Police admit to FBI's presence in Papua

R.K. Nugroho, The Jakarta Post, Jayapura

Papua Police chief Insp. Gen. Made Mangku Pastika said on Friday that an FBI agent was included in the team of U.S. security officials in Papua looking into last week's bloody ambush that killed two Americans and one Indonesian near gold and copper mine PT Freeport Indonesia.

Pastika, however, denied that the agent came as an FBI investigator. "He came as a legal officer, not as an FBI investigator," Pastika told AFP on Friday.

The agent is believed to be based in Singapore.

The team, which arrived on Wednesday, was accompanied by the U.S. defense attache chief from the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta.

Pastika said the U.S. team visited the country's easternmost province to ask about the progress of the police investigation and security efforts.

Investigators have so far recovered more than 100 cartridge cases from 7.62 and 5.56 millimeter caliber ammunition -- the type used in military rifles, he said.

Some 15 gunmen, whose identities and whereabouts remain unknown, ambushed two buses carrying teachers from the Tembaga Pura International School in Freeport last Saturday.

Two Americans and an Indonesian were killed and 12 others were injured.

Catholic priest Teo Van Den Bok of the Jayapura Cathedral told The Jakarta Post on Friday that the U.S. team would help local police get objective and independent data in tracking down the attackers and to investigate the bloody incident.

"We should take advantage of any efforts that could unveil the perpetrators in this case," said Teo, adding that it was logical that the U.S. offered help since the case involved its citizens.

Pastika had ruled out on Thursday any involvement of foreign investigators in the incident, saying that police authorities were capable of probing the incident.

Teo also said that the police should be open, objective and independent in its investigation so that it would not trigger any doubt over their work performance.

Local councillor Frans Koromat said that the public should not make any accusations before the investigation was complete.

"All parties should have confidence in the police to conduct their investigation. Accusations will only make the situation worse," he told the Post.

The Freeport mine is one of only two industrial sites in Indonesia designated as a strategic national asset, meaning they are heavily guarded by government troops.

The military blamed the attack on rebels from the Free Papua Movement (OPM) led by Kelly Kwalik, who has denied responsibility, while some people believed that the military was behind the incident.

Indonesian troops ceased their pursuit of suspected attackers as the gunmen were believed to have fled into the jungle near the open-pit mine.

A forensics team from Jakarta began their probe on Friday by investigating the evidence, including the bullet holes in the car, some bullets and a body alleged to be one of the separatists. The body is being kept in Tembagapura General Hospital.

Meanwhile, officials at a hospital in Brisbane, Australia, said on Friday that three of the wounded U.S. nationals and an Indonesian were about to go home.