payments.
Another hypothesis was that the military was worried Papua may go the way of East Timor – which became independent of Indonesia three months earlier – and so wanted a pretext for a harsh clampdown on separatists.
Four months after the attack, Indonesia's Koran Tempo newspaper quoted Papua deputy police chief Brig.-Gen. Raziman Tarigan as saying the attackers had used M16 and SS1 automatic rifles, types used by the military. Tarigan also said TNI soldiers had been involved.
'Full investigation'
ELSHAM and two other Indonesian rights groups issued a joint statement this week accusing Ashcroft of not releasing "evidence that would be of great interest to the US Congress and the Freeport victims' families."
They said Ashcroft's statements could be read by the military as a signal to go after Papuan dissidents. The groups called on the US Congress "to facilitate a full, impartial investigation" into the shooting incident.
Some members of Congress have been engaged on the issue since soon after the ambush. Congress earlier took steps to limit funding for military education training because of concerns that Jakarta was not cooperating with the FBI investigation.
In a new letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, a bipartisan group of lawmakers is urging the administration not to take steps towards resuming normalized military relations with Indonesia – specifically by reconvening a bilateral defense dialogue.
Among other concerns about the TNI cited in the letter, the signatories said that while they were pleased an indictment had been issued in the Freeport shooting case, "we believe that further investigation into collaborators in this ambush is warranted."
Joe Collins of the Australia West Papua Association in Sydney said Thursday that the TNI was "renowned for its dirty tricks" and would have been buoyed by the indictment against an OPM member.
"This is the opportunity the military is waiting for, that the OPM could be classed as a terrorist organization. Since 9/11 nobody wants to be classified as a terrorist organization," he said.
"They will just use this as an excuse to crack down, and they don't distinguish between civilians and so-called separatists," Collins said. "Whenever military operations take place, there's usually high civilian casualties."