Ellen Nakashima and Alan Sipress, Jakarta – Police have told senior Indonesian military officials they believe Indonesian soldiers were responsible for the August 31 ambush near a copper and gold mine in Papua province that killed two Americans and an Indonesian, according to a senior military officer and a high-ranking intelligence officer.

[Made Pastika, the Indonesian police investigator mentioned by Robert Gelbard in our recent interview, is considered one of the best in the country. Until last week, he was focused on another terror attack. Two months ago, three teachers, two of them American, were gunned down in West Papua, Indonesia's easternmost province.

Results of Investigation into the attack on Freeport employees in Timika, Papua, finds corporation allows impunity of criminal acts by Indonesian armed forces

I. Introduction

Brief Historical Context of Papua, Indonesia and Freeport

Port Moresby - The Papua Council Presidium (PCP), on behalf of the people of West Papua, wishes to convey its sincere condolences and deepest sympathy to the families and relatives of the victims of the Saturday, 13th October 2002, terrorist bomb attacks at the tourist resorts in Kuta on the Indonesian island of Bali.

Jakarta – Indonesia's military police chief said on Tuesday two officers from the special forces were the main suspects in last year's killing of a top Papua separatist leader.

Uli Schmetzer, Jakarta – The investigation into the deadly ambush of a convoy of American teachers in Indonesia has become bogged down by a long list of suspects in a nation where terrorists wear many faces and violence often hides behind an official mask.

Ben Bohane, Port Vila – A senior Indonesian diplomat who went to Vanuatu last week on a mission to try and persuade the Vanuatu government against supporting the West Papuan independence movement has left without success, according to a statement from Vanuatu's Foreign Affairs department.

Documents of the police operation code-named Operasi Adil Matoa show that the aim of the Operation is to build cases against Papuan organisations which support independence in order to secure their conviction, the imprisonment of their leaders and activists and the dissolution of the organisations.

Chris Ballard – Wellem Korwam's dismembered body was found wrapped piece by piece in plastic bags and floating in a river in the Wasior area of West Papua in September 2001.

The top leadership of the Indonesian military has responded angrily, making revengeful accusations against West Papua's leading human rights organisation, ELSHAM, for daring to accuse an arm of the military, Kopassus, of responsibility for the killing of three Freeport officials and the wounding of 12 others on 31 August.

Tiarma Siboro and Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, Jakarta – A coalition of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) urged the United Nations on Monday to send a rapporteur to investigate the Freeport ambush that killed two Americans and one Indonesian, while it deplored statements implying that the Free Papua Movement (OPM) was behind the fatal shooting.

Papuan independence activists have welcomed Vanuatu's strong support for their cause at the United Nations, and have urged other Pacific countries to add their voice to the campaign.

Diarmid O'Sullivan – The struggle over land and natural resource rights is a key aspect of the conflict in Papua, formerly known as Irian Jaya, that pits the Indonesian state against an independence movement supported by most of the indigenous population.

Farah Farouque – Flag raising is common at public events. But when RMIT raised the Morning Star – the flag of those seeking independence for the Indonesian province of West Papua – the impact went as far as Jakarta.

Telly Nathalia, Jakarta – Indonesian police have questioned 19 soldiers as witnesses in an investigation into the killing of two American school teachers and an Indonesian last month in rebellious Papua province, police said on Sunday.

Catharine Munro, Jakarta – In a sign Papuan independence still strains relations between Indonesia and Australia, Canberra this week had to repeatedly deny suggestions it supported secession for the province.

Ellen Nakashima and Alan Sipress, Jakarta – Police are investigating an allegation that Indonesian army special forces carried out the ambush in Papua province last month that killed two Americans and one Indonesian.

Matthew Moore, Jakarta – Four Indonesian soldiers were at the site of an ambush last month in which three school teachers attached to the United States-owned Freeport mine in Papua were killed, the author of a new report into the shootings said yesterday.

Don Greenlees, Jakarta – A human rights group claimed yesterday to have evidence that members of the Indonesian army's special forces, Kopassus, were implicated in the killing of two Americans and one Indonesian working for the Freeport copper and gold mine in Papua.

Agencies, Jakarta – Army soldiers from Indonesia's Kopassus special forces were involved in a deadly ambush on employees of the Freeport mine in Papua, a human rights investigator alleged on Wednesday.

James Balowski – Three weeks after the fatal shooting of two Americans and an Indonesian from the Freeport gold and copper mine in Indonesia's eastern-most province of West Papua, the identity of the perpetrators is still unclear.

The leading human rights group in Indonesian Papua, Elsham, has released a report on its investigation into last month's killing of one Indonesian and two American schoolteachers, at the American owned gold and copper mine Freeport. Suspicion for the attack fell initially on the Free Papua Movement's armed wing, the OPM.

Jayapura – The United Nations has declared 21 September as an International Day for Peace. The religious leaders in Papua have responded to this appeal by the UN. On Saturday night all the leaders of the main religions in Papua – Christian, Islam, Buddha and Hindu – held a "prayer march" in Jayapura, the capital of Papua.

Canberra – Executive Director of the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA), Dr. Mike Nahan, disclosed here on Friday that a number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Australia have given their support to separatism in Indonesia, particularly in "West Papua".

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – Papuan people urged on Friday that the government immediately reinstate the plan for two new provinces on the island, whose establishment was approved in 1999 to boost development and quench calls for independence there.

Liza Power – It's seven in the morning at Wamena's Trendy Hotel. The mosquitoes have retired after a night of feasting on my toes and ears, which means it's time to stumble from room 3, check my collection of flea bites and watch the old Dani man by the door, who wears a penis gourd that reaches to his chin, floss his teeth with a two-metre arrow.

