Original source:
Gunmen have ambushed employees of US mining giant Freeport in the Indonesian province of Papua, killing a security guard and wounding five others.
The attack was mounted near the spot where police units were investigating the fatal shooting a day earlier of an Australian national working for the transnational.
Papua police chief Bagus Ekodanto pinned the blame on separatist rebels who denounce Freeport as a symbol of Jakarta’s rule.
The Indonesian government does not allow foreign media to freely report from Papua, where it has deployed tens of thousands of troops.
The Grasberg mining complex, a global supplier of copper and gold that began operations under the Western-backed Suharto dictatorship, has been a constant source of friction with local Papuans angered over the outflow of profit to foreign investors.
Two US citizens were killed in an ambush in 2002 near the huge open-pit Grasberg mine.
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