Regions: Sutarto Sues Over Timika

November 10, 2002 07:20 PM

Laksamana.Net - The involvement of military personnel in masterminding the Timika ambush on August 31 that cost three lives may be one thing, but implying that Armed Forces (TNI) Commander Endriartono Sutarto was involved is going too far, it seems.

Sutarto says he will be sueing The Washington Post for $1 billion over its report that TNI had masterminded the attack at the Papua site of the Freeport gold and copper mine.

For Endriartono, defending the reputation of the military corps is more important than maintaining good relations between Indonesia and the US. ‘I did not do any such thing, the news was untrue,” he said, in response to a report that signals intelligence had picked up conversations in which he discussed an attack at a mine in Papua.

Sutarto’s outrage does not in any way rule out the possibility that the attack was committed by military personnel operating independently of the command structure.