|
|
|
Army
lied about Papua ambush: FBI
|
The
Age [Australia]
October
28, 2002
|
Army
lied about Papua ambush: FBI
By Don Greenlees
28oct02
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.
The belief that soldiers tried to plant false evidence and removed
other evidence from the scene of the killing has fuelled concerns
that elements of the Indonesian military were involved in the
ambush of the Freeport employees.
Western diplomatic sources also
claim communications intercepts pointed to Indonesian officers and
soldiers either trying to cover up the identity of the
perpetrators or to strengthen their case that the killings were
carried out by members of the rebel Free Papua Organisation (OPM).
But they said it was not yet clear
whether this was a case of "planting drugs on the drug
trafficker" or trying to confuse the identity of the true
perpetrators. The Indonesian military has insisted from the
beginning that the killers were a hardline element of the OPM.
An FBI team made a second visit to
Papua last month to assess the conduct of an investigation by the
Papuan provincial police and came away with a stronger conviction
that military elements might have been involved, according to
sources familiar with their conclusions.
But the sources said the FBI
expressed doubts about the credibility of a witness being held in
police custody who claims to have first-hand knowledge of the
involvement in the killings of members of the army's special
forces, Kopassus.
Among the issues concerning
diplomats and police is the discovery of the body of a Papuan man
allegedly killed by Indonesian soldiers in a shoot-out the day
after the ambush of the Freeport employees. A later post-mortem
revealed he was dead hours before the shoot-out reportedly
occurred.
The position of the body and the
wound was inconsistent with accounts given by soldiers of the
exchange of fire in which the Papuan died. A brand new M-16
magazine found on the body is also believed to have been planted.
The Washington Post newspaper,
quoting a senior military officer and a high-ranking spy, reported
yesterday that Indonesian police carrying out the investigation
had told military counterparts they believed soldiers were
responsible for the killings.
I Made Pastika, the
Australian-trained chief of the Papuan police, now heading the
investigation into the Bali bombing, told the head of the
Indonesian military police of his conclusions about a week ago,
according to the paper.
Security sources said Papuan police
so far had compiled about 30 dossiers on Indonesian soldiers. They
said Mr Pastika was leaning to the culpability of members of the
military, but had not reached a firm conclusion.
A respected officer, Mr Pastika led
the Papuan police during the investigation into the murder of
independence leader Theys Eluay, which concluded that Kopassus was
responsible.
|
