The rebel Free Papua Movement has denied any role in the shooting of an Australian at a mine in Indonesia.

自由巴布亚岛运动的叛军否认了印度尼西亚矿山射杀一位澳大利亚人。

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Security is tight at the US-owned gold and copper mine in Papua

Drew Grant was killed near the huge Freeport gold and copper mine, where he worked, in Papua province on Saturday.

Autopsies²（验尸） have suggested evidence may have been altered, and police said that the bullets used were military issue.

The revelations（预示，启示） have raised doubts about official accusations³ that the separatist rebels were to blame for this and two other fatal shootings.

A security guard was killed on Sunday, and the body of a policeman found on Monday, near the mine operated by an Indonesian subsidiary（子公司，附属机构） of the US company Freeport McMoran, in the Timika district of Papua.

The Timika commander of Free Papua Movement (OPM), Kelly Kwalik, told the Jakarta Globe newspaper that his fighters neither had the desire, nor the equipment, for the attacks.

Yorris Raweyai, a Papuan lawmaker in the national parliament, dismissed claims that the separatist movement was responsible for the deaths.

"We know the OPM has been labelled（贴标签） as a troublemaker⁴ in Papua for four decades. But we also know that they have no guns and fight for their struggle peacefully," he said.

'Possible manipulation'

Police have confirmed that high-powered weapons issued to military and police were used in the shootings.

Analysts⁵ have noted⁶ that Freeport is a lucrative⁷（有利益的，获利的） posting for Indonesian security forces - they are paid by the mining company and also earn large amounts of money by charging money to local illegal miners.

Some analysts have suggested that the military could loosen its powerful grip on the region following the re-election of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Abdul Munim Idris, the doctor who conducted the autopsy⁸ on Mr Grant's body, said that fragments of bullets were found in the body, but no whole bullets.

Asked whether there was any evidence the body had been manipulated, he said: "It's possible," the radio station reported.

Mr Grant's body has now been returned to Australia. His wife, Lauren, recently gave birth to their first baby.

Australian Federal Police are in Indonesia assisting in the investigation⁹ of Mr Grant's murder.

Separatist sentiment in Papua has been focused in recent years on calls for a referendum（公民投票，请示书） - similar to that held in East Timor in 1999 - to allow Papuans to decide if their resource-rich region should stay in Indonesia.

The former Dutch colony was absorbed（吸收，吸引） into Indonesia in 1969 after a vote by selected elders widely seen as flawed.