Yudhoyono Asks for Investigation of Freeport Incident

Jakarta (Antara) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has asked PT Freeport and security agencies concerned to investigate recent incident in the mining area of the company in Papua to prevent recurrence. "Every worker in any institution has the right to vocational protection. So, investigate the incident immediately," he said in his twitter account here on Thursday. The head of state had expressed deep concern over the incident and had asked for the parties concerned to intensify rescue efforts. "In view of the incident in PT Freeport I call on all companies in Indonesia to improve workers' safety protection," he said. The Papua regional police command would send a team to investigate the collapse of a training tunnel at PT Freeport on May 13 that has made tens of people trapped in it. The regional police command's head of public relations division, Senior Commissioner I Gede Sumerta, said through a short message service on Thursday that the command would carry out the investigation immediately. "Today or tomorrow the command would send an investigation team led by the director of general crime investigation," he said. He said the team would collect information from the company's management and survivors with regard to finding the cause of the incident. The rescue team has discovered another body trapped in rubble at the Big Gossan mining tunnel in Tembagapura. Tembagapura sector police chief Adjunct Commissioner Sudirman said to Antara who contacted him from Timika on Thursday that the body of the worker had been taken to SOS Tembagapura hospital for identification. According to PT Freeport data only 15 out 39 people in the collapsed tunnel had been evacuated. (*)