Indonesian Gold (64 page)

She looked around the Spartan quarters, her eyes falling
to the narrow bed where her brief, teasing encounters with the
Kopassus
pilot guaranteed
he would return for more, and the aluminum briefcase containing the remaining gold bars,
recalling that the Captain's seduction had not been all that difficult. Had he not responded,
Sharon was armed with an alternative plan, one that would have required a far more complicated
and risky exit from the scene, and a dangerous riverboat accident that had considerably less
guarantee of success.

She had decided on approaching the Javanese,
Kopassus
pilot when the Army had assumed control over the helicopter charter contract for
the Longdamai project – the Captain had been appointed to fly the replacement, military chopper,
a Bell 205. She had engaged the officer in conversations whenever the opportunity arose, flirting
when not observed by others, and encouraging his attention with occasional innuendo. Confident
she could have him at her feet, Sharon then deliberately avoided any further contact with the
man, to test his appetite.

After her uncle's funeral, Sharon had returned from the
Philippines to Samarinda, relieved to find Captain Subandi still on assignment to her operations
– and waiting to fly her back to the camp. Without hesitation, she had climbed into the alternate
pilot's seat, blatantly unbuttoning her blouse before even clearing the airport, then, with an
alluring smile and partially exposed breasts, leant across and placed her hand on the pilot's
thigh. The signals she sent were blatantly clear and, at Sharon's request, the pilot landed the
chopper at a point approximately halfway to the mining camp, the Filipino beauty already
undressed to the waist before the rotors came to rest. The Captain had leapt from the helicopter,
scrambled through knee-high grass to the other side tearing skin from knuckles as he groped at
the cockpit handle in his haste, and then stood there, trembling with excitement. Sharon climbed
down into his outstretched arms, her breasts brushing his face as she clung to his neck, her
intoxicating perfume too much for the inept and inexperienced Captain. They fell to the ground in
passionate embrace, their bodies hidden by the tall grass, the pilot's eager fingers unable to
dislodge Sharon's firmly buckled jodhpurs from around her hips.

She had planned the encounter well, smothering the man
with hot, lustful kisses, driving her tongue deep into his mouth as she stroked his now exposed
organ with one hand. Subandi had no chance. The warmth of her mouth and sensuous touch drove a
tide of urgency from deep within his loins, and he lost control, spilling himself as he
convulsed.

After that interlude, the rest had been relatively easy.
Subandi exploited every possible opportunity to be alone with Sharon and, with each, subsequent
rendezvous she still managed to avoid penetration, assuring the now totally infatuated flyer that
his moment would surely come. Then, satisfied he would not betray her, Sharon concocted an
elaborate story convincing the besotted officer to participate in her deadly game by promising
him her elusive body, and a share in great wealth should he assist her execute what she portrayed
as a simple, insurance fraud.

Sharon
had explained her plan.
As Chief Geologist, she had been insured against injury and loss of life – her beneficiary, an
elderly cousin in the Philippines who would do anything for a modest share of the spoils. If
Sharon were ‘to die' whilst working for the company, there would be five million dollars for them
to enjoy – but she needed someone she could trust – someone credible, whose report of her death
would be accepted by the insurers. But, she had warned, the policy required that there be a
corpse and had then suggested the idea that a body falling from any great height would be
virtually unidentifiable upon impact and, consequently, her would-be-lover's complicity would be
central to this plan.

When it became clear that the scheme involved the
selection of a suitable substitute for Sharon's ‘accidental death', she left the pussy-whipped
Captain to consider this perplexing question, anxious that she not drive him away by revealing
her own solution, before he had time to dwell on the alluring consequences of their future
success together.

****

Chapter Twenty-three

30th July 1996

Kostrad
(Army Strategic
Forces Reserves
)
Field HQ – Upper
Mahakam River

 

The Indonesian Army's strength approached 250,000 and of
this number, the Strategic Reserve,
Kostrad,
boasted twenty-seven thousand highly-trained
soldiers, comprised of two infantry divisions and an independent airborne brigade based in Ujung
Pandang, (formerly known as Makasar) in the Celebes, some five hundred kilometers across the
straits to the east of Samarinda. Now, two of that brigade's battalions were spread across the
vast, East Kalimantan province in further support for what had once been the 9th and 10th Joint
Regional Defence Commands,
Kowilhan IX & X,
which covered the areas north and south of
the Mahakam River. The additional forces had been positioned there under the direct control of
the East Kalimantan
Kodam
(Army Territorial Command) in preparation for
Operasi Sapu
Bersih
(Operation Clean Sweep).

Across the Java Sea, TNI hierarchy and Palace cronies in
the national capital were fully aware that
‘OSB'
was designed to clear the way for Bobby
Djimanto (a.k.a. Tan Khu Sui), the timber baron, and the president's siblings to increase their
presence in the Kalimantan provinces – some rumors even suggesting that the operation was
designed to pave the way for a complete takeover of the fabulous gold discovery at Longdamai.
That this major military activity coincided with the Dayak tribal groups coordinated move against
trans-migrant groups across the three, Indonesian Borneo provinces was, in every way,
calamitously coincidental, would always remain an undisputed fact. The Armed Forces
(ABRI)
intelligence agency,
BIA (Badan Intelijen ABRI)
the military apparatus responsible for
collecting, collating and distributing intelligence had, at that time, no inkling of an imminent,
general uprising across the Dayak territories. Even
Kopassus,
which traditionally carried
the responsibility for establishing networks within ethnic communities, failed to identify the
move, the Special Forces agents totally oblivious to any Dayak conspiracy. The
Kostrad
commanders, all Javanese, understood their orders explicitly. The Dayak communities were to be
‘relocated', their numbers culled, and the path cleared for increased numbers of Madurese and
Javanese, Moslem settlers who would provide the necessary labor for timber, mining and oil
plantation investments. The commanders accepted their roles unquestioningly – they had executed
such orders across the archipelago, from Sabang to Merauke, in Aceh, Timor, Ambon and Irian Jaya,
cruelly suppressing minority groups to maintain the great, colonial empire created by the
Javanese.

