Timika – A vehicle carrying medical supplies between Timika and Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold Corporation's Grasberg mine, about 3,400 kilometres east of Jakarta, was fired on yesterday morning, reports Tempointeraktif.com. There were no fatalities, the report says.

But the news portal says West Papua Police spokesman senior commander Nurhabri has confirmed the shooting in a text message. "The information already reached us, but the chronology of the incident was not yet complete," it quotes him as replying.

Yesterday's reported shooting was within a few kilometers from where unidentified assailants shot and mortally wounded Australian technician Drew Nicholas Grant, 29, on the road between Tembagapura and Timika within the Phoenix-based Corporation's massive concession for its Grasberg mine in the eastern highlands of West Papua on Sunday, July 11.

An Indonesian security guard and an elite police officer have been confirmed to have died in ambushes along the road since then with a possible two more policemen also killed.

Two of the corporation's executives, Dave Potter and Adrianto Machribi, were injured in the explosions at the luxurious J.W. Marriott and Ritz- Ritz-Carlton hotels in South Jakarta's Mega Kuningan business district on Thursday, July 17.

The West Papua Advocacy Team says Indonesian officials have arrested as many as 20 individuals since the shootings began and have been interrogated without the presence of their lawyers. At least one, an elderly man, was beaten by security personnel, it says.

The team says: The investigation of this incident must be transparent; The media and independent human rights investigators should be given access to West Papua and specifically the Freeport Concession; Security forces which have long operated with impunity must be held accountable if evidence emerges implicating them; and the Papuan people must not again be subjected to retaliatory military-police "sweeps" that target innocent villagers.