Alleged role of Kopassus members in Theys murder not final
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Probe linking Kopassus members to Theys murder not final
Yogita Tahil Ramani and Annastashya Emmanuelle The Jakarta Post Jakarta
Police allegations that an elite Armed force's unit was behind the murder of pro-independence Papua Presidium Council (PDP) Chairman Theys Hiyo Eluway are not official yet, according to National Police Chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar.
"This is not the final result -- we have not said there is a certain connection," between the killing, and the Army's special force (Kopassus), he said here on Wednesday.
Da'i was responding to a statement issued Tuesday by Irian Jaya Provincial Police Chief Made Mangku Pastika that there were indications Kopassus's Tribuana Unit, active in the Irian Jaya capital of Jayapura, was involved in the case.
The provincial police's probe into the case has been put on indefinite hold by officials who have said they have run out of leads to investigate.
So far, police officials have questioned Kopassus members, but could not continue with that line of inquiry, as they were not operating under the jurisdiction of the civilian law.
Da'i said the police have yet to make a firm comparison between the results of their investigation, and the one carried out by Army officials.
Da'i's comments were a crushing blow to widespread feelings that, at last, the police were making important headway towards solving the case.
Many Papuans, as people from Irian Jaya are known, have run out of patience with what they say is the painfully slow pace of the investigation into Theys' murder.
It is most likely that he was assassinated for political reasons, add Papuans, who are calling for the establishment an independent investigating team with credible members.
TNI Chief of Staff Gen. Endriartono Sutarto stressed on Wednesday that if there were indeed Kopassus members guilty of They's murder, he would make sure that they would be tried under military law.
"Whoever is guilty of this crime, whether that person is a soldier or not, he will be answer to the law ... regardless of his rank," Endriartono said on Wednesday.
Made had earlier offered 24-hour police protection for anyone willing to testify to evidence of Kopassus members' complicity in the killing.
Frustration has been mounting over the matter, however, particularly after an independent team formed to probe Theys' death was forced to await a presidential decree before it could begin work.
The draft of the decree, according to State/Cabinet Secretary Bambang Kesowo, is currently being reviewed at the Office of the Coordinating Minister of Political and Security Affairs.
"After the review, only then can it be signed by the President," Bambang told reporters on Wednesday.
Theys was found dead in his car on Nov. 11 last year, one day after he was abducted by an unidentified group on his way home to Sentani, around 40 kilometers outside the provincial capital of Jayapura.
He had been attending a Heroes' Day celebration hosted by the local Kopassus unit near Jayapura. Autopsy reports showed that he died from suffocation.
Theys' driver, Aristoteles Masoka, who escaped and reported the abduction, has since disappeared.