Community Friction
Violent ambushes near the Grasberg mine have occurred as early as 2002, when three contract school teachers were killed in August 2002. Kopassus, the Indonesian Special Forces, allegedly instigated the incident.
Starting from 11 July 2009, a string of attacks commenced and lasted more than five days. A Freeport employee, Drew Grant, was one of the fatal casualties of this incident. The 29-year-old Australian Drew Grant was shot and killed while sitting in the back of a car on the way to a game of golf. Indonesian police indicated that Grant was fatally wounded due to the five shots he sustained to the neck, chest and stomach by unknown assailants using military-issue weapons. The attack also killed Freeport security guard named Markus Ratealo and a string of police officers.
On 7 April 2011, two Freeport employees were killed when the company car they were traveling in caught fire. Bullets were found inside the car, giving weight to the suspicion that the car was fired on by unknown gunmen. This incident sparked a protest by hundreds of Freeport employees concerned about the security along the jungle road leading up to the mine.
The Grasberg mine has been a frequent source of friction in Papua. Possible causes of friction are the mine's environmental impact on Papua, the perceived low share of profits going to local Papuans (Freeport's annual report shows it made $4.1billion in operating profit on revenue of $6.4billion in 2010) and the questionable legality of the payments made to Indonesian security forces for their services to guard the site.
Papua is also the home of Free Papua Movement, a militant organisation whose purpose is to overthrow the current government of Papua and West Papua. The organisation has been blamed for some of the attacks that have happened near the mine.
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