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Amnesty urges Indonesia to probe 'deadly force' at mine
  • | AFP | October 11, 2011 10:25 AM

Rights group Amnesty International on Tuesday urged Indonesia to investigate the use of "deadly force" by police who shot dead one protester and injured six others at a mining protest.

This file photo shows a truck unloads some 200 tonnes of freshly excavated rock into a \'crusher\' at Freeport\'s Grasberg copper mine. The mine workers, who are mostly indigenous Melanesians, are demanding that their current minimum wage of $1.50 an hour be raised to $12.50

Indonesian security forces opened fire Monday on workers striking over wages at a mine run by US company Freeport McMoRan in remote Papua province, Amnesty said in a statement.

Mine worker Petrus Ayemseba died after being shot in the buttocks and six others were injured in the shooting, it added.

"This latest incident shows that Indonesian police have not learned how to deal with protesters without resorting to excessive, and even lethal, force," Amnesty\'s Asia-Pacific Director Sam Zarifi said in a statement.

"The police have a duty to protect themselves and uphold the law, but it is completely unacceptable to fire live ammunition at these protesters," he said.

Zarifi called for the Indonesian authorities to launch an "independent and impartial" investigation and make the results public.

Monday\'s violence was sparked when police tried to stop more than 1,000 workers -- who began their strike on September 15 -- from entering a facility at the sprawling Grasberg complex, one of the world\'s biggest gold and copper mines, a union official said.

But PTFI, Freeport\'s local subsidiary, said the workers had tried to stop other colleagues from returning to work.

Police said they had fired warning shots into the air after the workers pelted them with stones, injuring seven police officers.

Production at Grasberg was slashed by 230,000 tonnes a day in the first week of the strike last month, representing daily losses of $6.7 million in government revenue.

PTFI is the largest single taxpayer to the Indonesian government.

The mine workers, who are mostly indigenous Melanesians, are demanding that their current minimum wage of $1.50 an hour be raised to $12.50.

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