Culture and Life

by Rob Gowland

Here's what happened, see

The attempt by the US Attorney General John Ashcroft to foist 
the blame for the killing of two US schoolteachers on to the Free 
Papua Movement (OPM) has not gone down too well.

An ambush in August 2002 of a convoy carrying employees of the 
US-owned Freeport copper and gold mine in West Papua killed two 
US teachers and an Indonesian colleague and left 12 other people, 
most of them Americans, wounded.

West Papuan police soon revealed that a witness had linked 
Indonesian special forces (KOPASUS) soldiers to the killings. 
These forces have waged a "shoot to kill" campaign against West 
Papuan advocates of independence from Indonesia.

Even the US State Department has recently come out and identified 
the Indonesian military (TNI) as being responsible for "numerous" 
unlawful killings in West Papua. The TNI's terror campaign 
against the West Papuan population has also driven many people 
into Papua New Guinea as refugees.

Undaunted, the TNI have established, as they did in East Timor, 
armed local "militias" to spy on and terrorise any who might 
support the independence movement.

Despite widespread belief and even evidence that the Indonesian 
military were themselves responsible for the Freeport ambush, the 
TNI were quick to blame it on the poorly-armed fighters of the 
Free Papua Movement.

The giant Freeport copper and gold mine (along with oil and gas) 
is at the centre of US/Indonesian interest in West Papua. If the 
OPM (Free Papua Movement) had pulled off the spectacular ambush 
you would expect them to claim responsibility with gusto.

It would have re-established them as a guerrilla force to be 
reckoned with. Instead, the OPM has steadfastly denied any 
involvement.

The international spokesman for the OPM, Dr John Otto Ondawame, 
called the US Attorney General's latest attempt to blame the OPM 
for the ambush a "blatant cover-up".

Speaking from exile in Vanuatu, he went on: "The OPM has made it 
clear that the OPM was never involved in the attacks. Earlier 
investigations by the local Police Chief, Brigadier Pastika, and 
the FBI, have shown strong evidence that the Indonesian military 
were directly involved in the killings.

"This view is shared by the surviving victims themselves."

Ashcroft claims his accusation is based on the FBI's final 
report.

Curiously, that report indicts a certain Antonius Wamang. Dr 
Ondawame noted that, "The indicted man, Mr Antonius Wamang, has 
worked closely with the Indonesian military for the past four 
years in the sandalwood business and also as part of a pro-
Indonesian militia".

Not exactly the portrait of your typical OPM guerrilla!

Ashcroft got no joy from West Papuan human rights campaigner John 
Rumbiak, either. Rumbiak called the decision "a very naove 
attempt to scapegoat the Free Papua organisation".

Edward McWilliams, a former senior US diplomat to Jakarta, said, 
"If we go after the Free Papua movement we're basically 
conspiring in a cover-up".

So why is the White House so keen to put the blame on the OPM 
that they ignore not only the evidence but even common sense?

Because the Bush administration is desperate to restore military 
links with the Indonesian army. These were suspended by Congress 
in the wake of the savagery unleashed by the Indonesian 
military's "militias" opposing the independence struggle in East 
Timor.

US strategic policy is to break up large or even middle-sized 
countries into small separate states or even "statelets". Little 
countries can so much more easily be bullied, dominated and 
exploited.

To this end the US foments religious and ethnic strife, fanning 
differences and encouraging separatist aspirations. Local 
conflicts are good for the arms business and keep alive the 
"endless war" that Bush speaks of.

Local wars and the "war on terror" provide the perfect cover for 
the ruling class to intensify its attacks on democratic rights, 
to ride roughshod over the sovereignty of small nations and to 
acquire control over the public utilities of the whole world.

Such are the contradictions of capitalism, however, that the US 
also tries to keep its foot in the door of larger countries. 
Indonesia is not yet about to break up so the US is working to 
once again tie Indonesia to it economically and militarily.

US arms corporations stand to make a lot of money from the 
Indonesian military if they can just get around Congress's ban. 
Clearing the TNI of any wrongdoing over the Freeport ambush and 
finding a "terrorist" group in the region that can be targeted is 
the perfect solution.

The perverse reasoning behind this approach was pinpointed by Dr 
Ondawame: "Any attempt by the US government to label the OPM a 
'terrorist organisation' is not only wrong, but counter-
productive, considering that it is TNI/KOPASUS forces who are 
training and protecting Islamic terrorist organisations such as 
Laskar Jihad".

Like a character in an old Hollywood gangster film fixing an 
alibi, Ashcroft (the US Attorney General, remember) is saying to 
us "Here's what happened, see". But no one is buying the story.

'Cause, frankly, it smells.