Indonesia sets up special police team guard US’ mining site in Papua

A senior police officer overseeing Indonesia’s Papua province said on Wednesday that they will set up a special police team to safeguard the US’ Freeport gold and copper mining site in the province due to frequent violence by separatist group Free Papua Organization (OPM) aiming Freeport’s workers.

Chief of the Papua police, Inspector General Tito Karnavian said there have been cases of shooting and murder in Freeport operation area conducted by OPM’s armed groups.

“The team has to deal with many such cases and probe them thoroughly to the very bottom,” Karnavian said in Mimika, Papua.

Hundreds of acts of terror by OPM’s armed groups left more than 20 people killed including Freeport workers, police officers, company’s security officers and local traditional gold prospectors, he added.

He said that security condition around the mining site is under control. Investigations into violence cases occurring in Karnavian ‘s jurisdiction are underway at the moment with trials against perpetrators are progressing.

Karnavian visited the Freeport workers’ compound in Tembagapura, Mimika, last week.

SourceL Global Times

OPM kill Indonesian police officer

Free Papua Organization (OPM) have killed a police officer near the The U.S. company Freeport-McMoRan’s gold and copper mine in the most-eastern Indonesia’s province, Papua.

Company spokesman Ramdani Sirait said the officer was shot Tuesday (07/02) within the working area of Freeport Indonesia. The area was closed as police investigated.

It was the second shooting this year near the world’s largest gold mine in Papua province where a separatist insurgency is seeking independence from the Indonesian government.

Two contract workers were killed last month near the mining town of Tembagapura.

Police were not immediately available for comment on the latest attack.

The mine, run by a subsidiary of the Phoenix, Arizona-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. has been hit with arson, roadside attacks and blockades since operations began in the 1970s.

Source: Associated Press

Police Officer Shot at Freeport Mine

An armed wing of separatist group attacked a team of police and security guards at PT Freeport Indonesia, Timika, yesterday (07/11).

The National Police’s team member, Brig. Marselinus, was shot in the face and was immediately taken to Tembagapura Hospital.

Mimika Police deputy chief Comm. Mada Indra Laksanta said the incident occurred at 11.22 p.m. local time when the police cars were passing along Mile 43-45, which is located between Tembagapura and Freeport’s mining area.

This was not the first attack against military personnel in Papua. On October 24, Mulia Police chief, Comm. Domingus Oktavianus Awes was shot dead at Mulia Airport in Puncak Jaya.

According to the Papua Police chief, Insp. Gen. Bigman Lumban Tobing, the armed group’s tactic is to fire gunshots and escape to the forest.

Up until yesterday afternoon, the police were still pursuing the perpetrators. However, they were impeded by poor weather conditions in Timika. “The forests are dense and the cliffs are steep,” said Bigman.

He said the police needed a helicopter to pursue the group. “We tried to borrow the company’s helicopter, but they wouldn’t allow it,” he added.

Presidential spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha said the police struggled to chase the attackers. “There are many of them and they’re not all from the same group. We need special management to tackle them,” he said.

Source: TEMPO Interactive

CEO: Freeport will not pay striking workers

PT Freeport Indonesia management has decided not to pay its workers on strike since September 15, the company`s president director and CEO Armando Mahler said.

“We all know that the workers strike started on September 15 at 00:00 eastern Indonesia standard time (WIT). And we decided not to pay them, no work, no pay,” he said here on Saturday night (17/9).

On Thursday (Sept. 15), thousands of Freeport employees left the mining site of Tembagapura for Timika to begin a one month strike to demand a salary rise.

Mahler also explained that the salaries of PT Freeport`s workers who launched a strike in last July were paid because they promised to resume working.

“It (salary) was paid only based on the company`s good intention. But in the second strike, we warned them not to pay their wages if they stopped working,” Mahler disclosed.

Previously, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Darwin Saleh said the ongoing strike at PT Freeport was causing a potential loss of 19 million US dollars per day to the US gold and copper mining company in Papua.

“The 19 million US dollar potential loss is sustained by unrealized daily sales,” the minister said at a press conference here on Friday (16/9).

