Police charge more suspects in deadly shootings at Freeport’s Indonesian gold mine

Indonesia files charges in Freeport mine shootings

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Police have charged two more suspects in a spate of deadly shootings at the Indonesian gold mine of U.S. company Freeport, but the motive for the attacks remains a mystery, officials said Friday.

The latest arrests take to nine the number of people facing charges of premeditated murder and illegal weapons possession for the series of ambushes that left three dead earlier this month at the Grasberg complex in Papua, the largest gold mine in the world. Among those charged are two Freeport employees, but their role is still unclear.

A 29-year-old Australian worker and a Freeport guard were shot to death during the attacks and a police officer fell to his death seeking cover from gunfire. It is the worst violence at the site since three schoolteachers, two of them Americans, were killed in 2002.

Papua police chief Bagus Ekodanto said Friday it is still unclear if the culprits are members of the Free Papua Movement, which has waged a low-level insurgency against the government for 40 years, or a different armed group.

Freeport has been targeted with arson, roadside bombs and blockades since production began in the 1970s during the U.S.-backed Suharto dictatorship. It is also regularly the focus of protests by local residents who feel they are not benefiting from the depletion of Papua’s natural resources.