Tempo Magazine March 12 - 18, 2002 

Murder Probe Investigating the Red Berets 

The investigating team is certain it knows the murderer of Theys Eluay. 

Kopassus? 

There was an unusual sight two weeks ago at the headquarters of the elite Army Special Forces (Kopassus) in Hamadi, Jayapura. The building was surrounded by red plastic tape. "It's a police line", said commander of the Trikora Military Command, Military Police Col. Sutarna. The red plastic tape was a replacement for the police markers that were too short. 

All week long, the National Investigating Commission (KPN), led by former police officer and a member of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), Koesparmono Irsan, searched the Kopassus HQ in Papua. Koesparmono was trying to get to the bottom of the murder of Papuan independence figure Theys Hiyo Eluay, a case that has attracted international attention. 

Theys was found dead after attending a ceremony at the Hamadi HQ to commemorate Heroes' Day on November 10 last year. Dozens of witnesses questioned by the investigating team have pointed the finger at Kopassus as the perpetrators. It is therefore unsurprising that people began to 
suspect a political motive behind the murder. Facing international pressure to thoroughly investigate the case, the Indonesian government set up a national commission made up of former politicians, military personnel, prosecutors and Papuan activists. 

Working with the police, the commission was given powers to question anybody and to search any location necessary, civilian or military. However, the Papua local police were hamstrung by regulations in the Code of Criminal Proceedings and in military law forbidding them from questioning military personnel. That was why the search of the Kopassus HQ was led by 
Sutarna, the Military Police commander. 

About 40 investigators, who arrived in four vehicles, examined every corner of the Red Berets' HQ. They brought shovels, hoes, crowbars and other tools and spread out upon arriving. They examined piles of dirt and cement, dormitories and kitchens and even dug up the earth in one soldier's bedroom. 

They were apparently looking for the body of Aristoteles Masoka, the driver who had driven Theys to the HQ. It was there, according to several witnesses, where Theys was last seen alive. A person whose job it was to receive guests that night even says he saw several Kopassus officers hug Aristoteles as they were going into the mess. Unfortunately as of the end of last week, the 
team still hadn't found what it was looking for. 

Colonel Sutarna denied that the search was undertaken to find Aristotoles' body. "We were looking for other additional evidence," he told TEMPO, without giving any details of what they were in fact seeking. 

While the investigation was underway, there was a surprising development. 

Suddenly, 3,000 Kopassus troops at Hamadi were recalled to Jakarta, along with their commanding officer Lt. Col. (Inf) Hartomo. 

Kopassus commander general, Maj. Gen. Amirul Isnaini, claimed the transfer was merely a routine troop rotation and was not linked with the case. "They had already been on duty for over a year, and it was time for them to be reunited with their families," he said. But the choice of timing for the rotation certainly made the people of Jayapura feel that Kopassus was 
trying to obstruct the investigation. 

Yet the sudden rotation may actually have no drastic effect on the result of the investigation. Koesparmono Irsan, head of the investigation commission, said that his team was almost certain-"99 percent," he said-who killed Theys. But he refused to state the name or motive for the murder. "Let President Megawati announce it," he said. Koesparmono said that the case is ready to go to trial. 

Suspicions of Kopassus involvement are nothing new. The police investigation document, which was also shown to the KPN, included the testimony of eight witnesses that pointed directly to the involvement Kopassus personnel. 

Former Kopassus commander of the Hamadi garrison, Lt. Col. Hartomo, has repeatedly denied all the accusations. "What madness is this? I invited him and then killed him?" he said to TEMPO last November. Denials also came from Maj. Gen. Amirul Isnaini. "My men were not involved," he said. 

But the results of the investigation by the Army HQ Independent Team have backed up the police conclusions. The team questioned 94 Kopassus personnel, but has yet to find a suspect. However, it was Army Chief of Staff Gen. Endriartono himself who said there were indications of Kopassus' 
involvement in the killing. 

The motive? Commander of the Military Police Center, Maj. Gen. Djasri Marin, a member of the independent investigation team, said the motive was not yet clear. "The motive could have been financial, personal or to do with an organization involving Indonesian Military personnel," he said. 

The Institution for the Study of Human Rights in Papua said that it had suspected Kopassus' involvement from the start (TEMPO Edition 28, January 2002). According to the institute's director, Johanis G. Bonay, Kopassus had long been planning the killing to make the situation in Jayapura seem unsafe. 

"Various rumors were spread, including one that there would be a curfew. The aim was clear, to stop people going out at night so the plan could proceed smoothly," he said. 

But the soldiers were the executors, not the planners, says Johanis. If the central government is serious, the investigation must lead to those who planned the murder and uncover the thinking behind the plan. He doubts the National Investigating Commission will really try to unearth the 
background to the murder and believes it will merely jail those who carried it out. 

I G.G. Maha Adi, Cunding Levi (Jayapura)