FBI stars investigates Timika ambush

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.