BY JAMES BALOWSKI
Three weeks after the fatal shooting of two Americans and an Indonesian from the Freeport gold and copper mine in Indonesia's eastern-most province of West Papua, the identity of the perpetrators is still unclear.
Indonesian officials were quick to blame the Free Papua Movement (OPM) for the August 30 attack. However, there is mounting evidence that the Indonesian armed forces (TNI) orchestrated the attack in order to justify their "security" presence in Papua and to launch an all-out offensive against the separatist movement.
Bullet casings at the scene of the attack showed the attackers used M-16 and SS1 rifles (standard issue for the TNI). The fact that Westerners were targeted and that the attackers appeared to have remained at the ambush site for 24 hours does not follow the pattern of recent OPM activity.
Even the Indonesian police have admitted that the TNI may be involved, and have questioned 21 soldiers who were on duty during the incident. According to the September 10 Washington Post, local police chiefI. Made Pastika said in an interview that members of the TNI may have carried out the attack to extort money or other concessions from Freeport.
Investigators are also evaluating the possibility that Kopassus (Indonesian special forces) may have hired local Papuan fighters to conduct the ambush.
This has put police at odds with the military and reflects long-time rivalry between the two institutions which compete for control over security and the money-making opportunities it brings.
Police have been involved in negotiations to create a "zone of peace" in Papua. In contrast, the senior military commander in the province, General Mahidin Simbolon, recently vowed to crush the separatist movement.
John Rumbiak from Papua's human rights organisation Elsham which has been assisting the police in the investigation was quoted by Agence France Presse as saying that witnesses said they "saw a number of people wearing military uniforms" in the vicinity of the ambush site at the time of the incident. "They were holding automatic guns", Rumbiak told AFP.
The September 15 Washington Post reported that the body of a key suspect who was killed by the military in a shoot-out one day after the ambush has been identified by his family as an informant for Kopassus.
Rumbiak told the Post that the suspect was a 24-year-old Papuan named Danianus Waker. His family approached Rumbiak's group on September 14 and said Waker a member of the Dani tribe from the Sugapa area, about 76 kilometres north of the ambush site had been employed by Kopassus for at least a year while working illegally as a gold panner.
An examination of the body also concluded that the man was killed about 24 hours before soldiers said they shot him, a discrepancy that Pastika said concerned him.
Furthermore, he said in an interview on September 14 that an autopsy had determined that the suspect suffered from chronic, massive enlargement of the testicles. The condition could have made it difficult for him to engage in guerrilla activities, including traversing the rugged mountain terrain surrounding the mine.
"We are still working on it", Pastika said, adding: "For the time being, we have to believe [the army] until we come up with other facts." Rumbiak, however, said this clearly points to military involvement.
On September 14, the car of police investigating the murder was fired upon by unknown assailants, suggesting a campaign of intimidation aimed at thwarting the police inquiry. According to the September 16 Melbourne Age, Pastika said that another car had been shot at the day before.
However, he said he doubted the attacks were undertaken by the OPM. "It does not make sense the OPM is still there. The place is already sterilised by the army so, for me, it does not make any sense that this has been done by the OPM."
From Green Left Weekly, September 25, 2002.
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