FREEPORT CONVOY AGAIN ATTACKED BY ARMED GROUP

Timika, Aug. 29 (ANTARA) - An unidentified armed group again attacked a Freeport vehicle convoy near Mile 42-41 on the Tembagapura-Timika road on Friday at 5.25 pm local time.

The convoy comprising an employee bust and a truck, left Mile 50 for a Timika water-channel terminal when being shot from the left side of the road.

Police and military personnel guarding the Freeport convoy shot back at the attackers. There were no injuries or casualties in the shootout.

"Yes, there was shooting aimed at a workers' bus and trailer truck at Mile 42-41 yesterday afternoon," Senior Commissioner Agus Rianto, a spokesman of the Papua police , said here on Saturday.

The latest shootout was part of a series of terror actions occurring in the area of US gold and copper mining company PT Freeport Indonesia in Timika, Mimika District, Papua Province, during July and August this year.

The shooting incidents which have killed two Freeport employees, including an Australian national, have forced a cease of the company's worker mobility between Timika and Tembagapura for two weeks.
More than one thousand employees of PT Freeport Indonesia and its contractors returned to work in Tembagapura on Thursday (Aug. 27) after being absent for two weeks following shooting incidents.

Following the shooting incidents that had claimed the lives of Australian Drew Nicholas Grant and Freeport security personnel Markus Rate Alo, as well as police second brigadier Marson Patipelohi on July 11, the Papua regional police in cooperation with the 17th Regional Military Command have deployed more than 1,000 personnel to secure the Freeprot area.

The joint military and police force, grouped in the Timika Amole Task force, was supposed to complete their task on August 18 but because shootings still continued their duty had been extended until situation was conducive again.