Papua - Australian Murdered at Freeport Mine

[kingwilly]

Australian Drew Grant killed in 'pre-planned ambush'


Article from: Agence France-Presse
From correspondents in Indonesia
July 12, 2009 04:43pm

GUNMEN using military-issue weapons pre-planned an ambush that killed an Australian project manager at a massive mine in Indonesia's restive Papua province, police say.
Melbourne man Drew Grant, 29, who worked for the US-based mining giant Freeport McMoRan, was shot dead as he travelled in a car with four others on a road between Tembagapura and Timika early yesterday.
Papua police chief Bagus Ekodanto said the attack was premeditated.
"The shooting was pre-planned," Mr Ekodanto told reporters in Timika.
"(It's) clear they (the attackers) were using weapons belonging to the police or the military," he added.
The attack occurred in Freeport's vast concession area, which includes the massive Grasberg gold and copper mine.
Police are still investigating the number of attackers involved and their motive for killing, Mr Ekodanto said.
"He (Grant) was shot five times in the neck, chest and stomach from a distance of 25 metres.
"We're still investigating the case.
"We don't want to be hasty and say they are from separatist groups,'' he added.
Freeport Indonesia is the largest single taxpayer to the Indonesian government.
Grasberg sits on the world's largest gold and copper reserves on the far eastern extreme of the Indonesian archipelago.
Pro-independence militants have waged a long-running insurgency against Indonesian rule in Papua, which is off-limits to foreign journalists without special permission.
Australian Drew Grant killed in &squo;pre-planned ambush&squo; | Herald Sun

One day after fatal shooting, Freeport security guard shot dead

Markus Makur , The Jakarta Post , Timika | Sun, 07/12/2009 12:53 PM | National
Just one day after the shooting of an Australian working at Freepor-McMoran mine in Mimika, Papua, a Freeport security guard, identified as Markus Rattealo, was shot dead while he was in the car together with police officers on Sunday morning.
Accoding to a police source, unidentified assailants sprayed bullets against a vehicle carrying the police’s mobile brigades and anti-terror personnel as well as Freeport security guards at Mile 51 in Kuala Kencara district, near the site where Australian Drew Nicholas Grant was shot dead on Saturday.
National Police spokesperson Brig. Gen. Sulistyo Ishak confirmed the incident and said that the police had deployed reinforcement team consisting personnel from Timika Police office, Papua provincial police force and the National Police.

“After the incident, our anti-terror team Densus 88 had a gun battle with the unknown gunmen,” Ishak was quoted by Antara news agency as syaing.
On Saturday, Drew Nicholas Grant died after a shot was fired at a vehicle at Mile 53 in Kuala Kencana district. He was taken to Tembagapura Hospital, but died due to the wound.
Papua police chief Insp. Gen. Bagus Ekodanto said Saturday that a gun in the Papua shooting that killed Nicholas Grant is usually used by police and military officers.
Police found three cartridge cases and projectiles from the crime scene, he said.

One day after fatal shooting, Freeport security guard shot dead | The Jakarta Post

[kingwilly]

Teams probe Australian's murder in Papua


15:41 AEST Sun Jul 12 2009
43 minutes ago



VIEWS: 0
| FLOCKS: 0
| 0 comments so far




Drew Grant pictured with his baby daughter. (Image supplied)
More national news:


