Indonesia said yesterday it hoped for resumed military cooperation with the US after Washington charged a separatist rebel leader with the killing of two Americans in Papua province almost two years ago.
The decision by US Attorney General John Ashcroft to charge Anthonius Wamang vindicates the Indonesian military following allegations that they were involved in the ambush, said foreign ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa.
"There are some who do not wish to have the truth come in the way of a good story," Natalegawa said.
"All sorts of charges have been levelled against Indonesia, and the TNI [military] in particular, about their alleged involvement in the killings. To now have the US attorney general indict a leader of the so-called Free Papua Movement in the killings is obviously a source of great satisfaction and a vindication of a sort," he said.
Natalegawa said he hoped the "perpetrators of this dastardly act can be quickly captured and brought to justice."
US military training funds for Indonesia have been in suspension, with Congress pressing for a resolution of the killings.
"Since the Timika case was one of the issues that needed to be clarified before any talk of resumption of military cooperation, we hope this latest development would remove a major obstacle," Natalegawa said.
He said it would be for the US side to make the first move.
Washington halted most military-to-military contacts after Indonesian troops ran riot in East Timor in 1999. US legislators have said they wanted an accounting for these and other abuses before ties can resume, but the Timika case was seen as the major immediate obstacle.
US officials said Wamang, who is still at large, was a rebel commander when the two US teachers and an Indonesian colleague were killed near Timika town.
Wamang, 32, was charged last week in the US and faces the death penalty if convicted.
Timika police chief Paulus Waterpauw said his investigators were to attend a meeting on the case yesterday at police headquarters. The national deputy detective chief, Dadang Garnida, said he was aware of the US charges but was not yet able to comment.
The attack, in which more than 100 shots were fired, took place on the road to a huge gold and copper mine operated by a US company, Freeport McMoRan. The victims were teachers at a company school.
Seven of the eight surviving US victims were seriously wounded.
Police in Papua had quoted a witness as linking Indonesian special forces soldiers to the killings. The military blamed separatist rebels.
Soldiers were paid millions of dollars by Freeport to guard the mine and one suggested motive was to ensure that those payments continued.
"At this point there is no evidence that has been obtained by the FBI that supports any theory that the Indonesian military participated in this attack but we have not ruled anything out and the investigation continues," a US Department of Justice official said.
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