Canoe

Monday, January 8, 2001

Indonesian military plane missing

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- A military plane carrying a senior Indonesian army commander, a high-ranking police officer and eight other people was reported missing Monday over dense jungle in troubled Irian Jaya province.

Military officials said they feared that the twin-turboprop CASA-235 aircraft had crashed.

On board were regional military commander Maj. Gen. Tonny Rompis, provincial police chief Maj. Gen. Sumardi, three senior local government officials and five crew members.

The plane left the mining town of Timika on a one-hour flight north to the provincial capital of Jayapura, said police spokesman Maj. Zulkifli, who like many people here uses only one name.

Radio contact from Timika was lost about 12 minutes after takeoff, rescue officials said. Airport officials in Timika said two helicopters searched for the missing plane before sunset and a full air search would be launched early Tuesday. It was unclear what caused the accident, they said.

Irian Jaya, on the western half of New Guinea and the eastern end of the Indonesian archipelago, is one of the world's last great tropical wildernesses, with almost impenetrable rain forests and soaring mountain ranges. There are few roads, and air travel has become the only reliable form of transport in the mineral-rich but economically underdeveloped region, which covers 163,000 square miles.

It is also one of several Indonesian provinces wracked by separatist violence. Clashes between pro-independence activists and the military have escalated in recent months. Five prominent separatist leaders were arrested in December and charged with subversion.

Timika, about 2,100 miles east of Jakarta, is located near one of the world's largest gold mines operated by Louisiana-based Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), January 08, 2001