Thousands march for community harmonyJul 12, 2009

Animal abusers 'could go on WA database'Jul 12, 2009

Australia, US 'must work for Copenhagen'Jul 12, 2009

OK for PM to oppose Uluru climb: GarrettJul 12, 2009

China asked: Explain Rio exec's jailingJul 12, 2009

NSW projects not 200 years behind: ReesJul 12, 2009

Woman struck by bus dies in her drivewayJul 12, 2009

Stranger fires shots at men in streetJul 12, 2009

New speed cameras to hit Vic roadsJul 12, 2009

Man hospitalised after group attacks himJul 12, 2009





A 40-member team of police and forensics specialists has arrived in Indonesia's restive Papua province to investigate the shooting death of an Australian employee of the US mining giant Freeport, officials say.
Indonesian doctors conducted a five-hour autopsy on the body of 29-year-old Victorian man Drew Grant, a doctor said on Sunday, giving no details.
Forensic department chief Dr Munin Idris of Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital said the Australian Embassy had taken custody of the body of the technical expert after the autopsy.
Papua police chief Bagus Ekodanto said the Australian was shot five times in the chest, neck and stomach.
Four others in the car were uninjured.
Saturday's shooting happened near the Grasberg mine, one of the world's largest open-pit mines.
Ekodanto said anti-terror forces continued to hunt for several suspects and a team of Indonesian investigators and forensics specialists had arrived early on Sunday.
Grant had only been back in Indonesia for a week after visiting his nine-week-old daughter, his family said in Melbourne.
He was a doting father to baby Ella and a devoted husband to wife Lauren, his brother Nick Grant said.
He said his brother, a registered master builder, was a project manager for the US mining company and loved his job.
PT Freeport Indonesia spokesman Mindo Pangaribuan on Saturday said shots were fired at a company vehicle on a road outside Freeport's mining and operations areas.
The workers were reportedly on their way to a golf game.
Security around the mine had been increased and there were no further incidents, Pangaribuan said, adding that production was not disrupted.
Military spokesman Sagom Tamboen said three rebel suspects were detained on Saturday after a shoot-out in Yapen, 440km northwest of the mine, but the men were probably too far away to have carried out the Grasberg attack.
The mining complex, one of the world's largest single producers of copper and gold, has been a constant source of friction with local Papuans angered over the outflow of profits to foreign investors, while they remain poor.
Papua, a desperately poor and militarised province on Indonesia's easternmost edge, is home to separatist rebels who denounce PT Freeport as a symbol of Jakarta's rule. A surge in attacks in recent months has left several people dead.
The Indonesian government does not allow foreign media to freely report in Papua, where it has tens of thousands of troops. The site of Saturday's shooting was inaccessible to local reporters.

[kingwilly]

Papua police chief Bagus Ekodanto said the Australian was shot five times in the chest, neck and stomach.

Four others in the car were uninjured.

hence the reason they are saying it was an assassination.

but no mention of why this man was a particular target...

[kingwilly]

from the jakarta post opinion piece...

A mystery too many in Papua

The Jakarta Post | Tue, 07/14/2009 9:40 AM | Opinion
As Indonesia’s easternmost province thousands of kilometers away from the nation’s capital Jakarta, Papua is a land full of mystery that baffles but attracts many outsiders. The thick and dense tropical rainforest that covers most of the rugged and mountainous province hides not only many secrets but also inexplicable events.
One of these unfortunately is a series of tragic fatal incidents. The death of three people in a shootout near the giant gold and copper mining operation in Timika at the weekend is another event which, going by history, will thicken the mysterious cloud above Papua.
An investigation is now underway for the killing of an expatriate employee, a local security guard for the American mining company PT Freeport Indonesia and a police officer. The military has reportedly rounded up a number of people associated with a separatist rebel movement, although officials admitted that they could not have been anywhere near the incident to have been able to conduct the shooting.
The incident took place near the Mile 51 area where seven Freeport employees, including two Americans who taught at a Timika school, were killed in 2002. Although some local Papuans have been sentenced to jail for this ambush killing, the case has not been resolved fully with many questions remaining unanswered to this day.
Because it is one of the furthest flung provinces in Indonesia ( flight takes seven hours from Jakarta), it is hard for the people in the capital to understand this resource and culturally rich, but underdeveloped part of the nation.
But the attitude and policy of the central government prove to be the greatest obstacle. It is difficult to avoid getting the impression that Jakarta is deliberately making it impossible for anyone to obtain accurate information about Papua. Besides Jayapura and one or two other major towns, the rest of the province is effectively off-limits to journalists. They need to have permission, known as surat jalan, issued by the local military just to move around, which is justified by the old pretext of ensuring their safety. For foreign journalists and scholars, Papua is completely barred.
It is questionable whether the low level intensity of guerilla warfare by the Free Papua Movement (OPM) justifies the strong military presence in the area. If anything, the tight security measures imposed are at the expense of greater transparency. The tight security blanket confirms the suspicion of many international human rights groups that the government is hiding something.
Others speculate that the tensions and conflicts in Papua are a manifestation of the rivalries and interests of different government agencies in Jakarta, including the state intelligence, the police, the military and the business world. Whether this is true or not is no longer relevant because that image has been implanted firmly thanks to the government’s own policy.
The Indonesian government and military have not learned the bitter lessons of East Timor in the 1990s when the policy of closing off the territory to outsiders came back to haunt them with unnecessary speculations about what was really happening there. In East Timor, the government lost the propaganda war and eventually the territory itself. God forbid, this should be the fate of Papua.
A more open and transparent policy in Papua, even with its consequences to the security situation, is by far still the better option to pursue. Let’s hope the investigation of the latest shooting will be conducted in that spirit, for the sake of establishing justice for the victims, but more importantly for justice of the people of Papua.

