TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search resultsIndonesian military rescue 18 Freeport workers from rebel siege in Papua
The military used drones to deliver food and medicine to the stranded workers, before evacuating them to safety after three days, a spokesman said.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Workers at a mining site of PT Freeport Indonesia look at the Carstensz Pyramid in this undated photograph. (thejakartapost.com/Nethy Dharma Somba)
T
he Indonesian Military (TNI) rescued 18 workers at gold and copper miner Freeport Indonesia that had been surrounded by armed rebels for three days at a company outpost in the insurgency-plagued Papua region, officials said on Thursday.
The rebel group - the Free Papua Movement- says it is fighting for secession of the region from Indonesia, which has controlled half of the resource-rich island since 1969 after decades of Dutch control. The other half of the massive Pacific island - one of the largest in the world - is the independent state of Papua New Guinea, north of Australia.
The workers were fixing one of Freeport's electric towers in Tembagapura district in the mountainous Central Papua province, when rebels surrounded them last week, Indonesia defense ministry spokesperson Rico Ricardo Sirait told Reuters.
"They intimidated the workers, fired shots to frighten or trouble them psychologically," Rico said.
The military used drones to deliver food and medicine to the stranded workers, before evacuating them to safety after three days, he added.
Freeport Indonesia and the spokesperson of Papuan separatists did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The military did not provide details on the operation to extricate the workers, but said no shots were fired.
"The rescue operation was carried out in extremely difficult terrain with a high level of threat and time constraints as crucial factors," the operation commander Maj. Gen. Lucky Avianto said in a statement.
Footage shared by the military on YouTube showed two dozen armed soldiers passing through a forest and river at night, apparently near the site. Another photo showed the soldiers with the rescued workers.
