10.25 am, Sunday November 08 2009

Teams probe Australian's murder in Papua

15:41 AEST Sun Jul 12 2009
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A 40-member team of police and forensics specialists has arrived in Indonesia's restive Papua province to investigate the shooting death of an Australian employee of the US mining giant Freeport, officials say.

Indonesian doctors conducted a five-hour autopsy on the body of 29-year-old Victorian man Drew Grant, a doctor said on Sunday, giving no details.

Forensic department chief Dr Munin Idris of Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital said the Australian Embassy had taken custody of the body of the technical expert after the autopsy.

Papua police chief Bagus Ekodanto said the Australian was shot five times in the chest, neck and stomach.

Four others in the car were uninjured.

Saturday's shooting happened near the Grasberg mine, one of the world's largest open-pit mines.

Ekodanto said anti-terror forces continued to hunt for several suspects and a team of Indonesian investigators and forensics specialists had arrived early on Sunday.

Grant had only been back in Indonesia for a week after visiting his nine-week-old daughter, his family said in Melbourne.

He was a doting father to baby Ella and a devoted husband to wife Lauren, his brother Nick Grant said.

He said his brother, a registered master builder, was a project manager for the US mining company and loved his job.

PT Freeport Indonesia spokesman Mindo Pangaribuan on Saturday said shots were fired at a company vehicle on a road outside Freeport's mining and operations areas.

The workers were reportedly on their way to a golf game.

Security around the mine had been increased and there were no further incidents, Pangaribuan said, adding that production was not disrupted.

Military spokesman Sagom Tamboen said three rebel suspects were detained on Saturday after a shoot-out in Yapen, 440km northwest of the mine, but the men were probably too far away to have carried out the Grasberg attack.

The mining complex, one of the world's largest single producers of copper and gold, has been a constant source of friction with local Papuans angered over the outflow of profits to foreign investors, while they remain poor.

Papua, a desperately poor and militarised province on Indonesia's easternmost edge, is home to separatist rebels who denounce PT Freeport as a symbol of Jakarta's rule. A surge in attacks in recent months has left several people dead.

The Indonesian government does not allow foreign media to freely report in Papua, where it has tens of thousands of troops. The site of Saturday's shooting was inaccessible to local reporters.

 
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