The van, laden with two cement filled oil barrels was towed in at 8.30am before
irrevocably and finally breaking down outside the main entrance to the aluminium
smelting plant. Someone stuck their hand through a hole in the side panel and
locked onto one of the barrels. The other barrel fell through a hole in the
floor of the van, tyres deflated on account of their being slashed and
another person stuck their arm in and clipped on. So that wasn't going anywhere
for a while. A long tail back rapidly ensued.

Meanwhile a scaffold tripod went round the back entrance just in case anyone had
sneaky ideas about slipping in or out that way. After a couple of hours the
plant opened an unbeknown third narrow entrance, allowing light freight and
traffic access, but larger, heavier vehicles were prevented from entering or
leaving for another 3 1/2 hours. A large number of police arrived but no
arrests were made, although a couple of people were harrassed by police when
trying to leave after the protest, and several people were followed to a local
supermarket.

Anglesey Aluminium are 51% owned by Rio Tinto Zinc. Freeport Mine is the
world's second largest copper mine and the largest proven gold deposit worth $40
billion. Indonesia gains 20% royalties from the mine at Mt Carstenz. This
provides 47% of West Papua's Gross Domestic Product. The joint owners, the US
company Freeport McMoRan and British company Rio Tinto Zinc, gain 80%. The local
Papuan receive no royalties yet their homeland is despoiled by mining operations
such as these. West Papuans are also severely repressed by the Indonesian
government. An estimated 300,000 people have been murdered since 1963.