Indonesia hopes for resumed US military ties after Papua rebel charged
Friday, June 25 2004 - 07:59 AM WIB
The decision by US Attorney General John Ashcroft to charge Anthonius Wamang vindicates the Indonesian military following allegations they were involved in the ambush, said foreign ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa.
"There are some who do not wish to have the truth come in the way of a good story," Natalegawa said Friday.
"All sorts of charges have been levelled against Indonesia, and the TNI (military) in particular, about their alleged involvement in the killings.
"To have now the US attorney general indict a leader of the so-called Free Papua Movement in the killings is obviously a source of great satisfaction and a vindication of a sort."
Natalegawa said he hoped the "perpetrators of this dastardly act can be quickly captured and brought to justice."
US military education training funds for Indonesia have been in suspension, with Congress pressing for a resolution of the killings.
"Since the Timika case was one one of the issues that needed to be clarified before any talk of resumption of military cooperation, we hope this latest development would remove a major obstacle," Natalegawa said.
He said it would be for the US side to make the first move.
Washington halted most military-to-military contacts after Indonesian troops ran riot in East Timor in 1999. US legislators have said they wanted an accounting for these and other abuses before ties can resume, but the Timika case was seen as the major immediate obstacle.
US officials said Wamang, who is still at large, was a rebel commander when the two American teachers and an Indonesian colleague were killed near Timika town.
Wamang, 32, was charged last week in the United States and faces the death penalty if convicted.
Timika police chief Paulus Waterpauw said his investigators would attend a meeting Friday at police headquarters on the case. The national deputy detective chief, Dadang Garnida, said he was aware of the US charges but was not yet able to comment.
The attack, in which more than 100 rounds were fired, took place on the road to a huge gold and copper mine operated by US company Freeport McMoRan. The victims were teachers at a company school.
Seven of the eight surviving US victims were seriously wounded.
Police in Papua had quoted a witness as linking Indonesian special forces soldiers to the killings. The military blamed separatist rebels.
Soldiers were paid millions of dollars by Freeport to guard the mine and one suggested motive was to ensure that those payments continued.
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation sent teams on several trips to Papua to help investigate the ambush.
"At this point there is no evidence that has been obtained by the FBI that supports any theory that the Indonesian military participated in this attack but we have not ruled anything out and the investigation continues," said a US Department of Justice official.
A member of Lemasa, a group which represents tribal people in the Timika area, said he believes Wamang is a member of the Free Papua Movement.
But the member, who declined to be identified, told AFP he did not understand why Wamang would have attacked Americans. He said local rebel leader Kelly Kwalik had banned attacks on civilians before the ambush.
The Free Papua Movement has been fighting a sporadic and low-level guerrilla war since Indonesia in 1963 took over the huge mountainous and undeveloped territory from Dutch colonisers.(*)