The Age [Australia], December 30 2002
Indonesian army linked to ambush
By Tom Hyland, Jakarta
A human rights group in the Indonesian province of Papua has linked the Indonesian
army to an ambush in which the wife and daughter of a prominent human rights
activist were wounded.
The deputy head of the Institute for Human Rights Study and Advocacy (Elsham),
Aloysius Renwarin, said yesterday there was no question that the army was involved
in the ambush.
He said the ambush followed a campaign of intimidation prompted by Elsham's
allegations that the army ambushed and killed two American and one Indonesian
school teacher in Papua four months ago.
On Saturday, gunmen fired on a bus near the border with Papua New Guinea. Elsye
Rumbiak Bonai was shot in a leg and her 12-year-old daughter Mariana was hit in an
arm. Another woman, human rights activist Yeni Irew Meraudje, was shot in a leg.
Mrs Bonai was being treated in the Papuan capital, Jayapura, and her daughter and
Ms Meraudje were flown to Jakarta yesterday for treatment.
Mrs Bonai is the wife of Johannes Bonai, the director of Elsham, which has accused
the army of shooting the three school teachers near the big Freeport gold and copper
mine on August 31. The army has denied involvement in the ambushes, instead
blaming rebels of pro-independence Free Papua Movement (OPM).
Mr Renwarin said the Bonai family had been harassed and threatened after an Elsham
report blamed Indonesian special forces for the Freeport killings.
In the past week, the Bonai phone line was cut and Mr Bonai's car tyres were
slashed, he said.
"Investigations up to today indicate this was a TNI (army) operation. No question," Mr
Renwarin said.
He said the ambush coincided with an operation by the army and anti-independence
militia along the PNG border.
The army and local police have denied military involvement. The Jakarta Post quoted a
military spokesman as blaming the attack on an armed renegade group, a reference
to the OPM. The army had also blamed the OPM for the August ambush.
Saturday's ambush came a day after a senior government minister conceded that
rogue soldiers might have carried out the Freeport killings.
Jakarta is under pressure to resolve the Freeport case.
President George Bush this month made it clear to Indonesian President Megawati
Sukarnoputri there would be no resumption of US military aid to Indonesia until the US
was satisfied with progress in the case.
President Megawati made a Christmas Day visit to Papua and called for an end to
violence.
"We have to stop condemning one another and each side has to stop all security
disturbances," she told Papuans at a sports stadium in Jayapura.
Copyright © 2002 The Age Company Ltd
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