Jakarta - Indonesian police said Monday an explosion near an airport belonging to Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc in the easternmost province of Papua could be an attempt to sabotage the US mining giant firm. "There is no group claiming responsible for the blast. (But) there is an aim of sabotage against PT Freeport," said Papua police chief, Inspector General Bagus Adanto, adding that an investigation is still underway that includes members of a counter-terrorist police unit.
On Sunday night a mortar blast damaged an electricity power plant about 1-kilometre from Timika airport, the main transit link to the giant gold and copper mine run by PT Freeport Indonesia, a local subsidiary of the New Orleans-based Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold Inc.
No one was injured in the blast which came only three days after two mortars were detonated on a road leading to the massive mine operation.
In Jakarta, national police spokesman Abubakar Nataprawira confirmed that Sunday's explosion was similar to the two mortar blasts on Friday and blamed the same group of people being behind both blasts but did not elaborate further.
A little-known group, called the Free Papua Movement (OPM) has waged a low-level insurgency for decades in the easternmost Indonesian province.
The Grasberg mine in the remote Papua province has long had an uneasy relationship with locals, most of whom are desperately poor. Papua is also home to a separatist rebellion, complicating Freeport's security still further.
Two US teachers and an Indonesian colleague who worked at the mine were shot dead during an ambush near the facility in 2002.
The United States and Indonesian investigators found that Papuan separatist rebels were behind the attack, but local rights groups have long maintained the military had a hand in the killings.
