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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

US Mining Giant Implicated in Indonesian Atrocities

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Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises

December 21, 1995

OVERVIEW & SOURCE

The Freeport mine on the island of New Guinea, in the South

Pacific, is once again demonstrating the extent to which

multinational mining companies will go for corporate profit. The

Australian Council for Overseas Aid (ACFOA) has released a report

alleging that vehicles and offices of the U.S. mining giant,

Freeport McMoRan, were used by the Indonesian military to

transport and torture tribal leaders, whom they accused of

fomenting a rebellion against Indonesia. WALHI, an Indonesian

environmental group, is also protesting the tremendous

environmental damage occurring at the mine site. Freeport has

been listed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for

emitting the largest amount of toxic chemicals of any industry.

g.b.

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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:

/* Written 3:59 PM Dec 19, 1995 by pchatterjee in

igc:rainfor.genera */

/* ---------- "formatted version of freeport-acfoa" ---------- */

From: Pratap Chatterjee <pchatterjee@igc.apc.org>

Subject: formatted version of freeport-acfoa two report news

article

HUMAN RIGHTS-INDONESIA: US mining giant implicated in Indonesian

atrocities

By Pratap Chatterjee

WASHINGTON, Sep 5 (IPS) - Gold and copper mined by a US

multinational from the island of New Guinea in the South Pacific

is tainted with the blood of the indigenous Amungme peoples, many

of whom have been tortured or murdered, says a new report.

The western half of the island, which was renamed Irian Jaya after

it was invaded by Indonesia in 1967, is the site of the world's

largest gold mine and the third largest copper mine, operated by

Freeport McMoRan, a New Orleans-based company.

Last week the Australian Council for Overseas Aid (ACFOA) released

a report compiled by H.F.M. Munninghof, the Catholic bishop of

Jayapura in Irian Jaya, alleging that Freeport vehicles and

offices were used by the Indonesian military to transport and

torture tribal leaders, whom they accused of fomenting a rebellion

against Indonesia.

This is the second report issued by ACFOA on Freeport this year.

The first report, issued in April, alleges that the army opened

fire on a group of Amungme people who were on their way to church

last Christmas day. The new report contains more evidence of the

events of the time as well as fresh allegations of killings this

May.

Freeport officials in this country say that none of their

officials were involved in the incident. They refused to comment

on the allegations of torture by the Indonesian military.

"Freeport operates under its host goverment laws and respects

the jurisdiction of the military, which is responsible for the

safety and security of its people," a Freeport official said

in a statement faxed to IPS.

The area around the Freeport mine have been heavily policed by

the Indonesian military and the company security forces ever

since a Freeport copper slurry pipe was blown up in 1977 by a

group called Organasi Papua Merdeka (Papuan Independence

Movement).

The Indonesian military allegedly retaliated by killing several

thousand local people at the time to squash the resistance

movement. Last year, however, the rebels renewed their protests

in response to news that Freeport had signed an agreement to

expand its search for gold and copper on the island.

On Christmas day last year people from three churches in the

villages of Arwanop, Banti and Waa gathered in Waa village, to

pray, after a major peaceful demonstration protesting the mine.

Yunus Omabak, a Amungme tribal chief from Waa, says he was

summoned to a military post in Tembagapura, a major town in the

area, the following day, together with three other elders from

his tribe, to report on the religous service.

Omabak says he was put in a Freeport vehicle and taken to a

Freeport "security cell." There the soldiers accused them of

raising the OPM flag at the Christmas day protest and supplying

the rebels with rice and cigarettes before torturing them.

"(T)hey hit me over the head with a big stone till blood streamed

over my body. They put an iron bar in the hollow of my knees and

forced me to squat and lean against a chest for hours. I was

screaming in pain," he said in a statement translated by ACFOA.

"Meanwhile my friend Octo was stabbed with a bayonet in his left

shoulder and arm pit till he screamed out loudly. His hands were

put on the cement and stamped on with boots and hit with gun

butts. I thought he was dead," added Omabak.

The four elders were tortured for two weeks before being released

on Jan. 10. The night before the tribal leaders were arrested a

group of 15 Dani tribespeople, some of whom were from Waa village,

were taken on a Freeport bus number 44 and tortured.

"When we were detained there three Dani from Waa were tortured

by being beaten with sticks on the neck from behind, left, right

and from the front, till their necks were broken and they

died," says one of the detainees who was released. The name of the

detainee is not indentified in the report.

"I walked home, and on the road I fell unconscious. When I came

to, I was covered with flies which were attracted to my wounds and

blood. I recovered and walked further till I fell again and became

unconscious," says the detainee.

The torture and murder of indigenous villagers is allegedly still

continuing. The ACFOA report says that on May 31 this year, the

police surrounded a group of people praying in the forest after

they had fled from the village of Hoea after confrontations

between OPM and the army.

"(W)ithout warning (the military) started shooting at the

congregation while they prayed. The Rev. Martinus Kibak raised

his hands to surrender, but Sergeant Marjaka did not care. He

ordered the soldier closest to him, soldier second class Titus

Kobogou, to shoot the minister," an eyewitness recounted.

"The bullet wounded the minister in the left part of his abdomen,

and he died instantly. At the same time the patrol fired shots at

the people (among them children)who were praying, killing 10

others," added the eyewitness.

The Indonesian government has responded to the two ACFOA reports

by sending a team from the National Commission on Human Rights to

the site to investigate.

The commission, which was not taken seriously when the government

set it up recently, was widely praised recently for a report

published earlier this year that implicated the Indonesian

military in several assassinations in East Timor.

Clementino dos Reis Amaral, a member of the commission, has

already told the Indonesian press that he was convinced that the

statements in the ACFOA were true but he said that nobody has

confirmed the involvement of Freeport security.

Indonesian sources say that the local people believe there is

little difference between the military and Freeport security.

"The heavy military presence in and around Tembagapura is for the

purpose of guarding Freeport operations. For local people there is

little difference between Freeport security and the military,"

says the source.

Others point out that Freeport is also guilty of destroying vast

areas of the local environment. "The dumping of tailings (mining

waste) into the river has caused flooding, re-routing of the

rivers, destruction of the sago forests and indigenous hunting

grounds," charges Emmy Hafield of WALHI, an Indonesian

environmental group in Jakarta.

WLAHI recently sued the government alleging that it had failed to

follow national environmental laws when it issued mining permits

to Freeport.

In this country, Freeport has been listed by the U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency, for emitting the largest

amount of toxic chemicals of any industry.(ENDS/IPS/PC/95)

### RELAYED TEXT ENDS HERE ###

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