Attacks stop plan to climb Cartenz Peak

Dozens of foreign tourists and local journalists were told to cancel their trek to Cartenz Peak in Papua for security reasons, following a series of attacks at Freeport Indonesia's mining site in Timika, Mimika regency.

Climbers said Friday that PT Freeport had insisted on preventing them from passing its road to Cartenz, citing security reasons.

The US-based gold and copper mining firm suggested the climbers take another route such as the northern route to go to Cartenz Peak, 4,884 meters above sea level.

Austrian climber Ruedi Kellerhuls said he would fly to Ilaga in Puncak regency Saturday morning and take the road to Cartenz from there.

The other foreign climbers at the scene came from Germany, France and Switzerland, and were accompanied by at least 28 journalists from Papua.

"My friends and I are extremely disappointed because we could not pass a road in Tembagapura leading to the PT Freeport mine to climb to Cartenz," Sinar Harapan daily's reporter Odedata Julia Hermina said at Freeport's check point 28 bus terminal.

"We sacrificed so much in order to fly to Timika, waiting in the town for three days to find out when we would leave for the Cartenz Peak," she said.

"We don't know whether the climb was cancelled because of the committee's lack of coordination, or because Freeport is weary of the number of journalists joining the Cartenz climb."

Papua governor's special staff officer Ronald Tapilatu said PT Freeport had initially agreed to facilitate the climbers' trip to Cartenz, but it was unclear why the company failed to send a bus and security officers to pick them up at the terminal.