Britain's SAS reportedly aided in Irian Jaya rescue

Britain's SAS reportedly aided in Irian Jaya rescue

LONDON (AFP): Britain's crack SAS army regiment was involved
in a 1996 mission to rescue hostages from rebels in Indonesia's
Irian Jaya province during which eight civilians died, a London
newspaper said Tuesday.

The Times cited unnamed sources close to the elite regiment as
confirming a report by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
(ABC) on the participation of the Special Air Services (SAS).

The sources told the newspaper that between four and six of
its members had helped to plan the operation, under an official
arrangement authorized by the British Foreign Office.

The SAS experts did not take part in the rescue mission
itself, but traced the hostages through surveillance techniques
and worked out how the operation should be carried out by the
Indonesian special forces.

The sources denied any mercenaries from South African company
Executive Outcomes had been involved, and insisted no approval
had been given for Indonesian soldiers to use a helicopter with
International Red Cross markings.

Such a helicopter was claimed in the ABC report to have been
used by soldiers who shot the eight villagers in the southern
highlands of Irian Jaya in May 1996.

The ABC Four Corners program also alleged the SAS worked with
mercenaries in planning the operation to rescue a team of
European biologists and Indonesian researchers, including some
from Executive Outcomes.

The ABC report, broadcast late Monday, said the truth about
the mission had been concealed and the Indonesian military was
credited with a rescue that triggered a crackdown in which many
Irianese were massacred, raped, tortured or dispossessed.

Four Britons, a German, a Dutchman and his pregnant wife, and
four Indonesians had been held for four months while the
International Red Cross negotiated for their release.

Free Papua Movement (OPM) guerrillas had captured the team to
draw international attention to their battle against Indonesia
for independence in the western half of New Guinea.

Indonesia was accused in Monday's ABC report of bombing and
strafing villages whose loyalties were regarded as suspect during
a campaign that brought famine to the region.