Pupuk Indonesia plans $5.2 bln petrochem complex in Papua

Indonesian fertilizer firm PT Pupuk Indonesia plans to build a petrochemical complex worth $5.2 billion in the country’s Papua region, an official said on Wednesday (19/04).

Investors from Japan, South Korea and Germany have expressed interest to take part in a plant that will have annual capacity of 2 million tonnes a year, said the firm’s CEO Arifin Tasrif.

“We want to be the majority (owner) in a joint venture company,” Tasrif said, without giving details on the timeframe for the plant.

Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest economy, is seeing strong economic growth of over six percent and the government is keen for investors to expand the petrochemical industry to make higher value products from the country’s oil and gas output.

Papua, a remote and mountainous region in eastern Indonesia home to BP’s ‘s Tangguh liquefied natural gas plant, sees high costs for construction and businesses because of the expense in transporting materials from the country’s main industrial centres on Java island.

Pupuk Indonesia, a holding firm of four state-controlled fertilizer firms, already has plants in west and east Java, in Kalimantan on Borneo island and Aceh in Sumatra island, with a total capacity of 12 million tonnes.

The firm expects sales in 2012 to reach 45 trillion rupiah ($4.90 billion), up from last year’s 40 trillion rupiah.

*($1 = 9,180 rupiah)

Source: Reuters

UI opens Papua center

The Papua Center of the School of Social and Political Science at the University of Indonesia (UI) was officially opened on Monday (09/04).

The center is a joint venture between UI, Papua’s Cendrawasih University and mining giant PT Freeport Indonesia.

The launch was marked by the signing of an agreement between the faculty dean Bambang Shergi Laksmono and Freeport representative Rozik B. Soetjipto.

The agreement covers a students and lecturers exchange between UI and the Cendrawasih University, the holding of a cultural week focused on the Kamoro tribes and publication of books on Kamoro art and culture.

Bambang said that development in Papua was not easy, considering problems within the province, which is also known as the land of Cendrawasih.

“We need to get ourselves familiar with its structures and social backgrounds,” he said.

He expected that the center could help develop ideas and create a foundation for development in the province.

Freeport has also signed an agreement with Cendrawasih University’s rector Festus Simbiak that covers cooperation in education, apprenticeships, graduate development programs and student training.

Source: The Jakarta Post

Papua Shooters’ Identity Is Already Known: BIN

The identity of the gunmen who on Sunday fired machine guns at a commercial plane in Papua may already be known by authorities.

The chief of the State Intelligence Agency (BIN), Lt. Gen. Marciano Norman, on Wednesday (11/04) told journalists: “The position of this group has already been identified. They are currently being pursued.”

Speaking to journalists at the Merdeka Palace in Jakarta, Marciano declined to give further details, only saying that the hunt for the attackers was now focused on the location of the shooting in Mulia, the district town in Puncak Jaya, on the western coast of Papua.

Meanwhile, military leader Maj. Gen. M. Erwin Safitri said that the separatist Free Papua Organization (OPM) was behind the shooting of the airplane in Mulia, which caused the death of one of the passengers on board the Trigana Air aircraft .

“This was an act of the OPM. No other group in Papua has caused chaos there, and this has happened several times before,” Erwin said.

He said that while elsewhere in Papua the military have prioritized peaceful dialogue, Puncak Jaya was an exception, and “even more so since Goliath Tabuni [the local OPM chief] is still conducting a guerrilla campaign in the forests there,” he said.

National Police Chief Gen. Timur Pradopo said that police were coordinating with the local authorities to safeguard the area.

“We have coordinated with the administration in Puncak Jaya and all security personnel there,” Timur said.

Indonesian Armed Forces Commander Adm. Agus Suhartono said that the military was ready to assist the police in securing the area and both forces were coordinating well in Papua.

“We will provide the back up and we already have troops there,” he said.

Papua Police spokesman Adj. Sr. Comr. Johannes Nugroho Wicaksono said the Mulia airstrip will be operational today after local authorities agreed to increase the security presence in the area.

The airstrip has been the site of several shootings in recent years. Last year, a local police chief was ambushed and gunned down.

Source: The Jakarta Globe

President Yudhoyono Demands Quick Justice in Papua Attack

Soldiers may be deployed in Papua to assist the police in the search for the Free Papua Organization (OPM) responsible for Sunday’s attack on a commercial airplane, as the president demands swift justice.

The attack left one person dead and has raised fears that separatist rebels are becoming more brazen and could further undermine the fragile peace in the province.

“This must be solved quickly,” presidential spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha said on Monday (09/04). “Those responsible should be brought to justice. This is totally unacceptable.”

Julian said the president was concerned about the psychological effect the incident could have on residents, leaving them fearful and unable to function normally.

“This is proof that the situation in Papua is not yet secure and there are still many armed groups there,” he said.

Julian said security personnel in Papua were doing everything they could to solve the case and catch the assailants.

The president, Julian said, has also issued instructions that there should be no lack of personnel to assure security in Papua and that the military might be deployed to reinforce the police.

A group of armed OPM opened fire on a Twin Otter airplane operated by Trigana Air that had just landed at the airport in Mulia, in Puncak Jaya district.

The aircraft careered off the runway and into a warehouse. One passenger, a journalist, died after being shot in the neck. The pilot, co-pilot and a mother and her 4-year-old son were injured in the attack.

National Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Boy Rafli Amar said the police believed those responsible for Sunday’s attack had carried out previous attacks in the area.

“We suspect the perpetrators have carried out previous attacks,” he said. “They control the field there. Our team is working hard to investigate the attack and go after them.”

He said the attackers were part of an “armed civilian group” but gave no details.

