Four Killed During Indonesian Security Operation in Puncak Jaya

JAYAPURA CITY - Three Indonesian guerillas and a soldier were killed in an exchange of gunfire in the latest bout of violence in Papua province, home to a US-owned mine.

The clash broke out on Friday when about 25 soldiers and police launched a security operation in the separatist stronghold of Puncak Jaya, a spokesperson for the Indonesian army said.

A rebel spokesman could not be reached for comment.

The fatal encounter was the latest round of violence in the restive province near a mine run by Freeport-McMoRan, one of the world's largest copper and gold producers. The Papua chapter of the National Commission for Human Rights says more than 50 people, including nine soldiers, were killed during clashes in the province late last year.

There has been low-level insurgency in Papua since the region was transferred from Dutch to Indonesian rule in the 1960s. West Papua was taken over through a stage-managed vote by community leaders called the Act of Free Choice, which has been widely dismissed as a sham.

Since then, about 100,000 Papuans – the equivalent of a sixth of today's population – have died in military operations in the resource-rich mountain area.

The Indonesian government does not allow foreign media to freely report in Papua, where it has tens of thousands of troops. The site of Friday's clash was inaccessible to local reporters. [TheGuardian]