Extra Indonesian police sent to Papua violence

JAKARTA, Sep 4 (Reuters) Hundreds of extra police and troops have been sent to an area in the remote Indonesian province of Papua, where fighting between rival tribes has killed three people, police said today.

Police have not made any arrests since renewed fighting between the Damal and Dani tribes in the Mimika region erupted for the third time since last month, said Papuan police spokesman Kartono Wangsadisastra.

An additional 200 police and 100 soldiers had been sent from the provincial capital Jayapura to the area as members of a third tribe joined the fighting after one of their members was wounded by a stray arrow, he said.

''We have summoned tribal chiefs to make peace. It is hard to intervene because they always say they want to settle the matter for themselves,'' Wangsadisastra said.

''We fear that if we arrest the people involved, the conflict could widen. We're trying to separate members of the warring tribes,'' he added.

The fighting, involving arrows and spears, has killed three people, all Catholics from the Dani tribe, and injured dozens others, the spokesman said.

Another police official said last week that the dead included a Papuan Catholic priest and an evangelist caught up in the violence.

He said church members sometimes tried to mediate in the tribal disputes.

Papua is home to more than 250 tribes, including some in remote jungle areas virtually cut off from the rest of the world.

Separately, Papuan police were investigating after bullets hit a security vehicle belonging to U.S.-owned Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc. near the company's mine on Sunday.

Provincial police detective chief Paulus Waterpauw said no one was hurt in the attack, which took place about 8 km from where two Americans and an Indonesian colleague were killed in 2002 in a shooting blamed on Papuan separatists.

Seven alleged Papuan separatists are on trial in the capital Jakarta for the 2002 attack.

Freeport's Grasberg mine, which is believed to hold the world's third-largest copper reserves and one of the biggest gold deposits, has been a lightning rod for controversy.

Environmentalists have criticised the company for its record of protecting forests and rivers, while other activists object to payments for security made to Indonesia's military.

Reuters KR DB1102