FBI will not dictate to RI police: Gen. Da'i
Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
National Police Chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar gave assurances to worried legislators on Tuesday that the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) would not dictate to the Indonesian police, who are investigating the ambush that killed two Americans in the Papua town of Timika last year.
Speaking during a hearing with the House of Representatives, Da'i said the foreign investigators were here to provide assistance for their Indonesian counterparts.
"We have briefed them (FBI agents) and they know that we can't be dictated to," Da'i told House Commission I for defense and security affairs.
The police chief was responding to a number of legislators who expressed their deep concern that the presence of FBI agents here representing the U.S. would put pressure on Indonesia over the Timika incident on Aug. 31 last year, which left two Americans and an Indonesian dead and a dozen more wounded near Timika. They were all employees or children connected with the U.S.-based gold and copper mining firm PT Freeport Indonesia in Papua.
Observers believe that military ties between the two countries could hinge on the outcome of the case.
The military previously tried to blame the ambush on a small band of alleged separatist rebels in Papua, but so far they found no hard evidence in their own investigation.
Da'i said the police were focusing on the ambush and would not link it to other, possibly related cases, of separatism unless there was solid proof.
He acknowledged there were differences of opinion between the National Police's investigators and the Indonesian Military (TNI) investigators, specifically to do with a number of witnesses.
The difference in findings, he said, had prompted the National Police and the TNI to set up a joint team. But since the two parties failed to reach a common understanding, they agreed to allow a third party.
Police investigators have implicated the military in the ambush, but the TNI's internal investigation found no involvement of its members in the incident.
Human rights groups and analysts have suggested that if the military were involved, it could have been a dispute over "security" money at the Freeport mine, which is said to run into the tens of millions of dollars annually.
The FBI sent two special agents and an interpreter after the U.S. government expressed disappointment with the conflicting conclusions by the police and military investigations.
"It is professional cooperation. Trust me, the police will not be dictated to by the FBI," Da'i reiterated, trying to appease the apparent fears by the legislators that foreigners were intruding on the country's sovereignty.
Legislator Permadi of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) said he was confused about which institution had the authority to investigate the incident. He also questioned why the TNI would invite FBI.
Another legislator called on the police to be tough with the visiting investigators and to resist any attempt to direct the course of investigation.
"Are the police and the military unable to settle the case?" Aisyah Aminy from the United Development Party (PPP) asked.
She added that the investigation into the case should be entrusted to Indonesian police or military only. Foreign involvement, she said, would open the possibility for a "hidden agenda".