Tempo Magazine - April 2 - 8, 2002 

Cover Story : Invisible Commander, Invisible Troops 

HE has a hefty build and golden-brown skin. His nickname is Doni. Holding the rank of major, this Military Academy graduate is the second in command at the Kopassus (Special Forces) Tribuana Base, which is headquartered in Hamadi, Jayapura. He also hails from Kopassus Group 5, an anti-terror unit. 

Rionaldo, Doni's partner, is handsome and athletic. He shows no visible signs of being an elite forces soldier, except perhaps for the trademark crewcut. Also a graduate of the Military Academy, he was just promoted to captain in October 2000. 

Doni and Rionaldo-according to a local police report which was obtained by TEMPO-are two of seven Kopassus officers in Hamadi who are suspected of leading the Theys Eluay murder operation. They were assisted by five noncommissioned officers at the corporal level going by the names of Agus, Yadi, Nyoman, Made, and Sanusi. 

At the end of last year, they had been interrogated by officers of the Papua police department. But is it true that they are the members of the team which was created to eliminate the Free Papua figure? 

Although the Head of the TNI Information Office has already verified the involvement of Kopassus officers, details of the murder case are still shrouded in mystery. Kopassus itself has tightly sealed off all information connected with the matter-especially where the command to kill Theys originated from. The Commandant General of Kopassus, the Commander of 
the Trikora Military District, and the Army Chief of Staff have all said that there was no order to kill anyone. 

So far, the possibility that they acted upon their own motives appears remote. The execution team was helped by other supporting teams. A TEMPO investigation says that they received an order which did not follow the regular chain of command, but was a direct order to a small unit. 

One TEMPO source said that a captain from the Sandi Yudha Battalion (a special forces battle intelligence unit) was involved in masterminding the operation. But it appears that even this one had just received an order from a superior officer-someone with the rank of lieutenant colonel-which did not pass through the Kopassus command channel. They received the order from 
an outside intelligence body. 

The murder, according to the source, was well-planned. In the first stage, several members of the team approached the Theys family. From the names given above, Agus, Nyoman, and Made became well known to the family. According to Boy, Theys's son, they often came to his father's home. As an ondoafi or head of the Sentani ethnic group, Theys was accustomed to receiving whoever visited his house. In fact, they had slept over several times in the room of Theys' driver, Aristoteles Masoka. 

We take up the story again on 10 November, 2001, the night of the murder. A team of soldiers left half an hour before Theys did, after having attended the Heroes' Day celebration at Kopassus Headquarters in Hamadi. Their duty was to travel from the direction of Kampung Kotaraja, about 10 kilometers from Hamadi, and intercept Theys' car and kidnap him. 

There were four of them, driving a Toyota Kijang and armed at the waist with FN-P1 pistols. Boy Eluay, who says that he received direct instruction from his partner, the driver of the Kijang, said that one Kopassus officer named Nyoman was definitely inside the kidnapper's vehicle. They all wore black uniforms, like some kidnapping scene out of a Hollywood film. After beating Aris, they took Theys to the Koya Tengah region and strangled him to death. 

Another team was on duty to secure the route from the location of the kidnapping to the scene of the murder. The length of road secured was about 20 kilometers, and normally takes about 40 minutes to traverse. This included the evacuation of several guardposts, which usually thoroughly inspect each vehicle which passes through the area. They mobilized one Kijang and a motocross bike. One commandant led the securing of this route from his Vespa scooter. 

The team that secured the road succeed in its task because that night, unlike other nights, all cars passed by without being inspected. But they were unwittingly spotted by Ismail Nalli, a wild boar hunter and subsequently a police witness. According to an investigation conducted by the Human Rights Advocacy and Study Institute, Nalli recognized three of those who had 
secured the route that fateful night: Yadi, Agus, and Sanusi. 

A high-ranking officer at Kopassus Headquarters in Cijantung admitted that there was a name which was connected with the Sandi Yudha Battalion as well as some of the names of the suspects mentioned earlier. But he denied that there was a command to kill Theys, and he refused to discuss the possibility that they had received an order outside of the chain of command. 

However, if seen from the scope of the operation, it would have been next to impossible for the suspects, if they were really involved, to have acted on their own and for personal motives. It is more likely that they were only sacrificed to protect the names of higher ups. 

Several TEMPO sources have said that there was a retired high-ranking officer at one forestry company who felt that Theys had already obstructed the running of his business to the tune of US$40 million. 

I G.G. Maha Adi, Arif A. Kuswardono, Cunding Levi (Jayapura)