New shootings near Freeport mine in Papua kill one
JAYAPURA, Indonesia, July 12 (Reuters) - A security guard employed at the huge Grasberg copper mine in Indonesia's Papua province was shot dead and several police officers wounded in two separate shootings on Sunday, a mine official and police said. The latest violence around the mine run by a unit of U.S firm Freeport McMoran Copper & Gold Inc (FCX.N) comes after an Australian technical expert was shot dead in his vehicle on Saturday. [ID:nJAK426936]
Shots were fired on Sunday at about 10.45 a.m. (0145 GMT) at two security vehicles, killing a Freeport security guard and causing minor injuries to five other people, PT Freeport spokesman Mindo Pangaribuan said in a statement.
The company said operations were not affected after the shooting which took place outside the mine area near the spot where the 29-year-old Australian was killed a day earlier.
Freeport said police and members of Indonesia's anti-terrorism unit, Detachment 88, were on the scene.
Separately, Sulistyo Ishak, Indonesia's deputy national police spokesman, said that two officers were shot in the thigh on Sunday in another area around the mine after an exchange of fire during a search for those responsible for Saturday's attack.
The official said police believed the gunmen were members of the separatist Free Papua Movement (OPM).
"There was an exchange of fire between police and a group that we suspect were OPM. Our personnel were shot," Ishak said.
The resource-rich province of Papua has suffered a low-level separatist insurgency for decades, although there has been a spike in violence over the last few months.
The mine has been a frequent source of friction in Papua related to its environmental impact, the share of revenue going to Papuans and the legality of payments to Indonesian security forces who help guard the site.
In 2002, two American teachers and their Indonesian companion were killed in an ambush outside the Freeport installation.
Previous attacks blamed on separatists have often been fairly unsophisticated with attackers often poorly armed, while the military and police who keep a tight rein on the province generally have far more fire power.
The Grasberg mine has the world's largest recoverable reserves of copper and the largest gold reserves. It accounts for nearly 40 percent of Freeport's total copper reserves of 93 billion pounds, according to Freeport's website.
(Reporting by Oka Barta Daud in Jayapura and Telly Nathalia in Jakarta; Editing by Ed Davies and Sugita Katyal)
