Reporter: Peter Cave
Mark Colvin: Three policemen and an Indonesian air force officer have been beaten to death, and an unknown number of demonstrators have been shot in the last 24 hours in escalating violence in Indonesia's Papua province, or as it used to be known, Irian Jaya, West Papua.
Police in riot gear moved against protesters who blocked the road in front of a university for two days. The road provides access to the airport in the provincial capital, Jayapura.
As our Foreign Affairs Editor, Peter Cave reports from Jakarta, there've been rolling protests in Papua, Jakarta and elsewhere, since a blockade of the giant American-owned Freeport Gold and Copper Mine began last month. (sound of riots: police sirens, glass smashing, yelling etc)
Peter Cave: Police in riot gear fired teargas and rubber bullets into the crowd of around 500, most of them students.
(sound of yelling and shooting)
They then charged into the crowd with their riot shields, batons swinging. Police spokesman, Kartono Wangsadisastra, told the ABC what happened next.
"Such brutality, anarchy, barbarism can't be tolerated. I call them murderers," he says "because once they got a policeman they killed him immediately. They bashed his head with a rock, then they stabbed him. They were brutal. Three police were killed and 19 were badly injured. We didn't have live bullets, just blanks. You need to know that, just blanks."
Obet Rawar from the Papua-based human rights group, ELSHAM, was in the crowd when police opened fire. He told the ABC what he saw.
"We evacuated several victims, there were men who got shot in the chest, another in the right leg and another in the right side of the forehead. But they were not then only ones, there were many more. We evacuated one victim who had been left in a swamp. There were more men coming to help those who got shot and to take them to the nearest hospital."
(sound of tyres screeching, sirens and yelling)
Police have denied using live rounds but Indonesian Television station, Metro TV, showed footage of police firing pistols at demonstrators.
(sound of shooting)
The human rights group says elements of the Indonesian military were also involved in firing on demonstrators.
(sound of shooting)
The Freeport mine, reputed to be the world's largest producer of gold and copper has been a constant source of friction since it began operations in 1972 after being given a lease by the Suharto regime. Freeport was given a 30-year contract to continue running the mine in 1991.
Its opponents say it gives little back to Papuans, it has polluted more than 35,000 hectares of land, as well as the ocean, and that it's been responsible for human rights abuses by the Indonesian military, which it pays for protection.
The New York Times reported last year that Freeport McMoRan which operates it, paid $20 million to high-ranking security officials between 1998 and 2004.
The company denies the accusations and says it has spent vast sums relocating and supporting local tribes. The Indonesian Government rarely allows foreign reporters to visit Papua.
This is Peter Cave reporting from Jakarta.