[Kabar-Irian] News: Additional

[Admin-Editors Kabar-Irian]

PRESS RELEASE

Bush Officials Cover-Up Indonesian Military Role in Murder of U.S. Citizens

*Embargoed for April 9th, 2007*

Contact:
S. Eben Kirksey             Andreas Harsono
University of California    Pantau Foundation
+1.831.429.8276             +62.815.950.9000
skirksey at ucsc.edu           aharsono at cbn.net.id
Santa Cruz, California      Jakarta, Indonesia


Evidence of Indonesian military involvement in the deaths of two
American citizens has been suppressed, according to a report released
today by Joyo Indonesian News Service and Pantau Foundation. U.S.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and other senior administration
officials, have been misleading Congress and the public about a 2002
assault near the gold and copper mine of Freeport McMoRan (FCX) in the
remote Indonesian province of Papua. The Bush Administration sees
Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, as a key ally in the
Global War on Terrorism.

“It’s sad to see that U.S. terrorism policy has once again sacrificed
truth and justice,” said Andreas Harsono, a journalist of the Pantau
media group, who co-authored the report.

F.B.I. agents entrapped at least one innocent man, Reverend Isak
Onawame, in connection with this murder. Rev. Onawame, an elderly human
rights advocate, was detained by the F.B.I. in Papua and delivered to
Indonesian custody where he was strip searched, deprived of sleep, and
interrogated. On November 7th, 2006, an Indonesian court found Rev.
Onawame guilty of supplying attackers with food, based on a false
confession extracted during interrogation. Six other men, including
Antonius Wamang, who has admitted to participating in the attack, were
given sentences of 18 months to life in jail during the same trial.

“By all accounts Wamang’s group only had three guns,” said co-author S.
Eben Kirksey, a doctoral candidate at the University of California at
Santa Cruz. The report authors obtained a copy of a classified
Indonesian ballistics report, which is being released to the public for
the first time today. Through microscopic analysis of bullet fragments,
this ballistics report concluded that a total of 13 guns were fired at
the scene of the crime.

“We’re the first to publicly identify a smoking gun. In fact, we have
unearthed evidence of 10 smoking guns,” continued Kirksey. “There was
another group of shooters wielding enormous firepower.” Eyewitnesses,
and logs of vehicle traffic through road checkpoints, place Indonesian
soldiers at the scene of the crime.

The full text of the report, “Murder at Mile 63”, and the Indonesian
ballistics report, will be available as of April 9th, 2007, on the
websites of the East Timor Action Network (http://www.etan.org/) and
TAPOL—-The Indonesian Human Rights Campaign (http://tapol.gn.apc.org/).