BULLET SHELLS FOUND AT SCENE OF TIMIKA INCIDENT

Timika, Jan 26 (ANTARA) - Police have found at least 23 bullet shells near the spot where a convoy of buses carrying PT Freeport workers was attacked by unidentified gunmen two days ago, a spokesman said.

In the incident which happened at Mile 60-61 on the Timika-Tembagapura road on Sunday (Jan 24) a number of people were injured.
"In searches we conducted at three different spots, we found 23 bullet shells," Papua Police Deputy Chief Brigadier General Syafei Aksal said here Tuesday.

He said the shells were from bullets fired with long-barrel guns, but there were no clues yet about the gunmen's identity.

"We still don't have clues enabling us to determine who they are," Aksal said.

It was also still not possible to say the attack was masterminded by the separatist Free Papua Organization (OPM), he said.

"We can not speculate, nor do we as yet know that it was the OPM's work but we are continuing our investigations and trying to collect more legal facts," he said.

Aksala also denied suggestions made by certain quarters that OPM had staged the attack to attract international attention.
Following the shooting incident in PT Freeport's concession area, police as well as military units in the Mimika region had been ordered to step up vigilance, Aksal said.

Until now, there was no plan to reinforce the security forces stationed in PT Freeport's concession area. Grouped in the Timika Amole II Task Force these security forces consisted of at least 1,700 men.

In Sunday's' shooting incident a number of PT Freeport workers and Mobile Brigade members were injured, including one Canadian citizen, James Lockhart Howard.

James, along with two Mobile Brigade members were on Sunday afternoon evacuated to Jakarta to receive intensive treatment for their injuries.

Freeport's activities after the incident were not disrupted and employees who were given a day off in Timika had returned to work at Tembagapura on Monday (Jan 25) and Tuesday morning.