Papua: Two wounded in ambush near Indonesia mine

Indonesia - Security
Papua: Two wounded in ambush near Indonesia mine
Source : AFP 20.10.2009



TIMIKA, Indonesia, Oct 20, 2009 (AFP) - Two men were wounded Tuesday in the latest shooting ambush near US company Freeport McMoRan's massive gold and copper mine in Indonesia's eastern Papua region, police said.


A mine worker and a driver were wounded after the bus they were driving in was shot at around 9:30 am on the road to the Grasberg mine, Papua police spokesman Agus Rianto told AFP.


"A convoy of buses carrying mine workers was shot by unknown people," Rianto said.


"A driver, Rudi Palanding, was shot in his finger and a passenger, Kristian, was shot in his right elbow and upper right hip. The police are chasing after (the shooters)," he added.


The attack is the latest in a string of mysterious ambushes on the road linking the mine with the coastal city of Timika over the last three months.


Australian mine technician Drew Grant was killed in a July 11 attack, while a Freeport security guard and a policeman were killed the following day.


The attacks were initially blamed by the military on rebels of the Free Papua Movement (OPM), but police have said there is no evidence that is the case.


The Freeport mine sits on some of the world's richest gold reserves and the US company's local subsidiary is the largest single taxpayer to the Indonesian government.


Papua, a resource-rich region on the western end of New Guinea island, has been the site of a low-level separatist insurgency since its incorporation into Indonesia in the 1960s.


2009 AFP All rights reserved