Papuan military chief refutes police allegation on Freeport fatal incident

Papuan military angrily refuted police allegation that military members was suspected to be involved in shooting incident that left two US citizens and one Indonesian dead in US giant miner Freeport McMoRan?s mining site compound in Timika, Papua, last August.

?That?s baseless accusation as there was no solid proof that pointed to military?s involvement. The police should be more careful in making statement,? said Papua military commander Maj. General Mahidin Simbolon in an interview with Petromindo.Com in Jayapura Thursday.

Papua deputy police chief Brig. Gen. Raziman Tarigan on Wednesday said police suspected military involvement in the fatal shooting based on ballistic examination and the type of guns used by the shooters; an M-16 machine gun, an SS-1 rifle and a Mauser rifle. More over, he said that the only people who pass along that section of road where the incident took place are the military and employees of PT Freeport Indonesia.

?How can they (police) know from which guns the bullets were coming from, because ballistic examination requires the guns to be examined, and as far as I am concerned, police never ask for suspected weapons used in the shooting to be examined. More over, it?s ridiculous to accuse military involvement only by the type of the guns used, because the rebel (Free Papua Movement) also has similar guns. They even have standard police guns,? he said.

?Therefore, without solid proof and complete evidence, I urge Raziman not to issue this kind of statement.?

Papuan police chief Inspector General Budi Utomo refused to comment. ?That?s Raziman?s statement, asked him,? he said.(alex)