FBI returns to Indonesia to probe Freeport killings

A team of FBI agents has returned to Indonesia to investigate an ambush last year in Papua province that left two American teachers dead, a U.S. Embassy spokesman said Friday.

The teachers and an Indonesian colleague were killed Aug. 31 when gunmen ambushed their convoy near the American-owned Grasberg gold and copper mine near Timika, about 2,250 kilometers (1,400 miles) east of Jakarta.

A preliminary police investigation concluded that Indonesian soldiers were responsible for the shootings, but no one has been charged. U.S. federal agents visited the province earlier this year but reportedly were denied unrestricted access to witnesses and evidence.

U.S. officials have made it clear that the failure to find the killers is preventing efforts to restore full military ties with Indonesia, which were cut after troops took part in the devastation of East Timor in 1999.

U.S. Embassy spokesman Stan Harsha said an FBI team had arrived in Indonesia and was "very happy" with the level of cooperation it had so far received.

He didn't say whether the agents would travel to Papua, but police in the region said they were preparing for their visit.

Human rights groups have alleged that soldiers committed the murders to discredit the separatist Free Papua Movement, or that security forces conspired in the killings to extort money from the mine's owners, PT Freeport Indonesia.

Freeport is the Indonesian branch of New Orleans-based Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (FCX). The company has refused to speak about the killings, but has said it paid local military units millions of dollars a year to protect its facility.(*)