FBI quizzes US ambush victims By Jordan Baker and Catharine Munro 03sep02 AN FBI agent has interviewed victims of a violent ambush in Indonesia's Papua province as they recovered in an Australian hospital. Three people died when an estimated 15 gunmen opened fire on a convoy of cars carrying teachers and their families near a huge US gold mine at the weekend. Seven Americans and an Indonesian were airlifted to a hospital in Townsville, north Queensland, where at least two underwent surgery. Among the injured sent to Australia were American school teachers Saundra Hopkins and Ken Balk, and their six-year-old daughter Taia. A Townsville Hospital spokeswoman said all patients were stable and resting comfortably. United States Embassy spokesman Matt Conoley said an American consular official and an embassy legal attache, who was also an FBI agent, had flown to Townsville. They were interviewing the American patients. "Obviously this kind of attack can raise concerns that this could be a militant or terrorist attack," Mr Conoley said. "We wanted to verify whether or not that was the case. "At this point it's too soon to tell and I don't have any details about what was talked about." The New York Times reported Western diplomats believed the ambush did not appear to be part of an international terrorist plot against Americans. Amnesty International today condemned the attack but warned authorities to refrain from using the incident as an excuse to crack down on Papuan civilians. It called for an immediate, impartial and effective investigation. Any suspects should be charged with a recognisable criminal offence and be brought to trial in accordance with international standards for a fair trial, it said. "Freeport (mine) also has a responsibility to ensure that an effective and independent investigation takes place," it said. Security authorities have blamed the Free Papua Movement (OPM), but the OPM and its political arm have denied responsibility. Some analysts have suggested elements of the military could be involved. The loosely-organised OPM has waged for three decades a low-level guerrilla struggle against Indonesian rule in the province in the western half of New Guinea island. Meanwhile, a Papuan human rights group has said 15 people had been questioned without lawyers over the killing of three teachers at a remote mine in Papua province. The claim came as Amnesty International issued a statement calling on the Indonesian government to respect human rights while tracking down the killers of two Americans and one Indonesian at the Freeport gold and copper mine on New Guinea island on Saturday. Ten more people were injured in the attack on a convoy of cars travelling on a road between the coast and the highlands mine. They included seven Americans and an Indonesian who were evacuated to Townsville Hospital in far north Queensland for urgent medical treatment. But the Indonesian military and police both denied they had detained any suspects as their search continued. Aloysius Renwarin of the Human Rights and Advocacy Group (ELSHAM) in the provincial capital of Jayapura said he had received reports that people in the tribal village of Wara Banti, close to the site of the attack, had been detained in the mining settlement of Tembagapura. "We heard reports from the Amungme tribe, particularly from Wara Banti village, that they have been accused of being involved in an attack," Renwarin said. "Fifteen residents of Wara Banti were interrogated by the police but they were not accompanied by a lawyer." "The 15 were just ordinary people, they don't know much." Villagers were unable to carry out their everyday work because access to roads had been limited to the military, he said. Regional police chief Made Pastika said ELSHAM's claim was incorrect. "The police have not arrested anybody," he said. Pastika said that police had not yet identified a man who was shot dead by soldiers near the scene of the attack on Sunday on suspicion of being involved in the ambush. "We have asked members of two local tribes to confirm the identity of the dead man but they don't know him," he said. Papua regional military chief Major General Mahidin Simbolon denied any arrests had been made. "We're trying our best here and people just need to be patient," he told Reuters. Security analysts have questioned the ability of the badly organised guerilla group, Free Papua Movement (OPM), to carry out the ambush and said such violence was uncharacteristic of their decades-old struggle for independence. Amnesty International warned the military not to use the attack to justify harsh operations, saying that past assaults have resulted in gross human rights violations against civilians. "The Indonesian authorities have an obligation to bring those responsible to justice," the group said in a statement. However, it warned against using the incident as justification for indiscriminate operations against Papuan civilians, including independence activists. "It would not be the first time that the Indonesian military has been suspected of provoking armed attacks or other disturbances in Papua or elsewhere in Indonesia in recent years," Amnesty international said. First CIA agents in au? 1) Commander Samuel Rountree Sanders,listed as Assistant Naval Attache' and assistant Attache' for air.1954 2)Lt Colonel Collas G Harris.'Assistant air Attache'.1956.The year of Dulles visit.