A mystery too many in Papua | The Jakarta Post

[kingwilly]

Hundreds of Freeport workers told to stay home after fatal shootings

Markus Makur , The Jakarta Post , Timika, Papua | Wed, 07/15/2009 1:49 PM | National
Hundreds of workers of PT Freeport Indonesia mining company in Tembagapura, Papua have been told to stay home following fatal shooting near a mining site that killed three people.

Mindo Pangaribuan, a spokesperson of the company, told The Jakarta Post that the decision was taken not only due to security reasons but also because police were investigating the scene of the shootings and closing mile 51 up to mile 53 of a road running through Kuala Kencana district.

Mindo said however that mining activities still continued normally with enough workers, who live near the Grasberg mining site.

He also confirmed another shooting that occurred on Tuesday afternoon.

“No one was injured in the incident that occurred at mile 49,” he said.

An Australian technical expert, a security guard of the company and a policeman were killed in a series of weekend ambushes in the restive Papua province.

The last victim was identified as Police Mobile Brigade Second Brig. Marsom Patipea, who was assigned to secure the mining complex. Seven other were injured in the incident. (dre)

[kingwilly]

on going.

Papua Assembly Urges Open Probe of Freeport Mine Shootings

The Papuan People’s Assembly, a body representing the cultural and social rights of Papuans, on Friday urged the police to find those responsible for a recent series of armed attacks at the massive Freeport gold and copper mine in Timika.

Frans Wosprakrik, the deputy chief of the assembly, also known as the MRP, asked that the culprits be found quickly, and pledged that the assembly would support the investigation as long as it was open and fair. He also said that calls demanding the closure of PT Freeport Indonesia’s mining operations there by some communities and nongovernmental organizations were unwarranted.

“We can look at the problem and find the solutions to it,” Wosprakrik said. “It might be that people’s rights were neglected, which needs to be addressed.”

He said those behind the Timika shootings likely had grievances against the mining company’s operations in the area, speculating that the attacks were carried out by people who felt personally disgruntled by Freeport.

“If there is dissatisfaction, it must be revealed, solved and ended,” he said.

Bery Nahdian Forqan, the executive director of leading environmental watchdog Walhi, is among those calling on Freeport to end its activities in Papua. He has argued that unless this was done, the level of violence would continue to increase.

“The best way to solve the problem is to stop the source of the problem, which is Freeport,” he said.

Rights group Imparsial said in a press release that the attacks in Timika had to have been planned and conducted by trained assailants, with experience in handling weapons and the expertise to evade tight security.

Arkilaus Arnesius Baho, the chairman of the National League for the Struggle of the People of West Papua, said that the primary motivation behind the violence in Timika was likely the perceived injustice among ethnic Papuans surrounding the exploitation of the province’s natural resources.
Papua Assembly Urges Open Probe of Freeport Mine Shootings - The Jakarta Globe