Protesters kill 4, demand mine closure
(AP)
Updated: 2006-03-17 15:04

Protesters bludgeoned three policemen and a soldier to death in daylong demonstrations Thursday to demand the closure of a massive US-owned gold mine in eastern Indonesia, officials said.

It was the most violent in a series of demonstrations against Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.'s mine in Papua province, which is home to a decades-long separatist rebellion. Dozens were wounded in the clashes, some seriously.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono called for calm and promised to investigate, sending the country's top military brass to the remote region about 2,300 miles east of the capital, Jakarta.

On Friday, Police Brig. Gen. Anton Bachrul Alam said police had so far detained 57 people, five of which had been formally been declared suspects. He said the five would be charged with crimes including murder and destroying public facilities.

Hundreds of protesters blockaded the road outside a university in the provincial capital early Thursday calling on the government to close the gold mine, said to be the world's largest. They claimed it had brought little or no benefits to the local community.

Riot police tried to break up the rally with tear gas and baton charges, but the rock-hurling students refused to move.

Lt. Col. Paulus Waterpauw said some of the demonstrators ran down three policeman and a soldier — bludgeoning them to death with rocks and knives.

"The killers are no longer human beings," said police spokesman Col. Kertono Wangsadisastra. "They went wild."

Hospitals said at least 19 police and eight protesters were injured in the melee. Some had gunshot wounds, doctors said, though security forces denied using live ammunition.

"They only fired blanks and rubber bullets," Waterpauw said.

The Freeport mine is often held up by separatists as a symbol of the unfair division of the province's resources between the central government in Jakarta and Papua. Yudhoyono warned Thursday that some people may be trying to manipulate anger over Freeport into a push for independence.

Some in Papua are angry about the environmental damage caused by the mine, and the New Orleans-based company's practice of paying the Indonesian military to guard the facility is also deeply unpopular.

"We want Freeport to close because it has not given any benefits to the people of Papua, in fact it's made them suffer," said protester Kosmos Yual.

Sporadic clashes continued throughout the afternoon, with gunshots repeatedly heard across the city, though it was not clear who was shooting. But by nightfall, the blockade had been lifted and a tense calm was restored.

"The situation is under control," national police chief Gen. Sutanto, who goes by only one name, told reporters after a Cabinet meeting in Jakarta. "Now we will let the legal process take its course."

Ten people have been arrested, but those involved in the killings fled into a nearby jungle, police said.

Freeport, which was forced to temporarily suspend operations at the mine last month because of protests, says it pays millions of dollars in taxes each year and funds scores of community projects close to the mine.

Yudhoyono said demands to close the mine were unrealistic, but that the government would study Freeport's development program to see if the "funds could be distributed more evenly."

He also reiterated that Papua was an integral part of Indonesia that would never be given independence.

Papua's separatist movement has been brutally repressed by Indonesian security forces. Foreign journalists are banned from the region.

Unlike Indonesia's mainly Malay inhabitants, Papuans are ethnic Melanesians. Most Indonesians are Muslims, but Papuans are Christians or animists.

The eastern part of the island forms Papua New Guinea.