Indonesia: August 31, 2002

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 In Papua, armed men ambushed two vans near an American run mining complex. Two American schoolteachers (for a school run by the mining company) and an Indonesian were killed. Several more Americans were injured. New Guinea is populated by over a thousand different tribes (speaking different languages and with different customs), and any economic development has left at least a few tribes unsatisfied. In eastern New Guinea, this led to years of violence with the dissatisfied tribes could be placated, or the gunmen killed or captured. It is feared that the same thing is happening in western New Guinea (the Indonesian province of Papua.) Many of the New Guinea tribes are still living a stone age existence, and many more are still making the difficult transition from that to the 21st century.