The Jakarta Post, 1/12/2006 4:01:58 PM
Indonesia detains 12 Papuan rebels over killing of US teachers
JAKARTA (AFP): Police in Indonesia's Papua province said Thursday they had
arrested 12 separatist rebels as suspects in the killing of two US teachers and an
Indonesian colleague more than three years ago.
The suspects were arrested in the town of Timika on Wednesday night, said Papua
police spokesman Oni Lebelaw, adding that they were members of the Free Papua
Movement (OPM) separatist group.
Among them is Anthonius Wamang, who in 2004 was indicted by then-US attorney
general John Ashcroft for the August 2002 shooting, in which two American teachers
and their Indonesian colleague were killed when their vehicle was fired on.
Wamang was allegedly an OPM commander at the time of the attack, which took
place on the road leading to a gold and copper mine in Timika operated by US-owned
Freeport McMoRan.
"Eight of them, including Wamang, have been flown to the provincial capital of
Jayapura for questioning. The other four will also be flown there later Thursday,"
Lebelaw said.
Police Commissioner Kartono of the provincial police said three officers from the US
Federal Bureau of Investigation were involved in the arrest.
FBI investigators had visited Papua several times in the past to take part in the probe.
National police spokesman Anton Bachrul Alam said the rebels were arrested at a
Timika hotel. "A fingerprint taken from the scene was identical to that of Anthonius
Wamang," he told reporters in Jakarta.OPM rebels have been fighting a sporadic and
low-level guerrilla war since 1963 when Indonesia took over the huge mountainous and
undeveloped territory from Dutch colonisers. (**)
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