SAS, Red Cross implicated in 1996 Irian shooting

JAKARTA (JP): Rights activists and church groups reported on Wednesday to the National Commission on Human Rights and the House of Representatives the alleged involvement of foreign mercenaries in an operation to release 24 hostages in May 1996.

Led by the director of Irian Jaya's Institute For Human Rights Studies and Advocacy (ELSHAM), Johanes Bonay, they conveyed to the House of Representatives (DPR) a report containing allegations on the misuse of International Commission of the Red Cross (ICRC) facilities for a military operation to release the hostages in Mapanduma.

According to the report, on May 9, 1996, Nggeselema villagers saw a white helicopter with the ICRC logo landing in the village, where 24 hostages, including four Britons, a German and a Dutchman, had been held for four months by the Free Papua Movement (OPM) while ICRC negotiated their release.

The report says people saw four foreigners in the helicopter, including Sylvianne Bonadei, an ICRC staff member who had mediated between kidnappers and ICRC. When the helicopter landed, the four took out guns, and opened fire on the people and a church, killing at least two villagers and wounding others, it said.

Reports said two hostages were also killed -- researchers Navy Panekenan and Yosias Matheis Lasamaho.

"Villagers quickly recognized the woman as Sylvianne because she had worked in the village for three months," Johanes told the House's Commission I chairwoman Aisyah Aminy.

Tom Beanal, a leading separatist activist, accused ICRC of hiring mercenaries to release the hostages.

The Times daily in London and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported last month that between four to six personnel of Britain's crack SAS army regiment were involved in the hostage rescue operation under an official arrangement authorized by the British Foreign Office.

The SAS experts had traced the hostages through surveillance techniques and worked out how the operation should be carried out by the Indonesian special forces, the reports said.

According to ABC, soldiers used the chartered helicopter to open fire on the villagers.

The ABC and the Times reports said the truth about the mission was concealed. The Indonesian Military, led by then Brig. Gen. Prabowo Subianto, was credited with a rescue that triggered a crackdown in which many Irianese were massacred, raped, tortured and dispossessed.

ICRC spokeswoman Sri Wahyu Endah has denied the allegations, saying the international agency acted merely as mediator between the government and the separatists.

The ICRC staff member implicated by the Irianese in the shootings, Bonadei, also denied the allegations in an interview with the ABC.

The activists demanded that the governments of both Indonesia and the United Kingdom investigate the alleged involvement of foreign mercenaries.

They also demanded that ICRC investigate the events and disclose the results. The Indonesian Military Commander Gen. Wiranto was also urged to take responsibility for rights abuses by military members, to bring them to trial and to withdraw all troops from the regions.

They also demanded that Wiranto provide protection from intimidation for survivors and witnesses during investigations. (34/prb)