At this time, airborne troops had already been dispatched
from the Longbangun Field Headquarters by helicopter, to secure the isolated communities of
Nahabuan, Batukelau, and Lasan, some of which located less than one hundred kilometers from the
Malaysian -Indonesian, Borneo border.

But, it was the ominous presence of the nation's
ubiquitous
Kopassus
Special Forces that clearly indicated the extent of Jakarta's
commitment to dilute the Dayak population with an even greater infusion of Moslem migrants. Ten
years before, when the Covert Warfare Forces Command regiment was renamed Special Forces, the
para-commando, anti-terrorist and covert warfare force had already acquired a fearsome
reputation. First formed to combat the Islamic,
Darul Islam/Tentara Islam Indonesia
(The
Indonesian Islamic Forces) in the early 1950's, the command underwent significant structural and
organizational change, its loyalty at times, questionable, until General Suharto's bloody
succession to power in 1966 when it became the second president's personal, covert
executioners.

Amongst their first ‘successes', was their participation
in the 1975 invasion of East Timor.
Kopassus
had been involved from the very beginning,
occupying Dili and securing the airport while marine and airborne forces swept through the former
Portuguese colony. The Special Forces remained actively engaged throughout the brutal occupation,
accused of many atrocities, and successful in their relentless pursuit of
Falintil
(National Liberation Armed Forces of East Timor) leaders. In 1978, after killing
Falintil's
leader Nicolau Lobato, they then hunted his successor relentlessly, finally
capturing the Jesuit-trained, Jose Alexandre (a.k.a. Xanana) Gusmao, and incarcerating the
freedom fighter in Jakarta.

In 1981,
Kopassus
' reputation received
international attention when its Detachment 81, an anti-terrorist unit mounted an operation in
Bangkok against aircraft hijackers who had forced an Indonesian domestic airliner to fly into
Thailand. The
Kopassus
attack resulted in all but one of the hijackers being killed in the
shootout, some observers later suggesting that a number of panic-driven passengers caught in the
crossfire were incorrectly identified as hijackers, to cover their accidental deaths.

To the country's far west, in another separatist trouble
spot, Aceh,
Kopassus
troops were responsible for mass graves containing thousands and, in
the resource rich, most easterly province of West Irian, in what appeared to be a precursor of
things to come for Kalimantan's indigenous people, these troops carried out a number of major
operations against the OPM (Papuan Independence Organization). When attacks resulted in more than
ten thousand refugees fleeing across the border, into New Guinea, a sigh of relief swept the
boardrooms of those international, mining conglomerates which operated in the area.

Now, veterans of these
Kopassus
campaigns were once
again preparing to implement a campaign of terror against another ethnic, minority group. They
would attack the
Penehing
Dayak Longhouse community, whose chief was Jonathan
Dau.

****

Longdamai Mining Camp

Sharon
had continued to avoid
her lover-in-waiting, conscious what effect this would have on the man. Now, certain Subandi
would accept whatever she proposed, Sharon waited for the Captain later in the night, to present
the pilot with her demands. She had finally broken her silence with Vancouver by radiophone
hookup, communicating with Christopher Fielding and Kremenchug on general matters, ensuring that
they understood that she planned to vacate the site by helicopter, within the next
days.

****

With the blue moon almost upon them, Angela's relief was
immense when Campbell finally succumbed, agreeing to accompany her to the Longhouse village only
after days of constant urging to do so and, ironically, with the indirect support of the
Indonesian military. Tempers were frayed, and the atmosphere within the mining camp had
deteriorated even further with workers' hostility shifting from Sharon Ducay towards Campbell,
when the end of the month approached with no clear determination as to their future. Angela
accepted the possibility that the laborers might attempt to damage plant and other equipment once
Campbell left the site, his justification for stubbornly refusing the invitation to visit her
father. Perplexed by her situation, Angela was on the brink of revealing her father's plans to
Campbell when the situation became even more complicated, with the arrival of more than fifty
Kostrad
airborne infantrymen who poured from choppers and, to the astonishment of all,
immediately secured the area.

Stewart, Sharon and Angela were all summoned by the
force's commander, and briefed on their presence. Although Angela doubted that the army's arrival
would have gone unnoticed by Jonathan Dau's scouts, there was now an even greater urgency for her
to return to the Longhouse to report what she had seen. Angela moved quickly, securing an
undertaking from the commander that the laborers would be kept in check, and the company plant
and equipment protected by his troops. However, Campbell remained obstinately set
against

leaving the project.

‘
Now it's all set. We can go.
'

‘No, ‘Angela, I'm sorry. It just doesn't feel
right.'

‘The soldiers will guard the site,'
Angela had all but pleaded.

‘I'm still responsible,'
Campbell
argued,
‘what if something happens while I'm off
playing tourist?'

‘
What could possible happen with all these soldiers
guarding the site?
'

‘
Yeah, sure,‘Gela, and who's going to watch
them?
'

‘Are you sure that's the real problem, Stewart. Could it
be that you're intimidated by the thought of meeting my father?'

‘Not at all,'
he
replied, a little too hastily.

‘
Stewart, this is very important for us, that we go.
Now.'

‘Why can't we postpone for a few days?
'