Gunmen Attack Helicopter Carrying Mine Workers in Indonesia

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Gunmen fired at a helicopter carrying workers for the mining giant Freeport-McMoRan shortly after it took off Saturday from a town near the company’s huge gold and copper mine in eastern Indonesia, a police spokesman, Colonel Wachyono, said.

One person, the wife of a Freeport employee, was injured by shrapnel, the police said, and the helicopter was able to land safely in a town 55 miles away.

A motive for the attack was not known, the police said, and the gunmen remained unidentified.

Colonel Wachyono said six shots were fired at the helicopter, which carried 29 workers and family members, with one shot penetrating a window and the rest striking the rotors.

Freeport, which is based in Phoenix, has been struggling to deal with a prolonged strike by some workers and sabotage, which have crippled production at its Grasberg mine in eastern Indonesia.

In addition, a separatist movement, which has simmered for decades in the region, has added to tensions around the mine.

In the past year, nine people have been killed in ambushes on roads around Freeport’s Grasberg property in Papua Province.

The company reached an agreement with union workers on Thursday to end the three-month strike, but as of Saturday miners had not returned to work, and the company said last-minute details were being worked out.

Company officials had hoped that Thursday’s agreement would end its troubles and potentially stem violence that has escalated since July 2009, when an Australian employee was killed during an ambush.

Freeport began production at the Grasberg mine in 1971. It employs around 23,000 miners and senior staff members.

Workers, including some local employees who are paid about $2 an hour, have said they deserve a larger share of profits, which have soared as prices for metals have risen in recent years.

The company has also come under scrutiny after admitting to paying military and police officers to oversee security operations, despite accusations that the Indonesian military has been linked to human rights abuses against local Papuans.

Published in the New York Times, 17 December 2011.