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| Southeast Asia |
| Gunmen Kill 3 People in Papua |
| 2002-08-31 |
| Unidentified gunmen shot and killed three people, including two Americans, and injured 14 others in an attack Saturday near the world's largest gold mine — a U.S.-owned operation — in Indonesia's Papua province, police said. The victims were traveling in a convoy of cars when they were ambushed on the road between the town of Timika and the Grasberg mine operated by PT Freeport Indonesia, said Papua police chief Brig. Gen. I Made Pastika. Two of the dead and seven of the injured were Americans. The third victim was an Indonesian. A press release by National Police Headquarters identified the dead as Ted Burcon, Rickey Spear and Bambang Riwanto. Nine of the injured were also foreign nationals. Maj. Gen. Mahidin Simbolon, the regional military chief, said the dead foreigners were teachers working at a school at the mine. Teachers are pretty dangerous, y'know. They go telling people things and pretty soon people are arguing with their betters... Papua, 2,300 miles east of Jakarta, is home to a small guerrilla group — known as the Free Papua Movement — which has kept up a low-level insurgency against Indonesian rule for almost four decades. Foreigners have never been targeted by the rebels, although several foreign visitors have been kidnapped in the past. Pastika said police officers were still investigating the motives for the attack. He said there was ``a possibility'' separatist rebels were behind the killings. But it sounds more like local crooks than rebels or terrorists... |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |