Editorial: Grasberg violence escalates

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold’s Grasberg copper-gold mine in Indonesia’s Papua province continues to be a deadly place, with three contractor workers being murdered and two security personnel suffering gunshot wounds on Oct. 14.

As reported by Reuters, the local police believe “unidentified gunmen” shot dead two men and killed a third by burning him inside a car.

Freeport spokesperson Eric Kinneberg emailed The Northern Miner stating that the company is helping the police investigation, and that the shootings took place on the east levee in the lowlands project area.

It’s unclear if the violence stems from the ongoing labour strike at the Grasberg mine, or from the more than 40-year-old struggle by many Papuans to break away from Indonesia, with a majority of the indigenous Melanesian population apparently opposing the Indonesian government and its allies, such as Freeport.

Kinneberg wrote in a separate email that the company is “not aware of any indication” that the recent shooting is related to the strike at Grasberg. Freeport’s unionized staff, including 8,000 hourly employees, are seeking higher wages and walked off the job on Sept. 15. The strike was initially set to last 30 days, but following a recent clash of strikers with armed forces that left one miner dead and 10 injured, workers extended it to Nov. 15.

On Oct. 11, China’s state-controlled Xinhua reported that thousands of PT Freeport Indonesia workers, heading to a protest a day earlier, were blocked by policemen at the Gorong-Gorong bus terminal in nearby Timika. Infuriated, the workers threw stones at the policemen, who retaliated with rubber and metal bullets, reported Xinhua, noting that the strikers then carried the dead miner’s body to the local parliamentary building and staged a rally.

“We regret that a disturbance occurred on Oct. 10 in Timika at the location where the company arranges bus transportation for our workers,” Freeport wrote in an email to the Miner. “We understand that a group of striking employees marched from the union office in Timika to the bus terminal intending to disrupt bus loading for PTFI employees returning to work. The group entered the bus terminal and police responded to remove the unauthorized entrants, and the group reacted aggressively.”

The company says the injured were taken to local clinics and a hospital, adding it is working with local police to curb these “acts of intimidation” and “illegal acts of aggression” so that workers can return to work if they choose.

The dead miner, Petrus Ayamiseba, 36, was laid to rest only after provincial and local councillors told his relatives that police will thoroughly investigate the incident, noted The Jakarta Post. It mentioned that the Mimika regency council invited several groups to meet to talk about the shooting and the strike.

After reaching a deadlock earlier over wage increases, the workers’ union has reportedly cut its demand of at least US$12.50 per hour to US$7.50 per hour. The workers at one of the world’s largest copper and gold mines are reported to receive US$1.50 to US$3 an hour. 

As recently cited by Reuters the company has so far offered a 25% increase. On Sept. 21, the company, which is Indonesia’s biggest tax payer, put out a release saying it is offering workers a “highly competitive” compensation package.

The last time Grasberg miners went on strike was in July for eight days, causing a production loss of 35 million lbs. copper and 60,000 oz. gold. If the work stoppage lasts until Nov. 15, it will mark the longest strike in the country’s modern mining history.

Freeport predicts the current strike will reduce production by 3 million lbs. copper and 5,000 oz. gold a day. The company will provide a production outlook when it releases its third-quarter results on Oct. 19.

In mid-2009, a 29-year-old Australian engineer who worked at Grasberg was shot while sitting in his car on his way to play golf from a range of 25 metres on the road near MP51. A day later, a security guard was shot dead and five others injured in similar attacks, and then two police officers investigating the murders were shot and wounded.

In 2002, two American teachers and an Indonesian companion who worked for Freeport were killed by rocket-propelled grenades in an ambush near Timika.