U.S. Senate moves against RI military over Papua incident

U.S. Senate moves against RI military over Papua incident

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesians might have forgotten the bloody attack at
Tembagapura, Papua, 10 months ago. But Americans, or at least the
U.S. Senate, have not.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is trying to block U.S.
military aid to Indonesia following revelations that Indonesian
Army soldiers were most likely responsible for the attack in
which two Americans and one Indonesian were killed and eight
other Americans were wounded.

A front page report on Monday in The Asian Wall Street Journal
(AWSJ) said that the committee had approved an amendment
prohibiting the release of US$600,000 in military training funds
for Indonesia until President George W. Bush certified that the
Indonesian government would bring to justice those responsible
for the attack.

The amendment is expected to reach the Senate floor this
summer.

The Bush administration, according to the report, has opposed
the amendment.

A White House spokesman, Sean McCormack, said: "It is
important that we do everything possible to improve the human
rights record of the Indonesian military through continued
interaction with the U.S. military."

Nevertheless, the U.S. government still does not know for
certain who ordered or carried out the ambush despite an
investigation by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents at the
scene.

Congress has been given intelligence reports that support the
conclusion of a preliminary Indonesian police investigation that
found that "there is a strong possibility" the shooting was
carried out by Indonesian soldiers.

"The preponderance of evidence indicates to us that members of
the Indonesian Army were responsible for the murders in Papua,"
Matthew P. Daley, deputy assistant secretary of state for East
Asian and Pacific Affairs, told AWSJ in an interview.

"The question of what level and for what motive did these
murders take place is of deep interest to the United States."

The military, however, has denied involvement in the attacks.
Instead, it has blamed the poorly-armed separatist Free Papua
Organization (OPM).

The FBI is continuing to investigate the case as its agents
were not given free access to sources at the scene when in
Indonesia. They were required to interview witnesses in the
presence of the Indonesian authorities and were not allowed to
bring forensic evidence back to the U.S. for analysis, the report
said.

Given the incomplete status of the investigation by the FBI,
the U.S. State Department is still debating whether to release
$400,000 in fiscal-year-2003 military funds to Indonesia.

And yet, Indonesia has received other funds from the U.S.
According to the AWSJ report, since the Papua attack on August
31, 2002, the U.S. Defense Department has given US$4 million to
the Indonesian military for counter-terrorism training.