FBI agents to return to probe Papua killing

FBI agents to return to probe Papua killing

JAKARTA: US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents will return to Indonesia's Papua province within weeks, as part of an investigation into the murder of two Americans there, a senior military officer said Wednesday.

The agents will compare the results of their questioning of civilians and military officers last month with the investigation carried out by the Indonesian military, said regional military police chief Colonel Sutarna.

"They will bring the results of their analysis," Sutarna said, adding the agents were due at the end of this month or in early April.

The FBI last month questioned 30 soldiers about the August 31 ambush by an armed gang near the US-owned Freeport gold and copper mine, which killed two US teachers and an Indonesian colleague.

Twelve others, most of them Americans, were wounded when the gunmen fired more than 100 rounds at a convoy carrying Freeport employees.

Sutarna said the military investigation team had yet to find any suspect in the ambush.

Papua's deputy police chief, Brigadier General Raziman Tarigan, last November quoted a witness as saying that Kopassus special forces soldiers were suspected in the attack. He was later transferred to Jakarta.

Reports of military involvement could seriously undermine US efforts to resume full military ties with Indonesia, which have been restricted since 1999 because of the military-backed violence in East Timor.

Kopassus has denied any role in the murders. Some army officials have previously blamed the ambush on a poorly-armed group of separatist rebels. -- AFP