[A prominent Australian scientist, who spent many years doing research in Papua and in neighbouring Papua New Guinea, says he believes the killings last month at the US-owned copper and gold mine, Freeport, will be a turning point in already strained relations between the United States and the Indonesian military.

'

1828: Dutch claim natives of western half of New Guinea as subjects of Netherlands' king.

1949: Dutch cede Dutch East Indies to Indonesian Republic, but retain West Papua. No, it's already ours, says Indonesia.

1950s: Anti-Dutch sentiment in Indonesia drives Dutch people out.

Tim Dodd, Jakarta – Security problems are worsening at the giant Freeport copper and gold mine in Indonesia's Papua province after soldiers guarding the facility discovered a bomb under a bridge on the mine's only access road on Saturday.

Jakarta – Trikora Military Commander Maj. Gen. Mahidin Simbolon hinted on Tuesday that the Saturday attack on soldier Pvt. Edi Susanto in Timika-Tembagapura, Irian Jaya, might have involved staff of PT Freeport Indonesia.

John Martinkus – In April, 1000 pro-independence demonstrators met Ralph Boyce when the United States ambassador to Indonesia arrived in Jayapura, the West Papuan capital. They were mostly highlanders dressed in feathered head-dresses; some sported the traditional penis gourds.

Jakarta – Seven Indonesian soldiers will soon face a court martial for suspected involvement in last year's murder of a Papuan independence leader, a report said Tuesday.

Matthew Moore, Jakarta – Gunmen have fired at the car of police investigating the murder of three teachers at an international school in the Indonesian province of Papua as evidence mounts of a campaign of intimidation aimed at thwarting the police inquiry.

Don Greenlees, Jakarta – The letter came to American-owned Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc and the Indonesian Government a few days after three of the miner's employees were gunned down at its operations in a remote and mountainous corner of Papua.

Matthew Moore, Jakarta – Papua's police chief has cast serious doubt on the Indonesian military's claim that separatists were responsible for last month's shooting of 14 people at a remote US mine.

R.K. Nugroho, Jayapura – Police in Papua have so far questioned 21 Army soldiers who were on duty during the shooting at giant copper and gold mining company PT Freeport Indonesia compound in Timika on August 31, 2002 but have said the investigation remained inconclusive with no one yet held responsible for the incident.

Matthew Moore, Jakarta – Gunmen shot and wounded an Indonesian soldier yesterday in almost the same place that a fortnight ago gunmen killed three employees of a giant US mine in West Papua.

Alan Sipress and Ellen Nakashima, Jakarta – The body of a key suspect in the killing of two Americans and an Indonesian in the eastern province of Papua has been identified by his family as an informant for the Indonesian military's special forces, according to a human rights group helping in the police investigation.

Matthew Moore – The sign at the village gate says Kadun Jaya, but everyone calls it Kilo Sepuluh, or Ten K, because it is 10 kilometres out of town. The town is Timika, deep in the heart of Indonesian Papua and home to the best golf course, airstrip and hotel in the province, all built on the back of the world's richest gold mine, known as Freeport.

Armed men in military uniforms were seen at the place where gunmen shot dead two Americans and an Indonesian teacher near the Freeport gold mine in Papua province, a report said Friday.

Matthew Moore, Jakarta – Violent incidents such as the shooting of 14 people at a mine in the Indonesian province of Papua last month are likely to continue unless the Indonesian military's involvement in the area's resource projects is scaled right back, a report warns.

John Garnaut – A Sydney University professor has described as "outrageous" claims by Indonesia's Security Minister, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, that the university could be linked to the murders two weeks ago of two Americans and one Indonesian on a road near the Freeport mine in Indonesia's Papua province.

James Balowski – On August 31, a band of unidentified assailants ambushed a group of mine workers in Indonesia's eastern-most province of West Papua, leaving three dead and 11 injured.

Indonesian officials immediately blamed the Free Papua Movement (OPM), however others have accused the Indonesian security forces of involvement in the attack.

Norman Brewer, Sydney – Reconciliation and peaceful dialogue among West Papuans was the theme of the workshop of the West Papua Project, held at Sydney University on September 2-3.

Catharine Munro, Jakarta – The Indonesian Government has ordered an investigation into links between a fatal ambush on international schoolteachers near a mine in Papua and a trip to Australia by a group of Papuans at the time of the attack.

[The most senior Indonesian diplomat in Australia has warned that a war on Iraq will divide Indonesia – Australia's most important and populous neighbour. Imron Cotan, the deputy chief at the Indonesian embassy in Canberra, says Indonesia wants United Nations backing for a war on Iraq.

Alan Sipress and Ellen Nakashima, Jakarta – Indonesian police are investigating whether soldiers were behind the killing of two Americans and one Indonesian near the Freeport-McMoRan gold and copper mine in the eastern province of Papua, the regional police chief said today.

A separatist leader in Indonesia's Papua province has accused the military of mounting an attack which killed two Americans and one Indonesian near the huge Freeport mine.

The army has blamed followers of Kelly Kwalik, a local leader of the disorganized and poorly armed Free Papua Movement (OPM) separatist army for the attack on August 31.

Matthew Moore – Glaciers appear to hang from the sky above Tembagapura, an improbable town squeezed into a valley perched nearly two kilometres above a lush Papuan rain forest. It's a crazy place to build.

R.K. Nugroho, Jayapura – Four United States security officials, allegedly including an FBI agent, are visiting Papua to help look into last week's ambush that killed two Americans and one Indonesian as Indonesian troops ceased their pursuit of suspected attackers.