THE WASHINGTON POST, Sunday, September 15, 2002
Slain Suspect in Indonesian Ambush Said to Be Military Informer
By Alan Sipress and Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post Foreign Service
JAKARTA, Indonesia, Sept. 15 (Sunday) -- The body of a key suspect in the killing of
two Americans and an Indonesian in the eastern province of Papua has been identified
by his family as an informant for the Indonesian military's special forces, according to
a human rights group helping in the police investigation.
John Rumbiak, an official with the Papua-based Institute for Human Rights Study and
Advocacy, said the slain suspect, whose body was recovered by police one day after
the Aug. 31 ambush, was a 24-year-old Papuan named Danianus Waker. His family
approached Rumbiak's group on Saturday and said Waker, a member of the Dani
tribe from the Sugapa area about 60 miles north of the ambush site, had been
employed by the special forces for at least a year while working illegally as a gold
panner.
This information, combined with the results of an autopsy on the body, have raised
doubts about whether separatist rebels were involved in the attack as the Indonesian
military alleges.
To support their claim, military commanders said they shot the suspect dead during a
firefight with suspected rebels along a road leading to the Freeport-McMoRan gold and
copper mine, where the three victims worked.
But the regional police chief, I. Made Pastika, who is exploring the possible role of
soldiers in the killings, said in an interview Saturday that an autopsy has determined
that the suspect suffered from chronic, massive enlargement of the testicles. The
condition could have made it difficult for him to engage in guerrilla activities, including
traversing the rugged mountain terrain surrounding the mine.
An examination of the body also concluded that the man was killed about 24 hours
before the soldiers said they shot him, a discrepancy that Pastika said concerns him.
He added, however, that it was premature to conclude whether soldiers, separatists or
disgruntled tribesmen were behind the attack, in which gunmen stopped a convoy of
vehicles on a foggy road near the mine. The vehicles were raked with gunfire.
"We are still working on it," he said, adding, "For the time being, we have to believe
[the army] until we come up with other facts."
Pastika has said he is examining the possibility that soldiers might have orchestrated
the attack in an effort to extort money and other concessions from the Freeport
facility, the world's largest gold and copper mine, and other multinational corporations
in Papua. If proved, the involvement of soldiers in the ambush could hamstring efforts
by the Bush administration to restore military ties with Indonesia, suspended in 1999
to protest the army's role in organizing widespread militia violence in East Timor.
The military and Freeport officials have blamed the attack on the Free Papua
Movement, whose long-running independence campaign has been marked by
sporadic, low-level violence, but never before involved killing Westerners. The recent
attack killed American teachers Edwin L. Burgon of Sunriver, Ore., and Ricky L. Spier
of Colorado as well as their Indonesian colleague, Bambung Riwanto.
A military source in Papua cautioned that any information released by investigators in
the ongoing police probe would be premature. He said he was unaware of a medical
finding that the unidentified man had been shot earlier than the military had claimed.
Rumbiak, however, said the newest information clearly points to military involvement
in the attack on the Freeport convoy. "It's obvious, very obvious. It's very easy to
conclude who did the attack," he said.
The police chief said the autopsy was completed by a police doctor and a physician
affiliated with Freeport. The victim's testicles had swollen to a diameter of about six
inches; the autopsy concluded he had suffered the condition for at least a year.
Examination of the body also raised questions about the military's account of when
the man was killed. Indonesian armed forces said he was slain in an exchange of fire
with soldiers Sept. 1 as they guarded police who were investigating the crime scene.
But Rumbiak, the human rights advocate, said the victim's wounds were not fresh
when his body was recovered, indicating that he had been killed 24 hours earlier.
Pastika's determination to investigate possible army involvement and other theories
has put him at odds with Indonesia's powerful military. The army has long played a
highly influential role in Papua, providing security for Freeport operations in return for
lucrative compensation. The senior military commander in Papua, Maj. Gen. Mahidin
Simbolon, recently vowed to crush the separatist campaign, raising concerns among
human rights and community groups that advocate a peaceful settlement of the
dispute.
This afternoon, unidentified gunmen attacked an Indonesian military vehicle close to
the spot of the Aug. 31 ambush, injuring one soldier, sources in Papua said.
In a report issued Friday examining the Papua conflict, the International Crisis Group
warned that violence could escalate if the military pursues a hard-line approach.
© 2002 The Washington Post Company
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