Police officer killed near Freeport's mine during patrol
Wednesday, February 8 2012 - 02:52 AM WIB
A police officer from the Mobile Brigade, Brig. Ronald, was shot down by unidentified gunmen while on a routine patrol near the area of Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc's mine in Papua on Tuesday.
Antara quoted Papua Police chief Insp. Gen. B. L Tobing as saying that Ronald was on patrol with his team when he was shot while crossing the east embankment of mine's area. The shooting occurred at a time when the mining operation was getting back to normal following a headline-grabbing three-month strike.
Freeport Indonesia spokesman Ramdani Sirait said access to the road was immediately sealed off as police carried out investigation.
Two workers of PT Freeport were shot dead on the same route linking Tembagapura and Timika on January 9. Freeport said in January that 14 people have died and 50 others injured from sporadic shootings since July 2009. (*)