2 Police Officers Injured in Indonesian Gold Mine Skirmish
JAKARTA, Indonesia — At least two police officers were wounded Wednesday in a skirmish with gunmen near a gold mine operated by an American company in eastern Indonesia, officials said.
The firefight followed several days of violence, including three deaths, directed at the mining operations of Freeport-McMoran in Papua, an impoverished province under military control. It came just after Freeport ordered a group of employees to avoid traveling along a road linking a nearby town and the gold mine.
“Because of the violence, we told a couple of hundred of our workers to stay home this morning,” said Mindo Pangaribuan, a spokesman for Freeport, adding that the company’s production had not been affected by the violence.
Mr. Mindo said it was not clear who the gunmen were, and the authorities had yet to make any arrests in the recent deadly ambushes. Two Freeport workers, an Australian mining expert and an Indonesian security guard, were killed in skirmishes over the weekend; a police officer fleeing from an ambush also died after falling down a ravine.
Despite a decade of democratization, the Indonesian government still severely restricts access to Papua, especially for journalists. More than 10,000 troops and police officers, most of them non-Papuan, are stationed in Papua and have been accused by rights activists of frequently committing human rights abuses against the local population.
It is in that environment that Freeport, which is based in Phoenix, operates the world’s largest gold mine and employs 20,000 workers. The company, which has enjoyed close ties to the Indonesian government for four decades, including during the late Suharto’s 32-year military dictatorship, has long made a practice of paying the military and the police for protection.
“To many Papuans, Freeport is a symbol of imperialism,” said Andreas Harsono, who is an analyst for the Human Rights Watch office here in Jakarta and recently completed a report on abuses committed in Papua by Indonesia’s special forces.
The authorities blamed separatists in the Free Papua Movement for this week’s violence. But Papuan officials quoted in the Indonesian news media have denied the accusations, saying the movement lacked the kind of sophisticated weapons used in the ambushes.
The Indonesian news outlets have speculated that military or police officials, who are paid by Freeport for protection, may have directed the ambushes to secure their business.
The defense minister, Jowono Sudarsono, said Wednesday that there was no “proof” that active military or police were involved in the attacks. But he allowed that “rogue elements” or “deserters” from the military or police could be responsible.
In a meeting with foreign journalists, Mr. Jowono also said that the violence may stem from rival groups of illegal miners engaged in gold mining near Freeport’s operations.
No comments:
Post a Comment