Two men killed as troops disperse protest in Timika

Two men killed as troops disperse protest in Timika

JAKARTA (JP): Two people died yesterday in the Irian Jaya town
of Timika when security officers tried to disperse a group of
locals demonstrating over the earlier deaths of two fellow
tribesmen.

Stevanus Pekeke, 23, and Timotius Koga, 21, of the Ekari tribe
in the Harapan Kwamki Lama village were shot in the head and the
abdomen respectively, a church source said.

The two were among about 200 people of mostly Ekari
tribespeople marching downtown toward the local police station
yesterday morning. The group demanded that police investigate the
death of two Ekari hitchhikers who fell off a vehicle belonging
to PT Freeport Indonesia mining company on Wednesday.

The source said Pekeke died on the spot while Koga died in the
hospital. Their bodies were claimed by their families in the
Kwamki Lama village, population of which is about 1,000 people,
mostly Ekari.

The source said the demonstrators were halfway en route to the
police station when a group broke away and started marching
toward the place where the bodies of the teenagers were found.

Security officers had blocked the roads leading both to the
station and to the site where the teenagers were found.

The officers tried to persuade the villagers to go home when
someone fired an arrow and wounded one officer. A melee then
broke out and the officers fired warning shots, hitting the two
Ekari.

The local military and police could not be reached for
confirmation yesterday, but Armed Forces spokesman Brig. Gen. A.
Wahab Mokodongan gave a different version about the tension in
the mining town.

He said four people had indeed died, two Wednesday while the
other two died on Thursday. The first two died after they jumped
off a moving vehicle they were riding on their way home from a
musical show.

He said the two were among four villagers hitching a ride in a
car belonging to PT Freeport Indonesia.

"En route to Freeport's mining areas, the four asked the
driver to stop, but their request was ignored," he said. "They
suddenly jumped out of the car. Two died after they landed on
their heads while the other two were injured."

Two other people died Thursday of troops' gunshots in a riot,
Mokodongan said. The troops, attempting to disperse the rioters,
had to open fire at the tribesmen who had started to shoot arrows
at them.

He said that three soldiers were wounded by arrows Thursday.

Tension

Church leaders in Timika, some 3,000 kilometers east of
Jakarta, had warned last week that tension was rising in the town
over a dispute about the distribution of a development program
fund by PT Freeport Indonesia Company, the operators of the
nearby Grasberg copper and gold mine, one of the largest in the
world.

On Wednesday, for instance, around 70 armed supporters of the
leader of the Moni tribe held a noisy demonstration around the
Harapan Kwamki Lama village, demanding that another Moni leader
split his Rp 2.3 billion (US$800,000) from the fund with them.

Last year, 12 people died when tribal warfare broke out in
connection with a dispute over the company's 1 percent
development program fund.

Jakarta-based PT Freeport spokesman Ed Pressman separately
told The Jakarta Post that the company was aware of the tension
in Timika.

"We agree with the church leaders that there are some problems
with the funding of the Integrated Timika Development Program. We
are eager to fix these problems and believe that the church
leaders have a role to play in helping us accomplish this," he
said.

Pressman said the "unfortunate events" that occurred yesterday
were "unrelated" to the controversy over the development program
funds. He also said the company's operation had not been affected
by the events.

PT Freeport Indonesia is 86 percent owned by New Orleans-based
Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold with the Indonesian government
and foundations holding the remainder. (aan/imn)