Indonesian police arrested 15 suspects after shootings in Papua, near
the lucrative Phoenix-based Freeport McMoRan gold mine, but local priest Fr Neles Tebay said the real perpetrators of
the crime are believed by some to be military-linked gunmen.
In a fresh attack on
Wednesday, gunmen targetted a convoy of buses carrying Freeport
employees as they drove on the sole road from the coast to the highland
mine, where a series of similar ambushes killed three people earlier
this month, Radio New Zealand International reported.
The spate of attacks near the Freeport McRoRan mines since July 11 has killed one Australian, a mine employee, the Herald Sun reported this week. Drew Grant, 29, of Melbourne, had just become a father nine weeks ago, the newspaper said.
An
Indonesian police spokesman said 15 people, all understood to be
Papuans, have been arrested in relation to the killings on July 11 and
12, eight of whom are considered suspects, the Radio New Zealand International report said.
Fr Tebay from the
Catholic Peace and Justice Secretariat in Jayapura says it's widely
believed that military linked gunmen are behind the shootings, the
radio reported.
"But I think it will be difficult for the
police to really publicise the real party responsible for the attack. I
think at the end, Papuans will pay the price. Some Papuans, I think,
will be blamed as being responsible for the attack."
The West
Papua Advocacy Team, a human rights group, said initial Indonesian
police reports suggested that those responsible for the recent attacks
were "expert" shooters using weapons commonly found in military and
police arsenals.
"A race to find scapegoats appears underway.
Indonesian authorities have arrested as many as 20 individuals," the
group said in a statement. "Even after these recent detentions, a
convoy of 12 Freeport buses again came under attack by gunmen on
Wednesday July 22."
"This is just the latest chapter in the
Freeport story in West Papua - a saga of violence, human rights
violations and internationally condemned environmental destruction,"
said the West Papua Advocacy Team.
"For decades, in numerous well
documented cases, the Indonesian security forces and Freeport's own
security personnel, have intimidated and repressed local Papuans
through extrajudicial killings, torture, rape and other forms of
violence and terror," the group said in its statement.
Freeport McMoRan has maintained that the allegations of abuses are unfounded.
SOURCE
More arrests near Papua's Freeport mine (Radio New Zealand International)
Impunity at the Freeport Gold & Copper Mine: Will Indonesian Security Forces Get Away with It Again? (West Papua Advocacy Team Statement)
More shooting on road to Freeport's Papua mine (Google News, Associated Press)
17 arrested in connection with Freeport mine shootings in West Papua (Herald Sun)
LINK
West Papua Advocacy Team (East Timor and Indonesia Action Network)
Freeport McMoRan