Timika – Residents of Mimika, Papua, hoped the security situation in the area of PT Freeport Indonesia would soon be restored to normal, so that there will be no more employee buses being shot at by gunmen.

"All Mimika residents are hoping for peace in the area. We want to live in peace and don't want a recurrence of the shooting incidents," Anti Violence Human Right Foundation (YAHAMAK) vice president, Arnold Ronsumbre, said in Timika, Sunday.

He asked Mimika citizens to refrain from committing crime. Seven people became suspects of setting fire to a car, others were in illegal possession of arms in the Freeport area.

"I hope these incidents can become a lesson for all of us to be more careful in our actions. We must not be too easily provoked to commit a crime," Arnold said.

Meanwhile commission A chairman of the provincial legislative council (DPRD), Wilhelmus Pigai thanked the Amole Timika II Task Force for their three months of maintaining security at PT Freeport and its surroundings in Mimika.

"The Amole task force in Timika contributed a great deal to the Mimika security recovery effort," Pigai said. He also said that the extension of the Amole Timika II task force assignment which expired on November 30 will depend on the local police.

"It depends on the Papua police and local military authorities, as well as the management of Freeport. If their presence is considered important to maintaining peace in the area, then their assignment can be extended," Pigai said.

On Saturday (Nov 21) at around 14:30 local time, on Mile 41 on the Timika-Tembagapura road, members of the Zebra infantry battalion in pursuit of three people suspected of firing at the company vehicles, lost their target.