ASIA: Australian shot dead at US mine in Indonesia
By Megan Neil and Adam GartrellSat Jul 11 22:27:10 EST 2009
JAKARTA, July 11 AAP - An Australian has been shot and killed, possibly by a sniper, near a massive gold and copper mine in Indonesia's volatile Papua region.
The 29-year-old Victorian man was shot in the neck as he travelled in a car with four other employees of Freeport McMoRan near the US mining giant's controversial mining concession in Papua, reportedly as they were on their way to a golf game.
The Australian, married with a nine-week-old daughter, was the only person hit in the attack at 5.30am (local time) on Saturday.
Indonesian national police Inspector General Nanan Sukarna identified the victim as Drew Grant, a technical expert for Freeport.
"He was shot in the neck and has passed away," Sukarna told AAP.
"We suspect the shot came from the top of a nearby hill."
The employees were fired on while travelling on a road in the concession area belonging to the local subsidiary of Freeport McMoRan, which operates the massive Grasberg gold and copper mine in eastern Papua province.
Grant, who Network Ten reported was a married man from Dingley in Melbourne's south, had only been back in Indonesia for a week after visiting his nine-week-old daughter, his brother said.
"Drew flew back for the birth, was here for the birth and spent a few weeks with her here," Nick Grant told reporters in Melbourne.
"She had the flu last week and he flew straight out from the mine to come and be with her in that time.
"And he'd just been back about a week and this occurred."
Nick Grant said the family was in shock.
"Everyone's just in shock because it's so sudden. I don't think they've comprehended yet what's actually happened."
PT Freeport Indonesia (PT-FI) spokesman Mindo Pangaribuan said the workers were travelling in a vehicle on a road outside the company's mining and operations areas when they were attacked.
"Shots were fired at a PT-FI vehicle, fatally wounding an employee who was a passenger in the vehicle," Pangaribuan said in a statement.
"Other passengers were not injured."
They were on their way to a golf game, the ABC reported.
Sukarna said Grant was one of five people in the car at the time.
"Most likely it (the attack) was carried out by a sniper," Sukarna told The Associated Press, noting the other passengers were unhurt.
The victim was taken to a hospital in Kuala Kencana, a local mining town, where he died of his injuries, he said.
Sukarna said provincial and district police were investigating and four detectives from Jakarta had been deployed as backup.
Freeport's Pangaribuan said police and officers from Indonesia's anti-terrorism squad Detachment 88 were at the scene and had provided additional security in the area, adding there had been no further incidents.
"PT-FI is cooperating fully with the police investigation and deeply regrets the loss of an employee," Pangaribuan said.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) said the victim was a 29-year-old Victorian man but did not release his name.
"Consular staff from the Australian Embassy in Jakarta remain in close contact with the man's employer and local police," a departmental spokesman said in a statement.
"Police have advised they are investigating the man's murder."
Freeport Indonesia is the largest copper and gold mining company in Indonesia, its website says.
The Grasberg mining complex, which the website says is one of the world's largest single producers of both copper and gold, has long been a source of tension in Papua province.
It has been blamed by environmental groups for pollution and by local opponents for unfairly exploiting Indonesia's natural resources.
Two American teachers and an Indonesian colleague who worked at the Grasberg site were shot dead in an ambush near the facility in 2002.
A bus and a security post near the mine were reportedly set alight on Wednesday, as Indonesia held presidential elections.
Papua, a desperately poor province, has been troubled by a low-level separatist insurgency since the 1960s.
Journalists are barred from entering Papua without special permission, and human rights groups have accused the Indonesian military of human rights abuses there.
Grant's body was flown back to Australia at 4pm local time (1700 AEST), Agence France-Presse reported.
