Gunmen fire on bus owned by US miner Freeport in Indonesia’s Papua; spokesman says no injuries

Gunmen fire on US miner Freeport bus in Indonesia

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Gunmen fired on a bus that had just dropped off employees working for U.S. company Freeport at the world’s biggest gold mine Wednesday, a company spokesman said.

No one was hurt in the attack in Indonesia’s easternmost Papua province, Mindo Pangaribuan said, adding that “to ensure the safety of our employees and families, we have temporarily closed (part of) the road.”

Police previously arrested nine suspects, all facing charges of premeditated murder and illegal weapons possession, for a spate of ambushes near the mine that have left three dead since July 8. Two Freeport employees were among those detained by police.

Among those killed were an Australian employee and a security guard working for the company, which has been regularly targeted by arson and roadside bombs since production began in the 1970s.

Papua, a remote and underdeveloped region, is home to an low-level insurgency seeking independence from the government thousands of miles (kilometers) away in the capital, Jakarta. It is unclear if the rebels, who have been implicated in attacks in the past, were involved in the latest shootings.

Freeport is also regularly the focus of protests by local residents who feel they are not benefiting from the depletion of Papua’s natural resources.

The recent deaths are the worst violence at the site since the killing of two American school teachers in an ambush in the same area in 2002.

It is difficult to get accurate information out of Papua, a remote and highly militarized area that is off limits to foreign journalists.