Protests against Freeport lingers, affects Garuda flight to Timika

Airline company Garuda Indonesia had to cancel its flight to Timika in Papua since Friday after the Moses Kilangin airport in Timika ran out of fuel due to lingering protests of local people that blockaded road to the airport, reports said Saturday.

The local people had launched road blockade in a protest to demand the closure of copper and gold miner PT Freeport Indonesia's operation in Papua.

Papuan students grouped in the Anti Neo Liberation Front also staged a long march in Surakarta, Central Java on Friday protesting the operation Freeport Indonesia

In the long-march around Surakarta, which was also joined by local residents, the protesters called for the closure of the company's copper and gold mine and urged for the withdrawal of the military from the mining area.

"We want the military to be pulled out from Timika and also demand the release of our friends who were arrested during the recent protest against Freeport in Jakarta," said one of the protesters.

Meanwhile, political observer Ikrar Nusa Bhakti urged the government to pressure Freeport to renegotiate the company's contracts so that the government would receive a more fair distribution from the mining company's copper and gold production. (*)