Date: Thu, 21 Aug 1997 10:19:38 +0100 (BST)
From: Carmel Budiardjo (tapol@gn.apc.org)
Subject: Tribesmen blockade road to Tembagapura

At 6 am this morning, Thursday 21 August, a thousand tribesmen from several tribes blockaded the main road from Tembagapura, the centre of the giant copper-and-gold mining company, Freeport/Rio Tinto, to Portsite on the coast, blocking all connections of the mining company to the lowland. The tribesmen, armed with bows and arrows and spears, also damaged five trucks owned by the company trying to break through the blockade, and dug a hole two metres wide in an attempt to render the road impassable. The men involved in the blockade come from the Ekrari, Moni, Dani, Amungme and Damal tribes.

The action flared up following an accident Wednesday night in which two people were killed and two others injured. The three young men and one young woman had taken a lift in a Freeport pick-up, on their way to attend a cultural performance in Timika to mark the 52nd anniversary of Indonesian independence. But the vehicle suddenly veered off the road to Timika and in the direction of Tembagapura. Two of the men jumped off, both rather badly injured. Another young man and the girl were later found by the roadside a couple of kilometres away. They both died in hospital. The vehicle they were travelling on belonged to Freeport's Malaria Control Department.

The blockade is concentrated in front of Timika Airport at Mile 32, where a Freeport Security Post is situated, and stretches up to Mile 33.

A number of army and police trucks full of troops as well as several Freeport buses later arrived on the scene of the blockade.

Two hours after the blockade began, at 8.15, a number of Ekari tribesmen who had gathered near the Airport moved in the direction of the town of Timika Indah, brandishing weapons and yelling war-cries, followed by a truck loaded with armed police.

Later more tribesmen spread out from the area around the Airport and moved in the direction of Timika Indah, also watched by security forces in trucks. The local parish priest, Father Nato Gobay, tried to calm the men down and urge them to stop. After listening to him briefly, the tribesmen who were already in a high emotional state, continued to move in the direction of Timika Indah. After arriving at an elitist residential complex, the thousands of people who had by now gathered together started throwing missiles at the homes of employees of Freeport's Malaria Control Department. There have been no reports of casualties.

With tensions rising fast, Captain Leo, the local military commander, rushed to the office of the Amungme Tribal Council, LEMASA to ask its leader, Tom Beanal, to help end the blockade. Beanal told him: 'Only now that trouble has flared up do you bother to come to us. We have been warning the government of serious problems in the community here but no one has taken any notice.' He then left his office by taxi for the airport to travel to Jayapura in response to an invitation from church leaders in the capital.

This renewed flare-up of passions against the mining company comes at a time of increasing tension between local tribal people over the share-out of the 1% Trust Fund set up by Freeport in an attempt to 'compensate' local people for the theft of their mountain and the huge environmental damage inflicted on the entire region. The second annual phase of the Trust Fund commenced on 14 August. Leading churchmen warned last week in a letter to the provincial governor and military commander that injustices in the handling of this Trust Fund would result in social conflicts.

More information about renewed tribal warfare that broke out earlier this week has been received and will be posted shortly.