Thu, 21 Aug 2003

Trial of Freeport ambush libel case opens in Jayapura

Nethy Dharma Somba, The Jakarta Post, Jayapura, Papua

The trial opened on Wednesday of human rights activists and journalists charged with libel in connection with reports that Army Special Forces (Kopassus) soldiers were involved in killing two Americans and one Indonesian in Papua province.

The defendants include the director of Papua's Institute for Human Rights Studies and Advocacy (Els-HAM), Yohanis G. Bonay, and his colleague John Rumbiak, as well as the chief editors of Tempo weekly news magazine and the Suara Karya daily.

Both the Jakarta-based Tempo and Suara Karya have been charged with corporate libel.

Only five of the 10 lawyers acting for Bonay attended the opening session of the trial, which was presided over by Judge F.X. Soegiharto, accompanied by Judges Yunus Sesa and Ebo Maulana.

Kopassus was represented by six lawyers appointed by the Trikora military command, which is responsible for security in Papua.

The 20-minute hearing was to examine procedural requirements on the parts of both the plaintiffs and the defendants. The panel of judges adjourned the hearing for more than one month until Sept. 25, 2003, as most of the five defendants had failed to show up.

The trial has attracted much attention from both the local press and community here. Dozens of Els-HAM supporters packed the courtroom.

The Indonesian Military (TNI) filed a civil suit against the Els-HAM and the two publications, alleging that they had accused Kopassus members of involvement in the killing of two American teachers and one Indonesian on Aug. 31, 2002.

The three victims, who were shot dead by a group of well-armed and apparently well-trained gunmen, were employees of the U.S.- owned Freeport Indonesia copper and gold mine in Tembagapura, Papua, one of the largest in the world.

The military immediately attempted to pin the blame for the attack on a faction of the Free Papua Organization (OPM) separatist group led by Kelly Kwalik.

The attack took place at Mile 63, an area near the Freeport compound which was supposed to have been tightly guarded by soldiers.

The libel action, submitted to the Jayapura District Court on June 13, 2003, resulted from a media conference in Jakarta on Sept. 25 last year, in which Rumbiak described what he said was the role of Kopassus soldiers in the ambush.

Els-HAM, however, has denied accusing the Kopassus troops of being responsible for the incident, but said that Rumbiak was only disclosing information his group had obtained from local people regarding the attack.

Trikora Military Commander Maj. Gen. Nurdin Zainal has dismissed the accusations as "baseless", and said they were designed to tarnish the image of the TNI.

The military is suing the defendants for Rp 50 billion (US$5.8 million) in non-material losses and Rp 1 million in material losses.

The plaintiffs are demanding that the defendants be ordered to apologize publicly through the national and international media, the military added.