MINISTER SUSPECTS BUSINESS COMPETITION BEHIND FREEPORT INCIDENTS

Jakarta, July 16 (ANTARA) - Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono suspects global business competition is behind the slew of fatal shooting incidents that happened in PT Freeport's concession area in Papua recently.

"I begin to suspect that business competition between PT Freeport and similar transnational companies is behind the shooting incidents in Timika recently," Juwono said here on Thursday.

The defense minister made the statement after speaking at a seminar on "Defense and Security Science and Technological Revitalization for Self reliance in Defense Industry 2010."
He said global competition could well be the background of the incidents because PT Freeport was a lucrative giant mining company contributing one third of Indonesia's gross domestic product.

According to Juwono, the bloody incidents in the Freeport area in Papua could be part of an effort to have the Indonesian subsidiary of US-based mining giant Freeport McMoRan shut down.

But the defense minister also said the incidents could as well have been triggered by by the wide social gap existing between the local natives living around the Freeport concession area and the company's employees.

Since Saturday (July 11), three persons, including one PT Freeport employee were killed in Papua.

Drew Nicholas Grant, an Australian national who worked for PT Freeport, was shot dead by unknown people at Mile 53 on Saturday (July 11). Drew Grant was shot in the chest and neck.

On Sunday (July 12), there were two armed attacks, one at Mile 51 and the other at Mile 2, which killed Markus Rante Allo, a security guard of PT Freeport.
The next day, Monday (July 13), Brigadier I Marson, a member of the Papua police, was found dead at Mile 52 on the road connecting Timika and Tembagapura, Mimika District, Papua Province, after he had gone missing for a few days.

Juwono also said on Wednesday allegations that military personnel were involved in the PT Freeport shootings needed to be further investigated.

"We really still don't know who the perpetrators of the attacks are, whether they are elements of the separatist Free Papua Organization (OPM), the military , or others. Therefore, we need to know the results of the ongoing investigation and collect more information," Juwono said.