Jakarta – A blockade by alleged illegal miners that has halted production at the world's largest gold and copper mine in Indonesia's Papua province has ended with an outdoor party for peace, a police spokesman said.
The stand-off between 500 protesters and police near the massive Freeport-McMoRan mine ended in a celebration that was held after the group read out a peace statement and a statement on their demands to Freeport, said Colonel Kartono Wangsadisastra.
"They are now having a party, locally known as the 'fire stone' celebration, in which they burn stones as a sign of peace," Wangsadisastra told AFP.
He said the protesters agreed to end the blockade during a closed-door meeting with local religious leaders and administrative officials Friday night in the town of Timika.
The protesters promised to remove wooden planks from the road near the mine and leave the premises "as soon as the party is over", Wangsadisastra said, but he was unable to specifically say when it would take place.
"They are not a group of people who can be easily trusted as they are an unpredictable lot. But they have promised to leave the area once the party is over some time today," the spokesman said.
One of the demands to Freeport, Wangsadisastra said, included "a permission for the miners to continue" prospecting through the waste tailings produced by the mine. He said he had no immediate information whether Freeport would meet the demands.
However he said production was expected to resume at the mine as soon as the protesters leave the premises. No Freeport officials or spokesmen could be immediately reached for comment.
"What is important now is once Freeport can have its engineers and workers back to the mine, they should resume production there," Wangsadisastra said.
Freeport has been one of the top sources of revenue for Indonesia's government, reportedly providing it with 33 billion dollars in benefits from 1992 to 2004.
The mine blockade, which has halted production since Tuesday, is the latest headache for Freeport-McMoRan in Indonesia.
The company's payments to the military to provide security have been under intense scrutiny amid allegations that they amounted to corruption, while the environment ministry claims it is investigating pollution allegations against it.
International media are banned from travelling freely in the easternmost province of Papua, where a simmering separatist conflict persists.
Prosecutors are preparing court dossiers for the preparation of trials for eight alleged members of the Free Papua Movement (OPM) rebel group held in Jakarta for the August 2002 shootings of two Americans and an Indonesian in Papua.
The three victims were working as teachers for Freeport at the time of the shooting, which took place on the road to the mine in Timika.
OPM rebels have been fighting a sporadic and low-level guerrilla war since 1963 when Indonesia took over the huge mountainous and undeveloped territory from Dutch colonisers.