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| Wreckage: The RAAF Iroquois that crashed. Photo: Fairfax Archive |
Two recent accounts by former Australian defence force personnel who
worked in the Indonesian province of Irian Jaya (now West Papua) in 1977
suggests there was ADF knowledge at that time of alleged atrocities
committed by Indonesian troops.
The Defence Department has issued a qualified denial of a
claim made by the Asian Human Rights Commission that military aircraft
supplied by Canberra were used in bombing runs over Papuan villages
resisting Indonesian rule.
Setting villages alight with rockets ...
Defence told Fairfax Media that "an initial search of Defence
archives does not support the claim that two Iroquois helicopters were
supplied by Australia to Indonesia in the 1970s".
But it side-stepped questions about ADF knowledge of the
alleged massacres detailed in the report. The commission claims, in a
report released on October 24, that both US-supplied Bronco aircraft
and Iroquois helicopters were used in bombing and strafing runs over
Papuan villages that were suspected of aiding the Free Papua Movement
(or OPM). It said at least 4000 and possibly up to 9000 Papuan civilians
died in air and ground attacks launched by Indonesian troops in
1977-78.
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Now two accounts from former ADF members operating in the
region at the time have come to light. The Australians were part of
Operation Cenderawasih, a mapping exercise of Irian Jaya being carried
out by an army survey team, supported by RAAF Iroquois helicopters
and Caribou and Hercules aircraft.
The first account, by former major Don Swiney and former
sergeant Peter Jensen, was published in 2011 in an Australian survey
corps association newsletter.
The authors say "The Indonesian Army [in July 1977] was
conducting an intense operation against the OPM, including setting
villages alight with rockets from the air and accompanying ground
operations."
Mr Swiney was the commander of the Australian field survey
squadron. He told Fairfax that "I was aware of a ground operation based
at Wamena and I estimated at the time of in excess of a battalion of
[Indonesian] troops supported from the air by an OV-10 [Bronco]
aircraft. This aircraft was armed with rockets. I witnessed from the
air, huts in villages that had been burnt out but how that was done, I
can only surmise." The Australians had a forward base at Wamena near the
Baliem Valley ( a focus of OPM activity ) and were sharing an airfield
with the Indonesian army from which they observed rockets being loaded
onto Indonesian-operated aircraft.
The second account, written recently by former RAAF crewman
Paddy Sinclair for a squadron reunion, also refers to Indonesian
atrocities.
Mr Sinclair was on board a RAAF Iroquois helicopter that
crashed while on survey operations in July 1977 on a steep, jungle-clad
ridge near the Baliem Valley. An Indonesian army surveyor was also on
board. In his account of the crash and subsequent rescue, Mr Sinclair
reports that he and another crewman had used masking tape to write the
word "AUSTRALIA" in makeshift letters on the tail of the helicopter.
Mr Sinclair says this was because "Indonesian military were
allegedly carrying out atrocities against the local population using
Bell Iroquois aircraft painted in the same livery as the RAAF
helicopters."
However, another ADF source disputes this, saying "AUSTRALIA"
was emblazoned on the tail as a way of alerting the OPM not to mistake
the RAAF helicopter for an offensive aircraft.
Richard Woolcott, who was Australian Ambassador to Jakarta in
1977, said he had not received reports about atrocities from Australian
defence attaches at the embassy.
The Hong-Kong based Asian Human Rights Commission claims the
Indonesian army's 1977-78 assaults against Papuan villages constituted a
" neglected genocide".
A BRIEF HISTORY
Irian Jaya, or West Papua as its now known, has long been a
sensitive issue for Indonesia, Australia and Papua New Guinea. It
occupies the western half of the island of New Guinea, sharing a border
with PNG. Originally part of the Dutch East Indies, it was formally
taken over by Indonesia in 1969 after a disputed "act of free choice"
undertaken by selected tribal leaders. The rebel Organisasi Papua
Merdeka (Free Papua Movement or OPM) has resisted the territory's
incorporation into Indonesia since the 1960s.
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