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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

Lawsuit Against Freeport Mine in Indonesia Begins

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Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises

5/27/96

OVERVIER & SOURCE by EE

Pratap Chatterjee reports in the West Papua list server on the beginning of

legal action against US owned Freeport mine in Indonesia. Note this is a

draft article.

g.b.

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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:

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

Subject: draft version of story on tom beanal in new orleans

ENVIRONMENT: Lawsuit against world's largest gold mine begins

By Pratap Chatterjee

NEW ORLEANS, May 27 (IPS) - Freeport McMoRan, operators of the world's

largest gold mine and third largest copper mine, have asked courts in this

city to dismiss a six billion dollar lawsuit against the company, on the

grounds that the lawyers failed to get proper permission to file the suit.

The mine, which is situated in the western half of the island of New Guinea

in the South Pacific, generates revenues of 1.5 billion dollars a year for

the New Orleans company. The mining process results in the dumping of some

120,000 tonnes of toxic waste into local rivers every single day.

Indonesian troops who guard the mine and the surrounding area have been

accused of numerous human rights violations including a number of

massacres, several of which have been confirmed by government human rights

organisations and courts.

Testifying against Freeport was Tom Beanal, an Amungme indigenous leader

from the island, who filed the lawsuit last month. Beanal flew here on

Wednesday night to spend two weeks in the country defending his case.

"They have taken away our tradition and our culture. We have become

alienated in our own land. During the 30 years (of mining) we are trying to

find justice but we never find one. I come here to ask for justice," he

told some 60 students and activists at the Loyola university campus on

Thursday night.

On Friday morning Beanal appeared in a federal court in downtown New

Orleans with Martin Regan, a local lawyer, before Stanwood Duval, the judge

assigned to hear the case.

But the four hour trial turned into an acrimonous dicussion over whether or

not Regan had informed his client of the text of the lawsuit in advance.

John Reynolds, the lawyer for Freeport, argued that Regan had failed to do

his homework properly.

Walking often to a specially enlarged calendar to demonstrate the sequence

of events, Reynolds repeatedly hammered home the point that Regan had only

met his Beanal once, months before filing the lawsuit, and that the text of

the complaint itself was only shown to the client well after the suit was

filed in the court on Apr. 29.

Regan, who even took the witness stand in his own defence, appeared

defensive and vague about several details about his communications with

Beanal. He was also unable to remember the full name of Abdul Hakim

Nusantara, a human rights lawyer whom he said was helping him on the case

in Jakarta.

Reynolds pointed out that Regan had filed the lawsuit on Apr. 29, the day

before Freeport's annual shareholders meeting and then issued a press

release congratulating Beanal on his courageous lawsuit, despite the fact

that the client had not seen the complaint.

"The purpose was to get the matter before the press and generate

publicity, your honour," Reynolds told Duval.

But Regan insisted that the timing of the lawsuit was based on the fact

that Beanal was angry about Freeport's full page newspaper advertisements

in New Orleans about a proposed settlement with local indigenous peoples

over compensation for environmental damage.

According to Regan, Beanal said that the advertisements, which were

published a week before the shareholder meeting, were misleading. Regan

urged Duval to consider the case on the gravity of the charges.

"We are not talking about a hit-and-run or a fender-bender (slight damage

to a car), we are talking about death and torture," said Regan, who pointed

out that Baenal was still willing to proceed with the case.

Freeport's lawyers also highlighted a letter dated May 1 in which Baenal

cancelled Regan's authority to work on his behalf. Regan insisted that his

client had signed the letter without reading its contents noting that

Beanal wrote and signed another letter the following day withdrawing the

first letter.

"Allowing this case would set a precedent for lawyers to file lawsuits

without the knowledge or understanding of the client and then go out and

trumpet it to the public," argued Reynolds. He asked the judge to dismiss

the case "without prejudice" which would allow Beanal to refile the case at

a later date "with proper counsel."

Testimony taken from Beanal in Indonesia two weeks ago also shows that

Beanal appears confused by his lawyer as well as the legal process.

"Please, please tell him everything he needs to know so that he does not

feel like he is being treated as a child. That hurts his feelings. He is

not a child," an interpreter told Regan on Beanal's behalf.

But at the end of Friday's hearing Beanal took the witness stand to tell

the court that he was willing to allow Regan to proceed with the case

although he admitted that he had expected Regan to show him the text of the

lawsuit before filing it.

Beanal also reiterated his belief that the case should go forward in New

Orleans. "I think it is appropriate to proceed here because Freeport is an

American company. I am not afraid to defend the truth in court but in my

country truth is something to be struggled with," he said.

When Duval asked the two sides to return to the courts on Friday, 31 May,

to continue with the hearing, Regan took his client to a waiting Rolls-

Royce and ushered him back to his offices to meet the press.

Regan defended his authority to press forward with the case alone. "Other

lawyers have offered to help me and I would like to work with them but

Martin Regan must be in charge of the case," he told IPS.

Beanal, who remained quiet while Regan was talking, left the room halfway

through the press conference. Later he told IPS that he was finding the

lawsuit a little difficult because Regan had not provided proper

interpreters for him.

(ENDS/IPS/PC/96)

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