In addition, the Indonesian government also lost an estimated 6.7 million US dollars per day, he said.

Freeport produces 230,000 tons of copper concentrates daily. The concentrates besides copper, also contained gold and silver.

Minister Darwin and the ministry`s Director General of Minerals and Coal Thamrin Sihite flew to Papua immediately after the press conference.

The minister expressed optimism that the manpower and transmigration ministry would be able to help solve the problem that caused the workers strike.

Source: ANTARA News

Workers` strike causing US$9 mln potential loss daily to Freeport

Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Darwin Zahedy Saleh said the ongoing workers strike at PT Freeport was causing a potential loss of 19 million US dollars per day to the US gold and copper mining company in Papua.

“The 19 million US dollar potential loss is from the value of unrealized daily sales,” the minister said at a press conference here on Friday (16/9).

In addition, the Indonesian state was also losing at an estimated rate of 6.7 million US dollars per day, he said.

Freeport produces 230,000 tons of copper concentrates daily. The concentrates contain gold and silver, apart from copper.

Minister Darwin and the ministry`s Director General of Minerals and Coal Thamrin Sihite flew to Papua immediately after the press conference.

The minister expressed optimism that the manpower and transmigration ministry would be able to help solve the problem that caused the workers strike.

“We will encourage and facilitate efforts for the solution of the problem,” Minister Darwin said.

The government was determined to maintain the current conducive investment climate, he said.

“We are not siding with any party. The workers` rights and the level of their income must be maintained,” he said.

Ramdani Sirait, a spokesman of PT Freeport, earlier said the negotiation process between the management and workers` representatives would be shifted to Jakarta, as suggested by the manpower and transmigration ministry.

“We hope there will be progress toward an agreement,” he said.

PT Freeport Indonesia currently has around 22,800 workers. The company contributed 1.9 billion US dollars in tax and non-tax payments to the state in 2010.

It has also spent capital and routine expenses amounting to 2.1 billion US dollars.

Last Thursday (Sept. 15), thousands of Freeport employees left the mining site of Tembagapura for Timika to begin a one month strike to demand a salary rise.

According to one of the giant mining company`s employees, Oktovianus Hisage, the workers` exodus started at 6 am local time.

“Some 44 employee buses carrying 60 employees have arrived in Timika, while 11 other buses are on their way to Timika where they are expected to arrive at noon,” Oktovianus said in Timika, Papua, Thursday.

Freeport`s underground mining operations have been totally halted since Wednesday at 10.30 pm local time, Oktavianus said.

Source: AntaraNEWS

Thousands of Freeport employees leave Tembagapura

Thousands of Freeport employees left the mining site of Tembagapura for Timika to begin a one month strike.

According to one of the giant mining company`s employees, Oktovianus Hisage the exodus started at 6 am local time.

“Some 44 employee buses carried 60 employees have arrived in Timika, while 11 other buses are on their way to Timika at noon,” Oktovianus said here Thursday (15/9).

Oktovianus added that thousands of other Freeport employees are waiting for their buses in Tembagapura to bring them to Timika.

“There are about 100 buses in Tembagapura, along with 5.000 employees who are waiting to be transported to Timika,” he said.

Freeport`s underground mining production has been totally stopped since Wednesday at 10.30 pm local time, Oktavianus said.

Oktavianus also said that so far the management of PT Freeport did not intimidate its employees as previously rumored in which every employee who are going to Timika had their identity cards canceled.

The workers union of PT Freeport (SPSI PUK) spokesman Julius Parorongan said that the mobilization of employees will be done gradually.

“The mobilization will be done today until they all have arrived in Timika,” said Julius.

For the safety of the striking Freeport employees who arrived at Gorong-gorong Terminal, Timika, the Mimika Police have deployed at least 70 personnel and members of the Mimika Police Mobile Brigade led by police chief Adjunct Senior Commissioner Hasan Timpa.

Meanwhile at the Kuala Kencana Check Point gate, some Freeport employees began to build tents for shelter because they are prohibited to enter the Alun-alun Office Building (OB) 1 Kuala Kencana.

