FBI stars investigates Timika ambush
Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Several agents of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have started investigating the deadly Aug. 31 ambush in Timika, Papua, which claimed the lives of two American teachers and one Indonesian, an official said on Wednesday.
Lt. Gen. Sudi Silalahi, an assistant to Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, underlined that the FBI was not part of the joint military-police investigative team set up by the Indonesian government.
"A couple of days ago, we were informed that some FBI agents had arrived in Papua to probe the attack against dozens of employees of PT Freeport Indonesia.
"But they are outsiders," Sudi said at a news conference here on Wednesday.
Sudi, however, refused to say if the agents would be granted access to witnesses or holding field investigations to determine some of the evidence found previously at the shooting site both by local police and the military.
A six-month investigation of the case carried out by both the military and the police resulted in conflicting conclusions as police disclosed that they had found evidence linking the Army Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad)'s battalion 515 to the ambush, while TNI had rejected the accusation and pointed a finger at the separatist Free Papua Movement (OPM).
The Papua-based Institute for Human Rights Study and Advocacy (Elsham) has accused military members of being involved in the attack. But the allegation was addressed to members of the Army's Special Forces (Kopassus) Tribhuwana Task Force, which was assigned to the province.
The alleged involvement of military soldiers was floated after Papuan Police and Elsham listened to the testimony of Decky Murif, who is believed to be a separatist member.
The Dec. 21 shooting of three Papuan women -- including Elsie Rumbiak Bonay, the wife of Elsham's director, Johanis G. Bonay -- near the Papua-PNG border was believed to have links with Elsham's statement.
Police, nevertheless, failed to hold a field investigation of the shooting attack due to another shooting incident that injured two military officers as they attended the police's on-site investigation.
The U.S. has reportedly asked President Megawati Soekarnoputri to establish a Bali-style joint investigative team so that the FBI agents would be allowed to participate.
The government set up a joint international investigative team to probe the deadly Bali bombing that killed over 190 people and injured some 300 others. Members of the investigative team include the Australian Police.
Meanwhile, Brig. Gen. Hendardji, a deputy commander of the National Military Police and head of the joint military-police team, reiterated that "thus far, we still cannot name a suspect responsible for the attack".
Hendardji -- who planned to leave for Makassar, South Sulawesi, as a transit stop on Wednesday evening before flying on to Papua -- held a meeting with several police investigators at the National Police Headquarters, after which he said that the testimony given by Decky Murif was not correct.