FBI agents arrive to join probe into killing of Americans
FBI agents arrive to join probe into killing of Americans
Ian Timberlake, Agence France-Presse, Jakarta
U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation agents have arrived here to work with Indonesian police investigating the ambush murder of two Americans in Papua province, a U.S. embassy spokesman said Thursday.
"A small FBI team is in Indonesia at the invitation of the Indonesian government to work with the Indonesian police," the official told AFP, declining to be named.
He said they arrived late Wednesday or early Thursday.
Unidentified gunmen last August 31 fired more than 100 rounds at a convoy carrying employees of the U.S.-owned Freeport copper and gold mine near Timika in Papua province.
Two U.S. teachers and an Indonesian colleague died and 12 others, most of them Americans, were wounded.
Papua's deputy police chief, Brigadier General Raziman Tarigan, said in November that Kopassus special forces soldiers were suspected in the attack. He was later transferred to Jakarta and a Papua police spokesman on Thursday denied investigators have implicated the military.
"That was based on the explanation of a witness," the spokesman, Daud Sihombing, told AFP. "It needs to be backed up by further evidence."
He said the police have faced no obstacles from the military or anyone else during their investigation.
Reports of military involvement could seriously undermine U.S. efforts to resume full military ties with Indonesia, which have been restricted since 1999 because of the military-backed violence in East Timor.
The FBI role "will be significant" and Indonesian officials, including the military, understand that the case is of great importance to future Indonesian relations with the United States, a U.S. official said recently.
National police spokesman Edward Aritonang said the two FBI agents and their FBI interpreter would meet the head of Indonesia's criminal and detective division in Jakarta later Thursday to "try to formulate their program during their stay in Indonesia."
Aritonang said the FBI will provide forensic and other technical assistance.
FBI officers have already traveled to Papua at least twice for what officials described as "monitoring" of the Indonesian police investigation.
"We welcome them. It's no problem for us," Sihombing said from Papua.
Kopassus has denied any role in the murders. Some army officials have previously blamed the ambush on a poorly-armed group of separatist rebels who have waged a long-running but sporadic guerrilla campaign in Papua.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported in November that U.S. intelligence agencies had intercepted messages between Indonesian army commanders indicating they were involved in staging the ambush.
It quoted a source as saying the motive was to pressure Freeport to continue an annual protection payment of more than US$10 million to the army command responsible for Papua.
Freeport's mine is considered a vital national asset and is heavily guarded by government forces.