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Four killed in anti-Freeport protests in Indonesia
16 Mar 2006 12:33:40 GMT
Source: Reuters
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(Revises death toll, adds president and more police
comments, details of scene) By Achmad Sukarsono JAKARTA, March 16 (Reuters) - Three policemen and a soldier
in Indonesia's remote Papua province died on Thursday in
clashes with protesters demanding the closure of a giant mine
run by U.S. firm Freeport-McMoran Cooper & Gold Inc, police
said. Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said he was
sending officials to the scene and his ministers would
investigate issues raised in controversy over the mine. Papuan police said students from the province's main
university in the capital of Jayapura, about 500 km (311 miles)
northeast of the mine, pelted policemen with stones to stop
them from opening a roadblock to the city's airport. "Three policemen have died along with a soldier from the
airbase. Forty people are now being interrogated," Papua police
chief Tommy Jacobus told Indonesia's Metro TV.
Papua police spokesman Kartono Wangsadisastra earlier said
police tried to break up the protest by firing teargas and
rubber bullets. In Jakarta, deputy national police spokesman Anton Bahrul
Alam said around 19 other police officers had to be rushed to
the hospital due to injuries and branded the protesters as
"brutal". "The dead victims were not only pelted. They were also
stabbed. The mob were anarchists but we have control over their
territory now," he said, adding officers found machetes and
molotov cocktails inside the Cenderawasih University campus. He declined to say how many civilians were hurt. Local
media reports indicated some protesters may also have been
killed. Local television footage showed chaotic scenes of
give-and-take between charging protesters and police, many of
the latter carrying staves and plastic shields. At one point gun-wielding anti-riot police broke into the
university's compound to chase the rally leaders, while
protesters showered the police with rocks. Other footage appeared to show protesters kicking and
beating people on the ground, while in other clips men in who
appear to be plainclothes police are firing pistols aimed
toward the protesters. Jayapura, on the northeastern shore of Papua, is located
3,500 km (2,200 miles) from Jakarta at Indonesia's extreme
eastern border. President Yudhoyono told reporters he would send officials
to Papua to check on the situation. "I have received information from (telephone) text messages
that have been twisting the condition. Let's give our security
officers space to do their job," he said. Yudhoyono said he would assign ministers to take a look at
social grievances related to the mine, and act on their
findings. But he also said: "Of course, if we follow the opinions of
some people who want Freeport closed now that would create
legal problems. It will be difficult to explain why there is a
strong reason to suddenly close it. Our national business
climate will be disrupted." The mine is Indonesia's single biggest taxpayer. On Wednesday, one person was shot by an arrow hours after
anti-Freeport protesters tried to storm a five-star hotel in
Timika, the nearest town to Freeport's Grasberg mine. There have been sporadic protests against the mine in
recent weeks, both in Papua and Jakarta. A road blockade by
mostly illegal miners shut down operations for four days last
month. Illegal miners often enter mining areas in Indonesia, a
sprawling archipelago that is the world's fourth most populous
country with huge deposits of such metals as copper, gold and
tin. None of this week's protests have affected mining
activities. Protest issues vary from illegal miners asking access to
the mine area to demands like the Jayapura demonstrators for
closure of the lucrative mine, believed to have the world's
third-largest copper reserves and one of the biggest gold
deposits. The Freeport operation has been a frequent source of
controversy over its impact on the environment, the share of
revenue going to Papuans and the legality of payments to
Indonesian security forces who help guard the site.
(With additional reporting by Telly Nathalia)
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