Australian shot dead near Freeport Papua mine
JAKARTA (Reuters) - An Australian worker has been shot dead near the massive Grasberg mine in Indonesia's Papua province run by a unit of Freeport McMoran Copper & Gold Inc, Papua's police chief said on Saturday.
"An Australian working for Freeport got shot at 5.30 this morning," police chief Bagus Ekodanto said by telephone, adding the shooting happened between Tembagapura and Timika.
A spokesman for PT Freeport Indonesia confirmed a company worker had been shot dead. He said the attack took place outside the mining area and operations were not affected.
"We confirm there was a shooting around mile-post 52 to 53 of a Freeport vehicle where one passenger who sat in the back was shot dead," said Freeport spokesman Mindo Pangaribuan, adding he could not immediately confirm the nationality of the victim.
He added that it was unclear who was behind the attack and police were investigating.
A spokesman at the Australian embassy in Jakarta declined to immediately comment.
Another police official said the dead man worked in Freeport's construction department. Timika police chief Godhelp C. Mansnembra also said three others were wounded in the shooting and were being treated at a local hospital.
But Freeport Indonesia said in a statement that the other passengers were unharmed.
Police and Indonesia's anti-terrorism unit, Detachment 88, had tightened security in the area after the shooting, the company said.
The mine has been a frequent source of controversy over its environmental impact, the share of revenue going to Papuans and the legality of payments to Indonesian security forces who helped guard the site.
In 2002, two American teachers and their Indonesian companion were killed in an ambush outside the Freeport installation.
There was an arson attack near the mine earlier this week when a bus and a security post were set on fire in what police said was an attempt to block a road leading to the mine.
Papua has suffered a low-level separatist insurgency for decades.
The human rights record of Indonesia has also been hurt by persistent allegations of abuses by the military in Papua.
The Grasberg mine has the world's largest recoverable reserves of copper and the largest gold reserve. It accounts for nearly 40 percent of Freeport's total copper reserves of 93 billion pounds, according to Freeport's website.
(Reporting by Olivia Rondonuwu and Karima Anjani in Jakarta, and Oka Barta Daud in Jayapura and John Pakage in Nabire; Writing by Ed Davies; Editing by Sugita Katyal)
