ASSOCIATED PRESS, Friday September 13, 2002 5:22 AM ET
West should warn Indonesia against crackdown in Papua
province, report says
By SLOBODAN LEKIC, Associated Press Writer
JAKARTA, Indonesia - Violence could escalate quickly in Indonesia's troubled
province of Papua if the military uses the murder of two Americans as a pretext to
crack down on pro-independence activists, an international think tank warned Friday.
"Donor governments should (make clear) to their Indonesian counterparts that criminal
behavior by the security forces could ultimately erode international support for
Indonesian rule over Papua," said a report released by the Brussels-based
International Crisis Group.
The Indonesian military has blamed rebels of the Free Papua Movement for a roadside
ambush last month in which two American teachers and an Indonesian colleague
were shot to death. Ten other employees of a school at the giant Grasberg copper
and gold mine, about 2,300 kilometers (1,400 miles) east of Jakarta, were wounded in
the incident.
The attackers used military-issue M-16 rifles. In the past, rebels in the tribal jungle
region have used only spears and bows and arrows, and have never targeted
foreigners.
However, U.S. ambassador to Indonesia Ralph Boyce has said there were no
indications that the rebels had obtained automatic weapons.
Rebel leaders and spokesmen have denied a role in the attack and have blamed it on
the Indonesian military, saying that the army would use the ambush as a pretext to
launch a crackdown. The Indonesian military has denied such charges.
The guerrillas, who have waged a low-level insurgency since Papua was forcibly
incorporated into Indonesia in 1963, have urged the United Nations and the
government in Jakarta to allow an independent investigation into the attack.
"Violence in Papua could escalate, particularly if the Indonesian military adopts a
hard-line approach to the independence movement," the Crisis Group said.
It also urged Western governments to insist that Indonesia allow an independent
inquiry into the killing last year of a Papuan political leader allegedly assassinated by
government soldiers.
Theys Eluay, who headed the Papuan Presidium Council -- the main political grouping
in the province -- was kidnapped and strangled in November after a dinner with senior
military officers.
Prosecutors have identified 10 members of Indonesia's elite, U.S.-trained special
forces -- including a colonel, a major and a captain -- as suspects in the case.
Indonesia has turned down a request from several Western nations for an independent
investigation into the murder, which has inflamed public sentiment and reinforced a
perception among Papuans that Jakarta is determined to crush their aspirations by
whatever means necessary.
"Many Papuans fear that the killing of ... Eluay and the presence of non-Papuan
militias like Laskar Jihad -- a radical Islamic group that has been accused of inciting
communal violence -- are part of a military strategy to foment unrest in order to justify
a crackdown on dissent," the report said.
Laskar Jihad, which many believe has close links to the military, has been blamed for
the deaths of thousands of Christians elsewhere in Indonesia, which is the world's
most populous Muslim nation.
Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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