The murder of two Americans and an Indonesian by unidentified gunmen on Saturday near PT Freeport Indonesia's huge copper and gold mine is certain to reinforce attention on the company's "environmental vandalism" and alleged complicity in human rights abuses.
Freeport's Grasberg mine, the world's biggest and most profitable mining operation, has long been criticized by locals, as well as international human rights and conservation groups.
Thousands of indigenous people from the impoverished Amungme and Komoro tribes have been evicted from the mining area since operations began in 1972, while Freeport is reportedly making a profit of $1 million a day.
The three people shot dead on Saturday were all Freeport employees. The two Americans were teachers at an international school run by the company, which is a subsidiary of New Orleans-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold.
The killers were armed with automatic weapons, including a type used only by the Mobile Brigade (Brimob) police, although authorities said the weapons could have been stolen.
Although it's not yet clear who carried out the murders, provincial military chief Mahidin Simbolon, who was allegedly involved in human rights abuses in East Timor, was quick to blame a faction of the Free Papua Movement (OPM) led by maverick separatist leader Kelly Kwalik.
The OPM has been waging a sporadic guerrilla war for independence ever since Papua was occupied by Indonesian forces in 1963. Foreigners have often been kidnapped, but never murdered by the rebels – unless the OPM was responsible for Saturday's killings.
Rights activists say the separatists are justified in their struggle for independence because of decades of economic exploitation and environmental destruction by Freeport, as well as atrocities by the company's military guards.
Amungme leader Tom Beanal once said: "They [Freeport] take our land and our grandparents' land. They ruined the mountains. They ruined our environment by putting the waste in the river. We can't drink our water anymore."
Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold chief executive Jim Bob Moffett, who reportedly earns more than $40 million a year, once dismissed such criticism by saying the environmental impact of the mine "is the equivalent of me pissing in the Arafura Sea".
When once showing a slide of a smiling Papuan youth wearing a bellhop uniform, Moffett said: "I guarantee you this sombitch is glad we found a copper and gold mine ... [before Freeport arrived] the young man was raising vegetables or doing whatever on the mountain with his parents."
In 1997, Freeport Indonesia executive director Paul Murphy told the Far Eastern Economic Review: "We're a big, easy target ... We're in a pristine part of the world with a project area extending from an equatorial glacier to a warm tropical sea, and we have primitive people walking around wearing penis gourds."
The Australian Council for Overseas Aid has suggested that Freeport turned a blind eye while the Indonesian military killed and tortured dozens of natives in and around the 5.75 million acre concession area between June 1994 and February 1995.
Rights groups say that although Freeport employees have not yet been proved to be directly involved in the extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detention or torture, the military used the company's equipment, premises and vehicles to carry out human rights abuses and some Freeport personnel cooperated with the soldiers responsible for the violence.
Freeport has denied responsibility for the killings and condemned the military's actions, although it continues to provide troops with food, shelter and transportation.
Environmentalists say Freeport should be sued for dumping about 220,000 tons of tailings per day into the local river system. The waste has reportedly polluted 35,820 hectares onshore and 84,158 hectares offshore, causing health problems for locals and destroying forests.
Freeport insists the tailings aren't a health hazard. But the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) in 1996 withdrew a $100 million political risk insurance policy, due to environmental problems linked with "acid mine drainage ... toxic metals ... and the mismanagement of solid and hazardous wastes at the site."
On May 4, 2000, four Freeport workers died in an accident at the banks of Lake Wanagon when a pile of waste rock collapsed on them following several days of heavy rainfall. The Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) later attempted to sue Freeport, claiming it had failed to disclose information about the accident.
Environmentalists said unsafe waste disposal practices, not rain, had caused the deadly landslide. Shortly after the incident, then environment minister Sonny Keraf considered suspending production at the Grasberg mine, but big business won through at the end of the day and there was no closure.
Apart from accusations of environmental damage, Freeport has also come under fire for exploitation, cultural insensitivity and failure to share enough of the benefits from the mine with local people. But the company stands firm that it enforces the highest environmental and safety standards and insists it has made comprehensive efforts to promote social improvements in Papua.
Freeport employs 18,000 people and is Indonesia's largest corporate taxpayer, contributing about $180 million a year to the government coffers, whereas the province receives only $30 million.
Natives, especially those affiliated to the pro-independence movement, have long demanded a greater share of the profits from the company. Under the regime of former autocrat Suharto, locals saw hardly any of the money generated by the natural resources on their traditional land. Since 1996, Freeport has contributed 1% of its annual profits to locals living in its contract of work area. It also provides funds for local education and development, and assistance for refugees.
A constant potential headache for Freeport is that the Indonesian military may launch a special security operation to crush the rebels. Reports say there already signs the military is planning such an operation.
Freeport would then be in the tough position of having to tread neutral ground in the mountainous terrain. It would be totally unfeasible for the company to support the rebels, but if it were to provide assistance to the military, it would undoubtedly again be accused by various groups of involvement in human rights violations or perhaps even complicity in war crimes.