TNI demands 'Washington Post' apology

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.