Washington wants Jakarta to quickly wrap up its investigation of an ambush near the world's largest copper and gold mine that left two Americans and an Indonesian dead some three months ago.

Jakarta – A joint team of police and Indonesian Military (TNI) personnel stormed the headquarters of the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement (OPM) over the weekend, arresting one rebel fighter, Julius, and confiscating seven homemade firearms and several documents.

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Defying President Megawati's instructions, some 500 Papuans gathered outside the residence of former Papuan Presidium Council (PDP) chairman Theys Hiyo Eluay on Sunday to commemorate what they called the independence day of the country's easternmost province.

Nethy Dharma Somba and Fabiola Desy Undjaja, Jayapura/Jakarta – Police in Manokwari, Papua, arrested on Wednesday 13 people who raised the Morning Star flag to mark the fifth anniversary of Papuan independence.

Also on Wednesday, President Megawati Soekarnoputri issued a decree banning of all ceremonies celebrating Papuan independence.

Anthony L. Smith – Two Americans and one Indonesian were killed on August 31 at the hands of an unknown assailant near the Freeport mining operation in Timika, Papua.

[For several decades there have been allegations that a referendum held by the United Nations on the handover of Papua from Dutch to Indonesian control in 1969 was not free and fair. The small group of Papuans who were allowed to vote on their country's future in that poll, have since claimed they were intimidated into voting in favour of an Indonesian takeover.

Dan Murphy Special, Jakarta – For more than a month, the Indonesian military's Special Forces Command have been the key suspects in a mine ambush that killed two Americans and one Indonesian.

Greg Poulgrain – Indonesia's feared Kopassus forces had been forced to free Papuan tourist guide Silas Yikwa when the news of his kidnapping reached the outside world, it was claimed last night.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – Lawyers representing the Indonesian Military (TNI) rejected on Thursday a peaceful solution to their client's dispute with The Washington Post over a report of the military's alleged involvement in an ambush against employees of a gold and copper mining firm in August.

Joe Humphreys – Evidence of United Nations collusion in the violent takeover of West Papua by Indonesia 40 years ago is revealed in a new book on the subject, which was launched in Dublin this week.

Don Greenlees, Jakarta – Indonesian armed forces commander General Endriartono Sutarto conceded this week that it was possible Indonesian soldiers carried out a deadly ambush on Freeport mine workers in Papua three months ago.

Ahmad Pathoni, Jakarta – Police in the Indonesian province of Papua said yesterday that they have photographs of four Indonesian special forces soldiers suspected of involvement in the ambush near the Freeport mine that killed two Americans in August.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – The House of Representatives (DPR) on Monday endorsed a bill on the formation of 14 new regencies in Papua in a bid to cut red tape and increase the people's welfare in the sparsely-populated, large province.

Jakarta – Papua Military chief Maj. Gen. M. Simbolon said on Tuesday that the military would sue a non-governmental organization (NGO) for libel over an inaccurate report it released implicating its officers in the ambush of a bus in Timika in August.

[Indonesia's Armed Forces chief, General Endriartono Sutarto, has agreed to send a special team to the province of Papua, to probe claims of military involvement in killings of three three people at the American-owned Freeport gold and copper mine, 10 weeks ago.

Don Greenlees, Jakarta – Indonesian armed forces commander General Endriartono Sutarto has sent a special team to Papua to investigate allegations that the military were involved in the murders of three employees of the Freeport copper and gold mine, including two Americans.

John Roberts – An article published in the Washington Post last weekend reported evidence that the highest levels of the Indonesian armed forces (TNI), including TNI chief General Endriartono Sutarto, were involved in the August 31 ambush of employees of the Freeport McMoRan Inc mine in the province of Papua.

[New evidence has emerged that the Indonesian army was directly involved in the ambush that killed two Americans and an Indonesian near the Freeport Gold mine in the Indonesian province of Papua last August. Suspicion for the attack initially fell on the Free Papua Movement.

Paul Tait, Sydney – At least three Papuan men fired about 200 rounds from rifles and shotguns into a convoy of mainly US teachers, killing three, near a huge gold mine in Indonesia's Papua two months ago, ambush victims said on Sunday.

Ellen Nakashima and Alan Sipress, Jakarta – Senior Indonesian military officials discussed an operation against Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. before an ambush near its mine in Papua province that killed two Americans and one Indonesian on August 31, according to intelligence obtained by the United States, a US government official and other sources said.

On August 31, 2002, unidentified assailants opened fire on an International School bus carrying innocent civilians. American nationals Ted Burcon and Ricky Spear and Indonesian national F.X. Bambang Riwanto were killed.

Hamish McDonald Herald, Jakarta – United States intelligence agencies have intercepted messages between Indonesian army commanders indicating they were involved in staging an ambush at the remote Freeport-McMoRan mine in which three schoolteachers – two of them Americans – were killed, according to a source close to the US embassy in Jakarta.

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – The Indonesian Islamic militant group Laskar Jihad had relocated from Maluku to Papua province where it was attacking churches and mosques, church sources said yesterday.

This made a mockery of the group's claims that it had disbanded after the October 12 Bali bombings, they said.

Shawn Donnan, Jakarta – A key member of the US Congress yesterday tied resuming military aid to Jakarta to solving the killing in September of two Americans – for which members of the Indonesian military are now prime suspects.

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – The Police have deployed hundreds of personnel to Indonesia's border area with Papua New Guinea (PNG) to prevent Papua's most wanted man, Benny Wenda, from escaping to the neighboring country after he escaped from jail on Sunday.

John Martinkus – As Australia contemplates renewed military ties with Kopassus, Indonesia's special forces, the people of Papua fear an increase in military operations against their pro-independence leaders by the same organisation.

Jakarta – A gang of unidentified men raided the Jakarta office of the Institute for Human Rights Study and Advocacy for West Papua (Els-Ham Papua Barat), a Papuan human rights group that has accused the military of involvement in an ambush that killed two Americans, its coordinator said here on Monday.

Don Greenlees – Agents from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and Western diplomats believe Indonesian soldiers fabricated evidence after the August 31 shooting of two American and one Indonesian employee of the giant Freeport copper and gold mine in Papua.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.