Precedence: bulk Sydney Morning Herald, Tuesday, July 13, 1999 IRIAN JAYA: Biak massacre verified By LINDSAY MURDOCH, Herald Correspondent in Jakarta An independent investigation has confirmed a Herald report that Indonesian soldiers massacred Irian Jaya demonstrators and dumped others at sea on the island of Biak last year. The investigation team found at least eight people were shot and 37 others hurt when troops opened fire on unarmed people after they had raised the West Papua independence flag and that 32 bodies recovered at sea were also victims of military atrocities. The Herald reported in November that witnesses saw Irianese, many of them women and children, taken out to sea in a Indonesian Navy ship and dumped overboard. But the Indonesian armed forces strongly denied the claims, saying the bodies were those of victims of the tsunami that struck the Papua New Guinea coast 900 kilometres away. The investigation team, appointed by three churches and the Institute for Human Rights Studies and Advocacy, called for an official investigation of human rights violations in Irian Jaya. The institute's executive director, Mr Yohanes Bonay, said the military's explanation for the washed up bodies was nonsense. "We all know that the tsunami occurred on July 17, 1998, eight days after the bodies were found," he said. "Besides, do Papua New Guineans wear Golkar or Indonesian group T-shirts?" Britain's crack SAS army regiment was involved in a 1996 mission to rescue hostages from rebels in Irian Jaya during which eight civilians died, the ABC's Four Corners said last night. The joint operation with Indonesian special forces used a helicopter with International Red Cross markings to approach the camp where the hostages were held by the separatist Free Papua Movement. The operation freed a team of European biologists with Indonesian researchers and guides held in the southern highlands of Irian Jaya in May 1996 after the Red Cross had negotiated for their release over four months. The leader of the SAS team, Daniel Start, said those murdered had been lured to their deaths by a Red Cross flag and gunned down by four or five people and Indonesians behind them. ---------- SiaR WEBSITE: http://apchr.murdoch.edu.au/minihub/siarlist/maillist.html
