TNI demands 'Washington Post' apology

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Lawyers representing the Indonesian Military (TNI) rejected on Thursday a peaceful solution to their client's dispute with The Washington Post over a report of the military's alleged involvement in an ambush against employees of a gold and copper mining firm in August.

The lawyers sent legal notification on Thursday to the Post and its representatives in Indonesia, Alan Sipress and Allen Nakashima, demanding that the newspaper apologize for its report.

Calling the report libelous, attorney Trimoelja D. Soerjadi said his client demanded that the apology appear in five foreign newspapers, including the Post, and five newspapers in Indonesia as well as on the Post's website, which had published the report.

"If they refuse to meet the demand within 14 days, we will take the newspaper to court," he said.

The Post ran a story reporting that senior military officers may have planned the ambush against employees of PT Freeport Indonesia in Timika, Papua, on Aug. 31. Two Americans and an Indonesian were killed in the attack.

Citing "highly reliable" sources and other information, the newspaper said that prior to the ambush, several officers, including TNI chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto, allegedly discussed an operation against Freeport with the ultimate aim of discrediting the separatist Free Papua Movement (OPM).

Todung Mulya Lubis, the lawyer representing the Post, said that his client followed the principle of covering both sides of the story according to the journalists' code of ethics, by including the military spokesman's denial of the incident.

But Trimoelja said that its claim of providing balanced reporting could not justify the media to print a false story.