Arrests in Papua ambush boon to US ties
By Bill Guerin
JAKARTA - An event in the remote Indonesian province of Papua, thousands of
kilometers from Washington, seems certain to result in a much stronger position
for Jakarta within the already fast-improving relationship between the two
countries.
Twelve men, including a local rebel operational commander wanted by the United
States for the murder of two American teachers in a 2002 ambush near the giant
US-operated Freeport Grasberg copper and gold mine, have been detained.
Americans Edwin Burgon and Ricky Lynn Spier were killed in the attack.
The province is home to a group of poorly armed independence
fighters known as the Free Papua Organization (OPM), which seeks an independent
state.
Media reports claim that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation had lured the
rebels to a hotel in Timika, near the mine, on the promise that they would be
taken to the US to tell their side of the story. National Police deputy
spokesman Anton Bahrul Alam confirmed that the FBI had assisted with the
arrests.
Suspicions were one thing, but local and FBI investigations found no evidence
that Indonesian troops were implicated in the 2002 crime. The result of a
protracted joint Indonesia-FBI investigation was a US grand jury's indictment
in June 2004 of Antonius Wamang on two counts of murder, eight counts of
attempted murder and other related offenses in connection with the killings.
Wamang is one of those detained. Though the 12 have yet to be formally charged
over the killings, Alam said a fingerprint taken from the scene of the murders
matched Wamang's. During police interrogation, Wamang is reported to have
"confessed to firing the automatic weapon" used in the killings.
Ties between Washington and Jakarta quickly became strained after the killings.
But a statement at the time from then-US attorney general John Ashcroft also
cleared the Indonesian military (TNI) of any role in the attack.
His announcement came just one day after a US congressional subcommittee
renewed a ban on the provision of funds for the Defense Department's
International Military Education and Training (IMET) program for Indonesia,
prompting claims that Washington was sacrificing justice for the victims for
the sake of resuming bilateral military ties.
The TNI had blamed the OPM for the attack, although Wamang in an interview with
the Australian Broadcasting Corp last year claimed that Indonesian troops had
provided ammunition for the shootings.
Ashcroft and FBI director Robert Mueller blamed the Papua separatists for the
Freeport attack and claimed Wamang's indictment illustrated "the importance of
international cooperation to combat terrorism".
This cut little ice with local and international rights groups who cast doubt
on Wamang's involvement in the ambush, with some saying he worked as a military
informer. They suggested the attack was an effort by TNI to discredit the
separatist movement or extort money from Freeport.
TNI gets only 30% of its funding from the central government and makes up the
shortfall by its widespread involvement in businesses, both legal and illegal.
Payments for security services received from multinationals, such as those from
Freeport and from ExxonMobil's natural-gas facilities in Aceh, at the other end
of the archipelago, have provided TNI with a significant source of income.
Freeport abruptly stopped these payments shortly before the ambush. To appease
investor anger and disgust after the meltdown of Enron and WorldCom, the
administration of US President George W Bush had pushed a bill through Congress
that demanded greater corporate accountability. The Corporate Fraud Act,
implemented on July 26, 2002, required the disclosure of such payments, which
accounts for Freeport's recent admission that it paid out nearly US$20 million
to military and police officials in Papua between 1998 and 2004.
Indonesian Attorney General Abdul Rahman Saleh has promised to "look into"
Freeport's allegations before deciding whether to launch a graft probe. The
company has denied breaking any laws but the government has said such payments
are illegal. If individual soldiers of whatever rank kept any of the money
themselves, it would be a criminal offense.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a retired four-star general who last month
ordered the military to play a greater role in the "war against terrorism", is
today expected to announce his choice for the next TNI commander-in-chief, a
key job in the anti-terror campaign. Kusnanto Anggoro, a military analyst with
the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta, tips air force
chief Air Marshal Djoko Suyanto to replace General Endriartono Sutarto, who
tendered his resignation to former president Megawati Sukarnoputri in September
2004 but is still serving as TNI commander.
Megawati stirred up controversy when, although only a caretaker leader after
losing the presidential election, she approved Sutarto's resignation and
recommended hardliner General Ryamizard as his successor. Yudhoyono annulled
Megawati's decision when he took over in October 2004, a move that angered many
lawmakers.
Why now?
One clue to the answer to the most obvious question - why did police act now,
so long after the incident? - may lie in statements from both governments.
"Seeking justice for this crime remains a priority for the United States, and
we are pleased that the Indonesian government also recognizes the importance of
this case," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. "We will continue
to follow this case closely."
Commenting on a proposed visit to Jakarta by US Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice, Foreign Affairs Minister Hassan Wirayuda noted a "growing and accepted
view in the US to see Indonesia in a much broader context rather than in
snapshots of events like human-rights violations ... and military reform".
Rice had reinstated full IMET eligibility for Indonesia, and Wirayuda described
her planned visit as one that would "underline the importance of the
relationship between Indonesia and the US, and the growing appreciation of
Indonesia by the US".
The United States has shown a long-term commitment to post-tsunami
reconstruction in Aceh, support for Indonesia's reform agenda and for the
country's efforts to reform its justice system and military.
The arrests may well lead to Jakarta's closest ever relationship with
Washington as partisan differences in both governments gradually dissolve.
Aloysius Renwarin, a lawyer representing the 12, said, "They are being
sacrificed for the relationship between the US and Indonesia." Yet the arrests
alone will not be enough to shore up US support for even deeper ties with the
military.
Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, the most vocal opponent of US funding of IMET
for Indonesia in Congress, is reported to have called the arrests "a step in
the right direction" though noting that "there are so many unanswered questions
in this case, including who these people are and what role they may have had in
these crimes."
Washington will press for its pound of flesh by demanding that Wamang, at
least, be tried by a US court. If convicted he could face the death penalty.
Although Indonesia has no extradition treaty with the US it has been the scene
of at least one infamous Central Intelligence Agency "rendering", when alleged
al-Qaeda operative Omar al Faruq was spirited away to a secret location.
A politically stable and US-friendly Indonesia would help US strategic and
economic interests in the region, although the relationship is certain to
remain a very different kettle of fish to the two other notable regional
relationships the United States has, with its "sheriffs" in Singapore and
Sydney.
Bill Guerin, a Jakarta correspondent for Asia Times Online since 2000,
has worked in Indonesia for 20 years as a journalist. He has been published by
the BBC on East Timor and specializes in business/economic and political
analysis in Indonesia.
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