[Kabar-indonesia] Papuans Would 'Rather Die' Than Stand Trial in Jakarta

[JoyoNews at aol.com]

The Jakarta Post
Wednesday, August 2, 2006

Papuans continue protesting trial 

Ary Hermawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Seven men charged with the 2002 murders of two American nationals and an 
Indonesian in Papua province said Tuesday they would rather die than stand trial 
in Jakarta.

The defendants insisted they should be tried in Timika, Papua, where the 
killings took place. 

"We don't want to be tried here. We refuse to be tried (in Jakarta) even if 
we have to be shot dead," said defendant Rev. Ishaq Onamawe, 54, after being 
forced to appear at the Central Jakarta District Court. 

The other six suspects are Antonius Wamang, 30, Agustinus Anggaibak, 23, 
Yulianus Deikme, 26, Esau Onawame, 23, Hardi Sugumol, 34, and Yairus Kiwak, 52. 

They are charged with killing U.S. nationals Ricky Lynn Spier, 44, and Edwin 
Leon Burgen, 71, and their Indonesian colleague, FX Bambang Riwanto, during an 
armed attack near the PT Freeport Indonesia gold and copper mine in Timika. 

The suspects refused to answer questions posed to them during Tuesday's 
trial. 

Judge Andriani Nurdin decided to suspend the proceedings for 30 minutes at 
the request of the suspects' lawyers, before adjourning the trial until Aug. 8. 

The suspects were not prepared to enter their pleas at the hearing, nor were 
their lawyers from the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association 
(PBHI), who skipped the previous session at the request of their clients. 

"I don't know if the prosecutors made any change in the indictments when they 
were read out at the last session because our clients were unable to 
understand the contents of the indictments," chief lawyer Johnson Panjaitan told the 
court. Only Wamang and Ishaq speak Indonesian fluently. 

At the beginning of the session Andriani pleaded with the suspects to sit in 
front of her as defendants, but they remained glued to their seats in the 
visitors' section. 

The police officers who had forcibly brought them into the courtroom did not 
move them to the defendants' chairs. 

Andriani then ordered the defense lawyers to persuade them to move, but still 
to no avail. The Papuans instead reiterated their objection to being tried in 
Jakarta. 

Police have said the seven suspects were all members of the Free Papua 
Movement (OPM), but Johnson maintained they were "just ordinary people". 

Aloy Renwarin, a lawyer for Wamang, claimed earlier this year that his client 
admitted he had fired 30 shots during the attack on the vehicles carrying the 
Americans. But Wamang also implicated the military in the attack, he was 
quoted by AFP as saying. 

The seven suspects were arrested in January in an operation involving the 
U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation. 

Wamang, the leader of the group, was allegedly an OPM commander. He was 
indicted for the attack by a U.S. grand jury in 2004. All seven men could face the 
death penalty if convicted. 

Papua-based rights groups have alleged that the military ordered the attack 
to ensure that Freeport would continue making large cash payments to it for 
security in and around the mine. 

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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