FBI,CIA in au.

[Matthew X]

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.