Govt agrees to form impartial team to probe Theys death

Govt agrees to form impartial team to probe Theys death

Tiarma Siboro & R.K. Nugroho, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta/Jayapura

Bowing to intense public pressure, the government announced on
Thursday that it was forming an independent team to investigate
the Nov. 11 murder of Irian Jaya independence leader Theys Hiyo
Eluay.

Coordinating Minister for Political, Social and Security
Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the government was working
on the composition of the team membership, and underlined that
such a team would report any progress to the President.

Susilo said that, after speaking with reporters following a
meeting with President Megawati Soekarnoputri at her residence on
Jl. Teuku Umar, a presidential decree was being drafted to
legally back the team's operation.

Last week, the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas
HAM) proposed that a national independent team with the police
and military elements in it be set up to probe the death of
Theys.

The commission also proposed the inclusion of prominent local
figures and some members of independent, nongovernmental
organizations in the team.

Komnas HAM Chairman Djoko Sugianto said, after a meeting with
Susilo last week, that a decree on the establishment of the
investigating team was badly needed to give it more authority.

On Thursday, Susilo said that the government had yet to decide
whether or not any military or police officials would join the
team.

Prior to the meeting with the President, Susilo led a special
meeting on social and political affairs at his office, which
included discussion of Irian Jaya issues.

Also present at the meeting were, among others, Minister of
Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayudha, Minister of Justice and Human
Rights Yusril Ihza Mahendra, Attorney General M.A. Rachman and
Indonesian Military (TNI) Commander Adm. Widodo A.S.

Earlier in the day, Susilo also met with deputy chairman of
the Papua Presidium Council (PDP), Tom Beanal, along with Thaha.

During the meeting, Thaha said that they had told Susilo the
Papuans would not accept such an "independent team" as a
substitute for the government.

"How come such a team could be independent while it also
accommodated government elements?" Thaha asked. "We can't accept
such a team proposed by the Komnas HAM ... we prefer to bring the
case to an international forum."

He further said that the Papuans (as people indigenous to
Irian Jaya call themselves) also demanded Jakarta's commitment to
having Papuan history corrected. The settlement of human rights
violations was also among their demands.

Thaha was referring to an ignored Papuan independence effort
in December 1961, and the UN-sponsored plebiscite after Irian
Barat (the then name of Irian Jaya) was handed over to the
government of Indonesia, through the UN, from the Dutch in 1963.

That the government has set up an investigation team has
apparently failed to impress nongovernmental organizations based
in Jayapura, Irian Jaya.

The Institute of Human Rights Study and Avocation (Elsham),
the Legal Aid Institute (LBH) and the Commission for Missing
Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) declared their
opposition to the government-backed team to probe Theys' death.

"Komnas HAM's credibility has deteriorated in the eyes of
Papuans," Elsham supervisor John Rumbiak told The Jakarta Post
after a media conference on Thursday.

The three nongovernmental organizations recorded that Komnas
HAM had failed in handling rights violations in Irian Jaya,
citing the Freeport right violations in 1995, the violence in
Biak in 1998, the Mapmduma case in 1999 and the Abepura incident
last year.

"None of the cases has been properly investigated and resolved
by Komnas HAM," John Rumbiak said.

The three NGOs believed that the independent team proposed by
the government was an attempt to portray the death of Theys as
being merely the result of a criminal incident.

Moreover, military personnel may have been be involved in the
alleged murder, both Rumbiak and Wakman said.

The three influential NGOs proposed that an independent team
be composed of reliable members of national NGOs and Papuan
figures, along with human rights experts from other countries,
such as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Summary
Executions, the United Nations' Working Group on Torture and
independent forensic experts.

The three NGOs also said that President Megawati had played a
role in Theys' death.

"Megawati's involvement (in Theys' death) started before the
second Papuan congress from May 29 to June 4 this year," said
Rumbiak.

"At that time she put Papuan issues on the agenda of the
Annual Session of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) in
August this year," he added, "where she termed the Papuans'
political move as separatism, which must not be condoned."

"Subsequently, very confidential documents were issued on June
9, 2000 on the operation to curb the political move in Papua," he
noted. "In her state address in August 2001 she stressed that
there would be no place for separatists in Papua and Aceh."

According to Rumbiak, the abduction and murder of Theys were
not committed by common criminals. "The abduction and murder are
very serious human rights violations in which the state was
involved," he said.