More shootings at Freeport's massive Grasberg gold mine in Papua

Two Indonesian security guards were ambushed Saturday near the giant Freeport gold mine in remote Papua province.   AP reports:

Ambushes near the world’s largest gold mine since mid-July have left three dead, including a 29-year-old Australian, and more than a dozen wounded. Around four gunmen ambushed the bus on its way to drop off workers for the Saturday morning shift, Papua police spokesman Lt. Col. Agus Rianto said.

An researcher involved with the investigation into the 2002 killings of two American  teachers in Papua suspected "Indonesian military involvement" with those killings.  Some further background from the AP report:

The Freeport mine has often been targeted by arson, roadside bombs and ambushes since production began in the 1970’s in underdeveloped Papua, home to a low-level separatist movement of thousands of miles (kilometers) from the capital, Jakarta.

It is unclear if the rebels, who have been implicated in past attacks, were involved in the latest shootings.

Police have arrested seven suspects in the ambushes so far, including two Freeport employees, who face charges of premeditated murder and illegal weapons possession. It is difficult to get accurate information out of Papua, a highly militarized area that is off-limits to foreign journalists.

Wikipedia has further background on the mine itself:

The Grasberg mine is the largest gold mine and the third largest copper mine in the world. It is located in the province of Papua in Indonesia near Puncak Jaya, the highest mountain in Papua, and it has 19,500 employees. It is majority owned through a subsidiary by Freeport-McMoRan, based in the United States (67.3%), along with its wholly owned subsidiary, PT Indocopper Investama Corporation (9.3%), and the government of Indonesia (9.3%), and additionally, a production sharing joint venture with Rio Tinto Group (13%).

The Grasberg mine has prompted environmental concerns:

The concentrator's tailings, generated at a rate of 230,000 tonnes per day, are the subject of considerable environmental concern, as they are directly poured into the Aikwa riverine system and Arafura Sea.

Both Freeport and its partner Rio Tinto have been excluded from the investment portfolio of The Government Pension Fund of Norway, the world's second largest pension fund, due to criticism over the environmental damages caused by the Grasberg mine.

The above map, from Wikipedia shows "Freeport's Contract of Work Area. Deep purple in the river is mine tailings (2003)."

Finally, a Papua activist website provides a brief summary of how the locals got shafted when the Dutch left in the early '60s.

Previously a Dutch colony along with the islands that now make up Indonesia, West Papua remained under Dutch control when the Republic of Indonesia became an independent nation state in 1949. The Dutch government began preparing West Papua for independence throughout the 1950s. At the end of 1961, West Papua held a Congress at which its people declared independence, and raised their new flag - the Morning Star.

Within months the dream was dead: the Indonesian military invaded West Papua and conflict broke out between the Netherlands, Indonesia and the indigenous population regarding control of the country. The US intervened and engineered an agreement between Indonesia and the Netherlands, which in 1962 gave control of West Papua to the United Nations and one year later transferred control to Indonesia. The Papuans were never consulted. However, the agreement did promise them their right to self determination - a right which is guaranteed by the UN to everyone on Earth.

Flashing  forwarding, politically a lot has happened in Papua over the past decade:

Following the fall of the Indonesian's military dictator, General Suharto, in 1998, a political space briefly opened up in West Papua. The Morning Star flag was flown again and a huge public congress was held in 2000 with hundreds of delegates from tribes all across Papua.. . . .

But these hopes were, yet again, in vain. Fearing 'secession', the army moved in, and hundreds of people were shot and arrested for public flag-raisings and independence rallies. Then, in November 2001, the charismatic president of the PDP Theys Eluay, was assassinated by Indonesian soldiers.

At the beginning of 2004, Indonesia set their agenda for the future by installing former East Timor police chief Timbil Silaen as new police chief in Papua and at the same time allowing notorious East Timor militia leader Eurico Guterres to set up operations in the highland town of Wamena where he is openly recruiting people to his pro Indonesia militias. Both of these people have been implicated in the massacres that swept East Timor in 1999 after it declared independence from Indonesia.

Today, West Papua's tragedy continues. Though the majority of Papuan people are united in calling peacefully for independence, through a number of organisations including the PDP, the Alliance of Papuan Students (AMP), and Demmak, a pan-tribal coalition, the Indonesian military and authorities continue their reign of terror. Recent events have included the burning of highland villages by Indonesian soldiers - resulting in 6000 internal refugees still living in temporary camps in the forest - the shooting and beating of protesters calling for the Freeport mining company to leave the country, and the jailing of two men for ten and fifteen years for the 'crime' of raising the Morning Star flag in public.

The Free West Papua website has more information about the independence movement.  The photo on the left shows FWP movement founder Benny Wenda, who lives in exile in the UK.  He writes "My village was bombed by Indonesia when I was a child and many of my family were killed. Later, I began to campaign peacefully to free my people. For this 'crime' I was arrested, tortured and threatened with death."

The photo at the top of this page was taken during the filming of a 2009 documentary about West Papua called "Forgotten Birds of Paradise." It will be shown in the UK again in October. Here's a review of the film which recently premiered at London's Green Man festival from the outstanding Free West Papua blog:

Filmed undercover without the knowledge or authority of the Indonesian authorities, ‘Forgotten Bird of Paradise’ provides a rare and deeply moving insight into the West Papuan peoples ongoing struggle for freedom from Indonesian rule.

The documentary features interviews with human rights victims of the Indonesian regime, startling footage of OPM rebel fighters, and a moving interview recorded in secret with the Amnesty International recognised ‘prisoner of conscience’ Yusak Pakage. Currently serving a 10 year prison sentence for peacefully raising the West Papuan flag, the interview was recorded in hospital where he was receiving treatment for torture suffered at the hands of prison guards at Abepura Prison. There is also footage and interviews from the launch of International Parliamentarians for West Papua, revealing the developments being made on the international scene towards the goal of West Papuan self-determination.

Human Rights Watch recently issued a statement on prison abuse in West Papua:

(New York) – The Indonesian government should investigate and hold accountable abusive guards and officials at the Abepura prison in Papua, Human Rights Watch said today. Various sources report that torture, beatings, and mistreatment by guards are rampant. Abepura holds approximately 230 prisoners, of whom more than a dozen are imprisoned for peaceful political acts.

Here is another documentary, West Papua: the Secret War in Asia, filmed in 2007: