Indonesian military linked to killing of US teachers
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
NEW evidence points to Indonesian military involvement in a 2002 attack that killed two US teachers and an Indonesian in the country's remote Papua province, a report said yesterday.
Members of Indonesia's military were linked to the highland ambush on a convoy of employees from mining giant Freeport McMoRan outside its massive Grasberg gold and copper mine, the article in the peer-reviewed South East Asia Research journal said.
"We did not find evidence of a single dalang (puppet master). Instead we found that a number of agents had co-produced an act of terror," wrote US anthropologist S Eben Kirksey and journalist Andreas Harsono.
The 2002 attack, which also wounded 12 mostly American Freeport employees, was blamed on separatist rebels, but human rights groups and members of the US Congress have accused the military of being behind the attack.
The new study finds soldiers and individuals with links to the military had manipulated and helped arm Papuan separatist rebel Antonius Wamang, who was sentenced to life in prison in 2006 for leading the attack.
Interviews with Wamang and more than 50 other individuals, as well as court papers and documents from the US State Department, found the rebel was helped by Agus Anggaibak, who is now a member of regional assembly for Papua's Mimika district, the report said. "Basically Agus Anggaibak was involved in planting the idea in Antionius Wamang to buy guns in Jakarta" and carry out the attack, author Harsono said.
"What's new (in the report) is that it shows more evidence regarding the Indonesian military's involvement in this killing," he said.
Anggaibak denied in interviews with the authors that he was involved in the attack, but admitted to links with Indonesia's State Intelligence Agency.
Elements in the military likely fomented the attack in order to convince Freeport to maintain an arrangement by which it paid millions of dollars to the military every year to guard its operations, the report said.
Freeport in 2003 acknowledged paying the military about US $5.6 million the previous year to protect its employees. Papua has been troubled by a low-level insurgency by mostly poorly armed rebels since its takeover by Indonesian forces in 1963.AFP
Members of Indonesia's military were linked to the highland ambush on a convoy of employees from mining giant Freeport McMoRan outside its massive Grasberg gold and copper mine, the article in the peer-reviewed South East Asia Research journal said.
"We did not find evidence of a single dalang (puppet master). Instead we found that a number of agents had co-produced an act of terror," wrote US anthropologist S Eben Kirksey and journalist Andreas Harsono.
The 2002 attack, which also wounded 12 mostly American Freeport employees, was blamed on separatist rebels, but human rights groups and members of the US Congress have accused the military of being behind the attack.
The new study finds soldiers and individuals with links to the military had manipulated and helped arm Papuan separatist rebel Antonius Wamang, who was sentenced to life in prison in 2006 for leading the attack.
Interviews with Wamang and more than 50 other individuals, as well as court papers and documents from the US State Department, found the rebel was helped by Agus Anggaibak, who is now a member of regional assembly for Papua's Mimika district, the report said. "Basically Agus Anggaibak was involved in planting the idea in Antionius Wamang to buy guns in Jakarta" and carry out the attack, author Harsono said.
"What's new (in the report) is that it shows more evidence regarding the Indonesian military's involvement in this killing," he said.
Anggaibak denied in interviews with the authors that he was involved in the attack, but admitted to links with Indonesia's State Intelligence Agency.
Elements in the military likely fomented the attack in order to convince Freeport to maintain an arrangement by which it paid millions of dollars to the military every year to guard its operations, the report said.
Freeport in 2003 acknowledged paying the military about US $5.6 million the previous year to protect its employees. Papua has been troubled by a low-level insurgency by mostly poorly armed rebels since its takeover by Indonesian forces in 1963.AFP
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