The Jakarta Post, 9/2/2002 4:15:10 PM
Fifteen alleged separatist rebels arrested in Papua
JAKARTA (JP): Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ryamizard Ryacudu said on Monday that
security personnel had captured 15 alleged members of the Free Papua Movement
(OPM) separatist group, under the leadership of Kelly Kwalik, who were responsible
for the deadly ambush on a convoy of workers near Timika over the weekend,
agencies reported.
Two U.S. nationals and one Indonesian were killed in the attack, while nine other
Americans and three Indonesians were wounded. The victims were all teachers at
Tembagapura International School, which caters to employees of PT Freeport
Indonesia, the world's largest gold mine in Tembagapura, operated by the U.S.-based
giant Freeport-McMoran Copper and Gold Inc. Indonesia.
The U.S. nationals killed were identified as Edwin Leon Burcon, the 57-year-old
school principal, and teacher Rickey Spear, 45.
Ryacudu said quoted by Antara that the police and a battalion of soldiers had been
deployed to the area around the ambush site to help hunt down the assailants. One
suspected rebel was killed in a clash on Sunday that also left an Indonesian soldier
wounded.
The Freeport gold mine has become a symbol of Indonesia's economic exploitation of
Papua (Irian Jaya), not to mention environmental degradation of the remote province.
The OPM has fought for a separate nation in the predominantly Melanesian Papua
since the former Dutch colony of Western New Guinea became part of Indonesia in
1964.
Kwalik's splinter group has been accused of kidnapping foreigners in the past, but
says it has never targeted them in their long struggle to win independence for Papua
from Indonesia.
In early 1996, the group abducted a group of international biologists -- including four
Britons, two Dutch citizens and a German -- and kept them hostage for five months
before Indonesian elite troops launched a military operation to free them.
Freeport has become one of Indonesia's biggest foreign investors since opening the
Grasberg mine in Papua in the early 1970s. It also brings in a large amount of annual
revenue for Jakarta.
Meanwhile, the vice director of Papuan rights group Elsham, Aloy Renwarin, said
Kwalik had denied involvement in the ambush.
"They told us through a courier that they have no knowledge of the attack," Renwarin
told AFP by telephone from Papua, adding that "They said they don't want violence
and are committed to dialog."
Elsham is sponsoring peace talks between OPM and the government scheduled for
next month and Renwarin said Kwalik was ready for the dialog.
The pacifist pro-independence Papua Presidium Council accused the military of trying
to discredit the separatists by blaming the attack on OPM. It said the rebel group had
never targeted foreigners.
"It is becoming more and more evident that the Indonesian security forces are involved
in creating provocation and instigating violence," the presidium said in a statement
received on Monday.
"An attack on foreign nationals and on Freeport and consequently blaming the OPM
is on the one hand an effort to discredit the OPM as a terrorist organization and on
the other hand a warning to Freeport that it cannot operate without the protection of
the Indonesian Army," it said.
The presidium expressed "its grave sorrow and sincere regret" and called for an
international independent team to investigate the case.
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