Two people were reported killed Wednesday after a convoy of buses carrying employees of a U.S. mining company came under fire in the Indonesian province of Papua.
Unidentified gunmen attacked the 12-bus convoy in the eastern-most province Wednesday morning, the state-run Antara News Agency said. The news agency said two people, including at least one police officer, reportedly died in the attack. But police have not officially released a statement. The attack is the latest targeting PT Freeport, the largest copper and gold mining company in the province. Ambushes on July 11 and 12 killed an Australian mine technician and two Indonesians. And two directors of the company were wounded Friday in a twin attack at the Ritz Carlton and JW Marriott hotels in the capital Jakarta. Papua residents have long resented the presence of PT Freeport in the province. They have criticized the environmental impact of the mining operations and the small share of revenues the province receives.
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In 2008, a separatist group claimed responsibility for a series of bomb attacks in the area. No one died in the attacks, Antara said. In 2002, two American teachers and an Indonesian colleague who worked at the mine were shot dead in an attack, the news agency said. Meanwhile, authorities on Wednesday released sketches of two men believed to have carried out the bombings at the luxury hotels in Jakarta. One was about 40; the other 17, officials said. Analysis of their DNA matched those obtained from a homemade explosive found in a room at the Marriott where they had checked in, police said. But authorities still do not know their identities.