Another National Police spokesman, Insp. Gen. Saud Usman Nasution, said the difficult terrain in the area would make it difficult for the authorities to hunt down the attackers. Mulia is in a mountainous area and the airport is hemmed in by peaks.

“This could happen again … it is really difficult,” the spokesman said. “The district police can ask for reinforcements from the Papua Police. If the Papua Police ask us for reinforcements, we will send them, whatever they need.”

He said so far the police had only been able to estimate that the shooters opened fire from about 50 meters away, he said.

Meanwhile, the Alliance of Independent Journalists is urging the National Police to quickly locate the shooters.

The journalist killed in the attack was Leiron Kogoya, 35, who was a reporter for Papua Pos, a local newspaper.

The airport has experienced several recent attacks, including one in October that saw the local police chief shot and killed.

Mulia has also been the scene of a string of unsolved shootings targeting both civilians and security personnel.

Source: The Jakarta Globe

Indonesia tightens security after OPM attacks plane in Papua

The Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has ordered security forces to intensify and heighten security measures in Papua following the weekend attack on a commercial aircraft by an armed group of Free Papua Organization (OPM).

A Twin Otter plane operated by Trigana Air was shot at shortly after it touched down at Mulia Airport in the Puncak Jaya regency.

The President is reportedly shocked about the attack and says it proves the situation in the region is still unsafe, requiring a special approach by security authorities.

The OPM killed a journalist and injured several others, including the pilot and first officer.

The pilot lost control and the plane hit a warehouse.

Source: Radio New Zealand International

OPM attacks small plane in Papua

An armed group of Free Papua Organization (OPM) fired on a small plane after it landed in Indonesia’s restive Papua region Sunday (08/04), killing one passenger and wounding four people including both pilots.

A group of at least five men of OPM fired on a Trigana Air Twin Otter that had flown from Nabire and was about to land at the airport in Mulia town in Puncak Jaya district.

The victim who killed was identified as Leiron Kogoya, a journalist working for Papua Pos of Nabire, who was shot in the neck.

As a result of the incident, Director of Mimika Air Transportation Agency John Rettob said that Mulia Airport was closed.

Coordinating minister for political legal and security affairs Djoko Suyanto said police were hunting for the perpetrators.

The search team included members of the Mobile Brigade (Brimob) paramilitary police unit from the Puncak Jaya district police as well as Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI) based in Nabire.

The incident is the latest in a spate of gun attacks in the region, some of them near US mining giant Freeport McMoRan’s Grasberg gold and copper mine.

In December, unidentified gunmen opened fire on an aircraft carrying Freeport workers, wounding one passenger.(*wpnn)

Papua receives four rescue boats

The National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) has allocated four rescue boats for Papua and West Papua provinces.

The agency’s head, Daryatmo, said the boats, each of which has a maximum speed of 30 knots and a 3 x 1080 horsepower engine, have been presented to SAR Jayapura, SAR Merauke, SAR Biak and SAR Sorong.

“We try to save lives instead of recovering bodies,” Daryatmo told reporters after an official handover ceremony at the Porasko Port in Jayapura on Tuesday (03/04).

The 36-meter-long boats, according to Daryatmo, also came with night vision devices and had the ability to cover a distance of up to 2,000 sea miles.

Previously, the same type of rescue boat had been given to the SAR team in Mimika regency.

Source: The Jakarta Post

Pair Found Guilty Of Killing Police Officer

Two men, including a former Sinn Fein councillor, have been found guilty of the murder of Roman Catholic police officer Stephen Carroll in March 2009.

HOW ABOUT BENNY WENDA who is the prime suspect of the murder of two Papuan Policemen?

The judge said the two men, Brendon McConville , 40, and John Paul Wootton, 20, committed a “callous and cowardly crime”.

After the verdict Constable Carroll’s widow Kate hugged her husband’s police colleagues who had helped to investigate his murder.

Speaking to Sky News she said: “We as a family have been totally devastated since Stephen was so brutally taken away from us.

“My life will never be the same again.

“I am happy we have got this far but we have a long way to go. Not everyone connected with Steve’s murder has been found guilty.”

Wootton was also found guilty of collecting information for the use of terrorism.

He had tried to get hold of the address of another policeman weeks before Stephen Carroll’s murder.

Mr Carroll was shot dead two days after two British soldiers were murdered in a Real IRA gun attack outside the Massereene barracks in Antrim town.

He was killed by a single gunshot to the head as he sat in an unmarked police car while his colleagues answered a 999 call in the Lismore Manor area.

Responsibility for the murder was claimed by the Continuity IRA at the time.

The prosecution claimed the gunmen had lured the policeman to his death by prompting the emergency call out after throwing a brick through a house window.

Const Carroll, 48, from Banbridge, County Down, was the first policeman to be killed by Republican terrorists since the peace process reforms which saw the Royal Ulster Constabulary replaced by the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

Read also Interpol seeks Benny Wenda

Source: Papua Story

Papua demands more fuel supplies

As demand continues to grow, the government has to augment fuel supplies for Indonesia’s easternmost island of Papua, Mimika People’s Representatives Council head Travina Tinal says.

Travina said that the council had long requested that the government increase the fuel quota for the island, but the request had never been granted.

Demand for fuel in Papua has been growing as the number of vehicles there continues to increase, he said without elaborating on further details.

He pointed out that fuel prices in Papua could reach Rp 28,000 (US$3.05), or even Rp 50,000 per liter in particular areas. Subsidized fuel prices are set at Rp 4,500 per liter by the government.

“Papuan residents, particularly those who live in secluded areas, won’t be affected by fuel price hikes because fuel prices in Papua are already high” he said.

Source: ANTARA News