TNI pledge help to FBI in probe into Timika ambush
TNI pledge help to FBI in probe into Timika ambush
Tiarma Siboro and Berni K. Moestafa, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Indonesian Military (TNI) has pledged to help U.S. Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officers probe the deadly ambush on
employees of American mining giant PT Freeport Indonesia in
Papua.
TNI spokesman Maj. Gen. Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin said on Friday the
two FBI agents, who arrived on Wednesday, met with TNI chief Gen.
Endriartono Sutarto and other top military bosses on Thursday,
with both parties agreeing to cooperate and ensure the
investigation was mutually beneficial.
Sjafrie said TNI officers had briefed the agents on the
results of the TNI's own investigation which controversially
concluded that its soldiers were not involved in the attack that
killed two Americans and an Indonesian in Timika.
"We offered them all necessary assistance needed to conduct
the investigation," Sjafrie told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
The FBI sent special agents Edward Montoth and Robert
Deardorss and an interpreter after the U.S. government expressed
disappointment with the conflicting conclusions of the police and
military investigations.
In its investigation, the provincial police alleged the
involvement of Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad) battalion 515
soldiers in the ambush, following the finding of military
weaponry believed to belong to the unit.
The TNI has repeatedly pleaded not guilty, blaming the
separatist Free Papuan Movement (OPM). Evidence put forward by
the TNI to support its claim has largely been ridiculed.
U.S. Embassy charge d'affairs Stephen Mull said the FBI team
would start working closely with the police and would stay in
Indonesia for as long as it took.
"There's no definite end date and the (Indonesian)
government's been very cooperative so far," Mull told reporters
at his office on Friday.
"They are investigators, they were actually here back in
September, also at the invitation of the government ... So they
are experts in that they have been following the case since
August. They're FBI agents who are skilled investigators," Mull
added.
He, nevertheless, refused to go into detail, saying "we're
really at a very early stage".