Rights body to probe Timika case

JAKARTA (JP): The National Commission on Human Rights vowed yesterday to investigate allegations of human rights abuses on the part of authorities against villagers in Irian Jaya opposed to the activities of the giant American copper mining company PT Freeport Indonesia Company.

Commission Secretary General Baharuddin Lopa made the pledge after meeting with representatives of five non-governmental organizations who presented the results of their own field investigation.

"We will soon set up a team of three people to check the report, gather material evidence and observe the situation in Irian Jaya," Lopa told the NGO representatives.

The pledge came some four months after the first report indicating that there had been a series of clashes between the military and the local people early this year.

The report, written by the Australian Council for Overseas Aid (ACFOA), alleged that 17 people were killed by soldiers assigned to guard Freeport's plant in Timika. It also claimed that 25 civilians had been tortured and that four others were still missing.

A Catholic bishop in Irian Jaya, H.F.M. Munninghof, has sent a copy of the report to the Indonesian Conference of Church Elders in Jakarta and says that, while the report has not been confirmed, the strong allegations it contains mean the Church must give it serious attention.

In April the Armed Forces denied the allegations made in the ACFOA report, saying that, while there were clashes between troops and Irian Jaya separatist rebels, there had been only one or two casualties.

PT Freeport's Executive Director Paul Murphy told The Jakarta Post yesterday that security matters were the responsibility of the army and police in the area and that all the allegations were false.

"In fact, PT Freeport's security personnel are not armed and did not participate in the incidents," Murphy said.

The five organizations which filed the reports with the Commission yesterday were the International NGO's Forum on Indonesian Development, the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy, the Indonesian Forum for the Environment, the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation and the Institution for Social Studies and Development. (03)