Indonesia's Military Investigates Itself--Again

Today George Aditjondro, an Indonesian sociologist and public intellectual, suggested that the Indonesian military staged a series of ambush murders last weekend at the Freeport McMoRan gold and copper mine. Aditjondro told the Associated Press: "Whenever they (security forces) feel they do not receive enough 'protection fee' then they orchestrate an attack to show Freeport how vulnerable they are and increase protection fees."

Indonesian officials today announced that the Indonesian military would join the police in investigating the killings of last weekend.

If recent history can serve as any guide, the Indonesian military will not be able to pull off a credible investigation. In December 2002, when the police fingered military shooters in a similar attack, General Endriartono Sutarto, then the head of Indonesia's Armed Forces, dispatched a fact finding team to the crime scene. This team, led by Brigadier General Hendarji, conducted what they called a "reconstruction."

The purported aim of this reconstruction was to assess the accuracy of eyewitnesses testimony placing Indonesian soldiers with the Kopassus Special Forces at the crime scene. In short, the reconstruction conducted on 28 December, 2002, in Timika was a sham. Crime scene eye witnesses and human rights observers reported that they were intimidated during the exercise. The military publicly exonerated themselves after this reconstruction, saying that the eyewitnesses had "lied."

If Indonesian military personnel are among the likely suspects in the latest round of murders, then they should not participate in the investigation.

To read the interview with George Aditjondro see: Anthony Deutch, "Security Suspected in Indonesia Gold Mine Killings," The Associated Press, 15 July 2009.

To learn more about the December 2002 "reconstruction" by the Indonesian military see pages 188-189 of: KIRKSEY, S. E. & A. HARSONO. 2008. "Criminal Collaborations: Antonius Wamang and the Indonesian Military in Timika", South East Asia Research, 16 (2): 165-197.