Second death near Indonesia mine

A security guard has been shot dead outside an Indonesian mine operated by the US company Freeport.

The attack, in Papua province, comes a day after an Australian man working for the company was shot dead in an ambush.

Police said suspected separatist militants had opened fire on officers investigating the earlier attack.

The huge Grasberg mine is a source of friction with local people, who have complained about its environmental impact and their share of its revenue.

Supporters of Papuan independence see the mine as a symbol of unfair rule from Jakarta. Two Americans and an Indonesian were shot dead in an ambush there in 2002.

A police spokesman was quoted by local media as saying that police engaged armed men in a gunbattle after the killing of the guard, named as Markus Rattealo, an employee of Freeport's Indonesian subsidiary.

One report said five people were injured in the attack.

The resource-rich Papua province has been embroiled in separatist insurgency since the end of Dutch colonial rule in 1962.

The mine has some of the world's largest recoverable copper and gold reserves.

RELATED INTERNET LINKS
Freeport McMoRan
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites