Army, militia suspects in Freeport murders

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.

Two Americans and one Indonesian died in the Aug. 31 attack on a mountain road leading to the American-owned Freeport copper and gold mine. Twelve other Freeport employees, mostly Americans, were wounded.

"The Kopassus are implicated in this incident. That's number one," John Rumbiak of the Papua-based Institute for Human Rights Study and Advocacy (Els-Ham) said in Jakarta.

Releasing the findings of Els-Ham's investigation of the attack, John Rumbiak called on the U.S. government to launch its own probe into the killings, in conjunction with Indonesian authorities.

Papua Police chief Ins. Gen. Made Mangku Pastika, meanwhile, said on Wednesday his officers were still trying to determine which group was responsible for the bloody attack.

He said the police currently were scrutinizing the evidence, including hundreds of spent bullets, firearms and a car.

Mangku said at least 200 bullets were fired at the bus during the attack.

The officer also said he had received a letter from the Free Papua Movement (OPM) denying it had any involvement in the incident.

He, however, said the police had not dismissed the possibility that the group was behind the shooting.

The Army has blamed the followers of Kelly Kwalik, a local leader of the disorganized and poorly armed OPM, for the attack.

Several top generals have already ruled out military or police involvement in the attack.

John Rumbiak, however, rejected the possibility of any OPM involvement, saying he had based his findings on interviews with witnesses, including an informant who claimed to have been in a vehicle in the area with Kopassus members before the ambush.

The witness is now under police protection, Rumbiak said.

It is not clear if the actual shooters were Papuan members of Kopassus or members of a Papuan militia group linked to the military, he added.

Kopassus soldiers have also been implicated in the murder of Theys Hiyo Eluay, chairman of the separatist Papua Presidium Council which advocates peaceful dialog with Jakarta.

Eluay was found dead in his car last November.

Since June, the Military Police have been saying that several Kopassus soldiers would soon be tried in the Eluay case, but no trial has yet begun.

The Papua copper and gold mine, one of the largest in the world, is operated by a local subsidiary of U.S.-based Freeport- McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc. It is considered a vital national asset by the government and is heavily guarded by government troops.

The massive outflow of revenue from the mine, combined with human rights abuses linked to government security forces, has provided fuel for widespread separatist sentiment among the Papuan people.

Jakarta has granted the province special autonomy status, which promises a greater share of revenue and respect for local culture.