Source: AntaraNEWS

TNI chief supports literacy program in Papua hinterland

“The eradication of illiteracy program in Papua must be continued to help villagers be able to read and write”

Chief of the National Defense Forces (TNI) Admiral Agus Suhartono has fully supported the involvement of the Military Regional Command (Kodam) XVII/Cenderawasih in the literacy program in the hinterland of Papua.

The eradication of illiteracy program in Papua must be continued to help villagers be able to read and write, Admiral Agus Suhartono said here Saturday.

“The program has been implemented since few months ago by Kodam Cenderawasih, and it`s still going on. I fully support the program to help the local people,” he said.

The program could be implemented by mobilizing `smart house`, `smart car`, and `smart motorcycle` by involving TNI personnel in the region.

In Papua, where the geographical condition is very hard with mountains, hills, and valleys, a connectivity of inter-regions is very much needed, he said.

The development of inter-region connectivity is crucial to boost the economic activities in Papua, he added.

TNI has equipped its personnel being assigned in the remote areas of Papua with transportation and communication facilities such as helicopters and phones.

In addition to the literacy program, TNI also supports other programs such as the family planning in Papua, according to Admiral Agus.

The TNI chief and National Police Chief General Timur Pradopo are on a working visit in Timika for three days, from Friday (May 13) to Sunday (May 15).

On the first day, they visited PT Freeport Indonesia and Grasberg Tembagapura open mining area.

In the evening, they held a dialog with local officials and prominent figures in Timika.

On Sunday, they went to Merauke and met TNI officers guarding the border between Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. From Merauke, they will go to Jayapura, the capital of Papua, Indonesia`s eastern most province.

Source: Antara News

Landslide kills 1 near Freeport mine in Indonesia

A man collecting trace amounts of gold near a giant U.S.-owned mine was killed and several others were injured in a landslide in the remote Indonesian province of Papua, officials said Tuesday.

Rescuers are looking for other victims of the landslide in the village of Utikini, some two miles (three kilometers) from the Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold Mine Inc., said Priyadi Kardono, the spokesman for Indonesia’s Disaster Management Agency. The company had sent heavy equipment to help the rescue efforts, according to spokesman Ramdani Sirait.

The man’s body was found early Tuesday, along with 21 injured people, Kardono said. The injured were rushed to a nearby hospital in the company’s compound.

Many traditional miners earn their living retrieving tiny amounts of gold and copper from the leftover, or tailings, of mines, a practice that is banned by Freeport because it is considered dangerous.

Sirait said all the victims were local people because the landslide occurred out of Freeport’s mine area of Tembagapura.

Landslides kill dozens of people every year in Indonesia, a vast tropical archipelago spanning more than 17,000 islands.

Source: The Associated Press

Radicalisation and Dialogue in Papua

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Indonesia’s easternmost province of Papua saw an upsurge in political violence in 2009, continuing into 2010. One factor was the increased activity of militant activists from the central highlands, many of them members of the West Papua National Committee (Komite Nasional Papua Barat, KNPB). They decided there was no longer any hope of achieving their main objective – a referendum on independence – through peaceful means, and led some to advocate violence and in some cases directly participate in violent acts. Their tactics are decried by many Papuans, but their message resonates widely, and the frustrations they articulate are real. A dialogue between Papuan leaders and central government officials, if carefully prepared, offers the possibility of addressing some longstanding grievances, without calling Indonesian sovereignty into question.

The KNPB had its origins in the growth of pro-independence student activism in Papua following the fall of Soeharto in 1998. As various coalitions formed and fissured, KNPB emerged as a group of mostly university-educated students and ex-students who adopted a militant left-wing ideology and saw themselves as revolutionaries, fighting the Indonesian state and the giant Freeport copper and gold mine near Timika. There were two main consequences to their increased militancy. They moved closer to their highland counterparts in the guerrilla army of the Free Papua Movement (Tentara Pembebasan Nasional/
Organisasi Papua Merdeka, TPN/OPM) and they increasingly saw that the only hope of achieving their cause lay in showing the world that Papua was in crisis – and that meant more visible manifestations of conflict.

