Penembakan di Freeport, Warga Selandia Baru Tewas Ditembak KKB
Gunmen Kill New Zealand Man at Freeport Nine Office in Indonesia`s Papua
Editor : Ismail Gani
Translator : Novita Cahyadi
KELOMPOK kriminal bersenjata [KKB] menembak mati seorang warga Selandia Baru dan melukai enam orang lainnya di kantor cabang perusahaan pertambangan Indonesia Freeport-McMoRan Inc, Senin [30/3], kata polisi.
Pelaku bersenjata dari KKB melepaskan tembakan sekitar pukul 14 waktu setempat di kantor Frreeport di Kota Timika, Provinsi Papua, seperti dilansir oleh PT Freeport Indonesia.
Polisi mengatakan para penyerang adalah anggota KKB tanpa menjelaskan lebih lanjut siapa pelaku penembakan terhadap korban tewas yang diketahui bernama Grame Thomas Wall.
Kelompok separatis telah meluncurkan serangkaian serangan dalam beberapa tahun terakhir di daerah sekitar operasi Grasberg terdekat perusahaan - tambang tembaga terbesar kedua di dunia.
Telah terjadi penembakan dan penyergapan sporadis terhadap kendaraan yang bepergian dengan rute pasokan utama ke tambang.
PT Freeport Indonesia mengatakan satu anggota staf terbunuh dan enam orang lainnya cedera, dua di antaranya luka serius.
Pekerja telah dievakuasi dari kantor di distrik kota Kuala Kencana dan dari daerah sekitarnya, kata pihak perusahaan.
Kondisi sedang "dipantau dan sejauh ini tidak ada dampak langsung" pada operasi penambangan, kata juru bicara Freeport Indonesia Riza Pratama melalui pesan singkat.
Juru bicara kepolisian Papua Ahmad Mustafa Kamal mengidentifikasi korban sebagai warga negara Selandia Baru.
"Pasukan keamanan gabungan sedang melakukan pengejaran di kawasan hutan di Kuala Kencana," kata Kamal dalam pernyataan itu seperti dikutip Reuters yang dilansir MailOnline.
ATTACKER SHOT dead a New Zealand man and wounded six other people at an office of the Indonesian arm of mining company Freeport-McMoRan Inc on Monday, police said.
The gunmen opened fire at around 2 p.m. (0300 GMT) at the office in the city of Timika in Indonesia's Papua province, the company PT Freeport Indonesia said in a statement.
Police said the attackers were members of an armed criminal group without going into further details.
Separatists have launched a string of attacks in recent years in the area around the company's nearby Grasberg operation - the world's second largest copper mine.
There have been sporadic shootings and ambushes on vehicles travelling on the main supply route to the mine.
PT Freeport Indonesia said one staff member was killed and six other people wounded, two of them seriously.
Workers had been evacuated from the office in the city's Kuala Kencana district and from the surrounding area, the company added.
Conditions were being "monitored and so far there is no direct impact" on mining operations, Freeport Indonesia spokesman Riza Pratama said by text message.
Papuan police spokesman Ahmad Mustafa Kamal identified the victim as a New Zealand citizen.
"Joint security forces are carrying out a pursuit in the forest area in Kuala Kencana," Kamal said in the statement.
Papua, which shares the island of New Guinea with the nation of Papua New Guinea, was a Dutch colony that was incorporated into Indonesia after a U.N.-backed referendum in 1969.
The region has since endured decades of mostly low-level separatist conflict.
