ABC AUSTRALIA, 10/09/2002 23:07:57
Ambassador says Papua attack 'an open matter'
The United States ambassador to Indonesia says it remains unclear who shot dead
two Americans near the giant Freeport mine in Indonesia's easternmost Papua
province last month.
US ambassador Ralph Boyce has told foreign journalists in Jakarta it is "very much
an open matter as to who murdered the victims in Papua."
The army has blamed followers of Kelly Kwalik, a local leader of the disorganised and
poorly-armed Free Papua Movement (OPM) separatists for the August 31 attack that
also left an Indonesian dead and eight foreigners and Indonesians wounded.
Kwalik in turn has accused the army of using native Papuans to wage a mock war
against government troops to justify crackdowns on separatists who have been
fighting for a free state since the 1960s.
Papuan lobby groups have also rejected accusations that separatists mounted the
attack and suggested military elements might be behind it.
An FBI agent, believed to be from Singapore, last week visited the scene of the
ambush with security officials from the Jakarta embassy.
"It's an investigation by the Indonesian law enforcement authorities led by the police
and we are assisting in that, obviously, and it's very much still underway,"
Ambassador Boyce says.
US officials earlier called the ambush "an outrageous act of terrorism."
10/09/2002 23:07:57 | ABC Radio Australia News
© 2001 Australian Broadcasting Corporation |
