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7 Convicted in Assassination of Papuan Separatist Leader

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Times Staff Writer

Seven members of Indonesia’s special forces were convicted Monday for their role in murdering a prominent Papuan independence leader, but the longest any of them will serve in prison is 3 1/2 years.

A military court in the East Java city of Surabaya found the four officers and three soldiers of the Kopassus force guilty of involvement in the 2001 assassination of separatist leader Theys Eluay, who was abducted on his way home from a party at a military base and strangled. His body was found in his car along a remote jungle road.

“The defendants have been legally and convincingly proven guilty of torturing [Eluay] to death,” declared Col. A. N. Yamini, the head judge.

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Lt. Col. Hartomo, the highest-ranking defendant and who, like many Indonesians, uses one name, was found guilty of instigating others to carry out the torture that resulted in Eluay’s death. He was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison. Pvt. Ahmad Zulfahmi, who allegedly confessed to strangling Eluay, was sentenced to three years. The others received sentences ranging from two to three years.

Human rights advocates condemned the military court for handing out such light sentences and for not pursuing the higher-ranking officers, who critics believe ordered the killing.

“For me, this is not right at all,” said Papua human rights activist John Rumbiak. “This trial is totally a whitewash. This was a serious human rights violation, a planned assassination of a political leader.”

The court’s leniency in sentencing Eluay’s killers highlights Indonesia’s poor record of prosecuting those who commit human rights violations. Even winning a conviction is an unusual event.

Washington imposed a ban on arms sales to Indonesia 12 years ago because of human rights abuses by its armed forces. Indonesia is seeking to lift the ban, but human rights advocates say lawlessness and violations remain widespread:

* Soldiers are suspected in the killing of two U.S. teachers and an Indonesian in Papua last year, but no one has been charged in the case.

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* Indonesia has yet to put anyone behind bars for the killing of 1,000 people in its former province of East Timor in 1999. Of 18 military officers and former officials put on trial, 11 have been acquitted, two are awaiting a verdict and five were found guilty but are free while they appeal.

* In Jakarta on Monday, a crowd of militant Muslims overpowered police and rescued Islamic Defenders Front leader Habib Rizieq, who had been arrested on charges of inciting his followers to smash up bars and nightclubs. He later turned himself in to police.

* In Aceh, a northwestern province of Indonesia, a truce between the government and separatist rebels is in danger of collapse as both sides step up fighting and the number of casualties mounts.

* In Papua, human rights activists contend that soldiers continue torturing suspected supporters of independence. They say one man, Yapenas Murib, was killed this month when soldiers tied two ropes to his neck and dragged and pulled him for two miles.

“The silence of the international community in not pushing Indonesia to be serious about gross human rights violations will pave the road for more human rights violations that will happen in Papua,” said Rumbiak, who is in New York as a visiting scholar at Columbia University’s Center for the Study of Human Rights.

The assassination of Eluay in November 2001 gained notoriety because he was a charismatic tribal chief who had once served in the local parliament before converting to the cause of independence. He was one of the few Papuans with the stature to unite the indigenous people against Indonesian rule.

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With the backing of the United States and the United Nations, Indonesia annexed Papua, until recently known as Irian Jaya, in 1969 after staging a vote of tribal chiefs that is widely recognized as fraudulent. The province is one of Indonesia’s richest and is the site of the huge U.S.-owned Freeport gold mine.

On the night of his abduction, Eluay was invited by Hartomo to attend a dinner at the Kopassus base in Papua. Eluay reluctantly attended. On his way home, witnesses said, a vehicle forced Eluay’s car to a stop and armed men abducted him.

Hartomo said Zulfahmi confessed to strangling Eluay, but during the trial, the private insisted that Eluay was alive when he and the other soldiers left him. Lawyers said they would appeal the convictions.

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