SAS, Red Cross implicated in 1996 Irian shooting

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)