AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, Saturday September 7, 2002 2:56 PM
Papua separatist leader accuses military of deadly attack
A separatist leader in Indonesia's Papua province has accused the military of
mounting an attack which killed two Americans and one Indonesian near the huge
Freeport mine.
The army has blamed followers of Kelly Kwalik, a local leader of the disorganized and
poorly armed Free Papua Movement (OPM) separatist army for the attack on August
31.
"We are enraged by the shootings which killed three people and injured 14 others,"
Kwalik said in a hand-written statement received by AFP on Saturday.
"It is better for the TNI (Indonesian armed forces) to admit (that it carried out the
attack) and stop its actions," said the statement, signed by Kwalik and sealed with
OPM's stamp.
Kwalik accused the army of using native Papuans to wage a mock war against
government troops to justify crackdowns on separatists.
Papuan lobby groups have also rejected accusations that separatists mounted the
attack and suggested military elements might be behind it.
The US embassy has described the killings as "an outrageous act of terrorism."
Papua's pro-independence Presidium Council, which advocates dialogue, has called
for an international investigation with US participation.
In addition to the three dead, nine Americans and three Indonesians were injured
when unidentified attackers sprayed two minibuses with gunfire. The victims were
teachers from an international school operated by Freeport.
The Freeport mine, a subsidiary of the New Orleans-based Freeport MacMoRan
Copper and-Gold Inc. is designated as a strategic national asset and heavily guarded
by government troops.
Foreigners have almost never been targeted in the frequent outbreaks of violence in
Indonesia over the past four years and a separatist war that has claimed about 1,000
civilian lives in Aceh province this year.
Copyright © 2002 AFP. All rights reserved.
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