Violence, a US mining giant, and Papua politics

Indonesian soldiers were searching the fog-shrouded mountains Monday near the world's richest gold and copper mine for the killers of two American school teachers and one Indonesian.

Seven other Americans and one Indonesian girl were also wounded Saturday in one of the worst attacks on foreigners in Indonesia's modern history. The deaths come against an increasingly chaotic backdrop for the foreign mining and oil companies in Indonesia.

The roadside ambush – possibly by a renegade separatist group – occurred at 9,000 feet in the early afternoon as three Toyota Land Cruisers carried foreign teachers and local employees to a school run by Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. of Louisiana, which operates the Grasberg mine in Indonesia's province of Papua.

The dead, say sources close to the investigation, were apparently killed after two of the cars were stopped. The trailing car managed to back out of the ambush and called an Indonesian military unit for help. All three victims died from automatic weapons-fire to the head. No money was taken, and no demands were made.

Different theories as to who was behind the attack are offered by security officials, diplo- mats, and local researchers. But they all agree that it had nothing to do with specifically anti-American sentiments or the war on terror. Rather, the huge Grasberg mine has been the glittering jewel at the center of a struggle for political and economic power in the remote, impoverished province for nearly 30 years.

Both the Indonesian military and a popular independence movement see the mine as a resource to be exploited and are disappointed about how much they've been getting out of it. Activists have blamed Freeport for complicity in human rights abuses by the military and in environmental damage over the years. The company denies such claims, noting its environmental efforts and local aid programs.

Indonesian provincial military commander, Maj. Gen. Mahidin Simbolon, told reporters over the weekend that the independence movement's armed wing, called the Free Papua Movement (OPM), was responsible for the attack, specifically blaming OPM leader Kelly Kwalik. On Sunday, the military said it had killed a suspected rebel near the site of the attack.

The independence movement's political wing, which calls itself the Papua Presidium, denied the allegations of involvement in a statement: "The armed wing of the liberation movement has never attacked or killed foreign nationals as a strategy to gain international attention.''

"This doesn't fit the OPM's profile at all,'' says a Western diplomat. "The independence leadership has made a real commitment to nonviolence in the past few years."

Since the 1999 fall of Indonesian leader Suharto, Freeport has been trying to improve its local relations. Tom Beanal, a leader of the Amungme tribe which has the best ancestral claim to the mine, was named to the board of Freeport's Indonesian subsidiary two years ago. Mr. Beanal is also one of the two most popular and recognizable members of the Papua Presidium. His presence on Freeport's board has angered some military officials.

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