Papua: protesters and police killed during battle over US mine

Protests demanding the closure of a US-owned mine in Papua have led to the death of two Papuan students, three police officers and a soldier, initial reports suggest. A further ten Papuan students and 19 police offers appear to have been injured and taken to hospital.

The incident happened on Thursday (16 March) outside the university in the provincial capital, Jayapura. Around 500 students threw rocks and stones at the police, prompting the police to open fire and move against a blockade outside the university.

According to police reports, the officers had tried to persuade the protestors to move but then used rubber bullets, tear gas and armoured vehicles to clear the blockade.

The crowd apparently then cornered three policemen and beat them to death with sticks and stones. A fourth man, said to be a soldier or air force sergeant, also died in the fracas.

There have been protests against the mine's operator - US giant Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold - since security forces attempted to evict unlicensed miners last month.

Freeport, Indonesia's largest foreign investor and taxpayer, stands accused by villagers, the provincial government of Papua, some national politicians and an array of NGOs, of colluding with military and Jakarta-appointed officials to conduct mining activities that are destroying the environment.

Benny Wender, an international campaigner in the UK for the Free West Papua campaign, told Progressio: 'The root of the problem is the suffering of the Papuans who live in the highlands. Papuans want the mine to be closed permanently. They feel that the area is not their home anymore. The mine is destroying the environment around their homes and is in an area that is considered sacred to Papuans.'

Papua's legislative house and the Papua People's Assembly are demanding that Freeport cease mining until an independent investigation can be conducted. 'We have asked the central government in Jakarta to close down Freeport,' said Komarudin Watubun, spokesperson from Papua's local parliament. 'We want a total closure of the company.'

Freeport started to mine in Papua in the 1960s after a central government agreement. To date, it has invested more than US$12 billion in Papua-based mines and now employs around 18,000 workers, including thousands of Papuans. Freeport has earned more than US$33 billion in revenues from the mine, including a record US$4.1 billion last year on the wave of rising global commodity prices.

Freeport McMoRan operates the world's largest copper and gold mine and the company is also accused of obscuring its real revenue by fudging prices of copper and gold and tax fraud - charges the company denies. Between 1998 and 2004, it paid nearly US$20 million to the military to protect its mining site in Tembagapura.

The government is now setting up a team, comprised of Ministry of Finance and energy and mining officials, to assess Freeport transactions.