Bandits kidnap 13 in Indonesia's Irian Jaya

Bandits kidnap 13 in Indonesia's Irian Jaya

JAKARTA (Reuter): Bandits in the remote Irian Jaya province kidnapped 13 local employees of a major timber company in a late- night raid on their base camp, a military source said yesterday.

"It's indeed true, 13 people were kidnapped last night at around one or two o'clock in the morning," a military source in the town of Timika, who declined to be named, said by telephone.

He said the victims were employees of the privately-owned Djajanti Group. "They are all Indonesians. It is not clear who took them," he added.

Timika is the main base for the nearby Tembagapura copper and gold mine run by PT Freeport Indonesia, a subsidiary of Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold of the United States.

Sources in Timika, about 4,000 km east of Jakarta, said local people believed the kidnapping was carried out by a group led by members of the local Yogi family.

In February, the same men were blamed for the kidnapping of a French geologist and a local man near Nabire, about 200 km northwest of Timika. The pair were rescued by the army after 17 hours in captivity.

But sources said the group was not affiliated to the Free Papua Movement (OPM) which kidnapped 13 people in January, including four Britons, five Indonesians and two Dutch citizens to publicize its demand for independence for Irian Jaya.

In May, the British, Dutch and three Indonesian hostages escaped after an army operation for their rescue was launched. Two Indonesian hostages were killed by the captors in Irian Jaya, located in the western half of New Guinea island.

"The Yogi brothers are not known to be affiliated with the Free Papua Movement (OPM) and are pretty much known as bandits. They have issued several demands which mostly have to do with Djajanti's road being cut through their area," the source said.

A source in Timika said the kidnapping took place at a base camp about 40 km west of the town.

An official at the Djajanti Group's office in Timika referred inquiries about the incident to the company's Jakarta office where he said a command post had been set up.

But officials at the head office of the diversified timber, fisheries and agriculture group were unable to confirm the incident.