Police allegation of Kopassus' role in Theys' murder not final
Police allegation of Kopassus' role in Theys' murder not final
Yogita Tahil Ramani and Annastashya Emmanuelle, The Jakarta Post,
Jakarta
Police allegations that an elite Armed force's unit was behind
the murder of pro-independence Papua Presidium Council (PDP)
Chairman Theys Hiyo Eluway are not official yet, according to
National Police Chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar.
"This is not the final result -- we have not said there is a
certain connection," between the killing, and the Army's special
force (Kopassus), he said here on Wednesday.
Da'i was responding to a statement issued Tuesday by Irian
Jaya Provincial Police Chief Made Mangku Pastika that there were
indications Kopassus's Tribuana Unit, active in the Irian Jaya
capital of Jayapura, was involved in the case.
The provincial police's probe into the case has been put on
indefinite hold by officials who have said they have run out of
leads to investigate.
So far, police officials have questioned Kopassus members, but
could not continue with that line of inquiry, as they were not
operating under the jurisdiction of the civilian law.
Da'i said the police have yet to make a firm comparison
between the results of their investigation, and the one carried
out by Army officials.
Da'i's comments were a crushing blow to widespread feelings
that, at last, the police were making important headway towards
solving the case.
Many Papuans, as people from Irian Jaya are known, have run
out of patience with what they say is the painfully slow pace of
the investigation into Theys' murder.
It is most likely that he was assassinated for political
reasons, add Papuans, who are calling for the establishment an
independent investigating team with credible members.
TNI Chief of Staff Gen. Endriartono Sutarto stressed on
Wednesday that if there were indeed Kopassus members guilty of
They's murder, he would make sure that they would be tried under
military law.
"Whoever is guilty of this crime, whether that person is a
soldier or not, he will be answer to the law ... regardless of
his rank," Endriartono said on Wednesday.
Made had earlier offered 24-hour police protection for anyone
willing to testify to evidence of Kopassus members' complicity in
the killing.
Frustration has been mounting over the matter, however,
particularly after an independent team formed to probe Theys'
death was forced to await a presidential decree before it could
begin work.
The draft of the decree, according to State/Cabinet Secretary
Bambang Kesowo, is currently being reviewed at the Office of the
Coordinating Minister of Political and Security Affairs.
"After the review, only then can it be signed by the
President," Bambang told reporters on Wednesday.
Theys was found dead in his car on Nov. 11 last year, one day
after he was abducted by an unidentified group on his way home to
Sentani, around 40 kilometers outside the provincial capital of
Jayapura.
He had been attending a Heroes' Day celebration hosted by the
local Kopassus unit near Jayapura. Autopsy reports showed that he
died from suffocation.
Theys' driver, Aristoteles Masoka, who escaped and reported
the abduction, has since disappeared.
Six witnesses who have been under police protection have
testified to the police that they accompanied Aristoteles to
report the abduction to the Kopassus unit but, later, left him
there after a long wait outside the military compound.