Violence rose in 2009 in part because it was an election year, and the polls provided a focus for action. It was also because activities abroad – particularly the establishment in October 2008 of a then tiny group called International Parliamentarians for West Papua (IPWP) – encouraged the militant activists to believe that more international support could change the political dynamics at home. Several violent incidents in the provincial capital Jayapura and the university suburb of Abepura in April, around the time of legislative elections, are directly attributable to the KNPB. Its members may also have helped spur violence in the highland district of Puncak Jaya, through communication and coordination with the local TPN/OPM commander, Goliat Tabuni.

In other areas where violence took place, the KNPB either claimed responsibility when it apparently had no direct role, as in the occupation of an airstrip in the village of Kapeso in Mamberamo Raya. The most dramatic violence in Papua over the last eight months has been the series of shootings along Freeport’s main mining road linking the towns of Timika and Tembagapura, aimed at either Freeport vehicles or those of the paramilitary police, Brimob. Many inside and outside Papua believe the security forces themselves are responsible as a way of increasing their numbers and therefore their rent-seeking opportunities in Timika. Crisis Group believes there is a stronger case to be made for the involvement of one or more TPN/OPM commands, because of statements claiming responsibility for some but not all of the attacks and various witness testimonies. But the possibility remains that multiple parties were involved, in what the Papuans refer to as “one plate, two spoons”.

The violence, combined with the activities of the KNPB, has succeeded in raising the profile of Papua both at home and abroad, and has increased interest in the possibility of dialogue between Papuan leaders and Jakarta on a range of issues aimed at resolving the conflict. The path toward dialogue is full of pitfalls, and there are potential spoilers and much distrust on both sides. Many in the central government believe that any discussion of non-economic issues such as greater autonomy or historical grievances will only fuel the push for independence and obscure the positive changes taking place. Not only has there been “Papuanisation” of local government and a commitment to accelerated development, they argue, but the police have gradually replaced the military as the front line of response to separatist activity.

Some Papuan activists believe that dialogue should only take place with international mediation and with the political endgame left open, rather than accepting autonomy and not independence as final. Even some of those who accept Indonesian sovereignty as a given believe that Jakarta has a history of promising but not delivering, and that if it does agree to dialogue, it will be as a public relations effort without any intention of changing the status quo. But the radicalisation of the KNPB is proof of the dangers of leaving political grievances to fester. Moreover, though many of the Papuan elite disagree with its tactics, the KNPB’s message resonates more widely than its small numbers would suggest.

A joint initiative of Papuan intellectuals and researchers at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (Lembaga Ilmu Pengetahuan Indonesia, LIPI) to outline a road map that would form the basis of a dialogue between the two sides is potentially the most fruitful option on the table to end the conflict. If it is to succeed, it will require acknowledgment that the solution for Papua is more than just economic development, though that is critically important. It will also need public backing from Indonesia’s president, Soesilo Bambang Yudhoyono. ***

Source: ICG
Read full report in PDF format: Radicalisation and Dialogue in Papua

Police: No additional troops in Papua

Timika, Papua — Papua Police chief Insp. Gen. Bekto Suprapto said Tuesday that there would not be any further deployment of police personnel despite the recent shootings near the PT Freeport Indonesia mining company area in Timika.

“The police and the military are hunting for the perpetrators,” he said as quoted by Antara state news agency.

A group of unidentified gunmen opened fire on a convoy of vehicles carrying employees of mining firm PT Freeport Indonesia and security officers on Sunday, the first shooting incident after a few months of calm.

Nine people, including one foreign employee and four Mobile Brigade police officers, were injured by broken glass during the ambush, which took place at around 6:10 a.m. local time.

Also wounded in the incident were local Freeport employees and an elementary school student.

The renewed attack took place between mile markers 60 and 61 on the road to Freeport’s gold and copper mine from Tembagapura to Kuala Kencana in the town of Timika, Mimika regency.

Bekto said that all victims, including police personnel had been evacuated to Jakarta for medical treatment.

Separately, Bekto’s deputy Brig. Gen. Syafei Aksal said that the perpetrators used rifles in the shooting, based on the bullet shells found at three locations during the investigation.

There are currently a total of 1,700 police and military personnel guarding the area.

Source: the Jakarta Post