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DJ UPDATE: Indonesia To Send More Troops To Papua -Report(Comtex Finance Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)JAKARTA, Mar 22, 2006 (Dow Jones Commodities News Select via Comtex) --(Updates with anti-Freeport protests.) Indonesia is sending hundreds more troops to Papua province, state news agency Antara reported Wednesday, as the number of security officers killed in protests there last week rose to five. An officer died early Wednesday of injuries sustained in fighting that broke out during a demonstration against U.S. mining giant Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.'s (FCX) massive gold mine in Papua, said local police spokesman Col. Kartono Wangsadisastra. The police paramilitary brigade is preparing to send a detachment of officers, normally around 400 personnel, to the province to prevent further unrest, the force's chief, Gen. S.Y. Wenas, said, according to Antara. Four of the five dead officers were members of the brigade. All were bludgeoned to death. Wenas praised the self-restraint of the force, which has a reputation for brutality and lack of discipline. Feared retaliatory attacks by troops have so far not occurred. "I am very proud of the security personnel in the field who did not take revenge on them under such circumstances," he said. Last week's demonstration underscored the hatred many Papuans feel toward Indonesian soldiers and police in Papua. The remote province is home to a decades-long separatist rebellion and has seen scores of rights abuses by Indonesian troops. The Freeport mine is also frequently targeted by protesters, who say it has earned the New Orleans-based company billions of dollars but done little for the local community. In Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi province, about 500 protesters, including Papuan students studying on the island, held an anti-Freeport rally. The demonstrators burned a U.S. flag in front of a monument marking Indonesia's takeover of Papua in the 1960s after centuries of Dutch colonial rule. Similar demonstrations were held in the cities of Mamuju and Bandung on Indonesia's main island of Java. -Edited by Leslie Shaffer (END) Dow Jones Newswires 03-22-06 0245ET |