Amdal on Freeport examined

MAKASSAR, South Sulawesi (JP): State Minister of Environment Sonny Keraf said his office would audit, and perhaps redo, the environmental impact analysis (Amdal) of copper and gold mining company PT Freeport Indonesia as the analysis report contained several irregularities.

"Based on queries by an auditing team of the Environmental Impact Management Agency (Bapedal) from the ministry's office, we found several irregularities in their environmental impact analysis," Sonny told journalists here on Saturday.

"Thus there needs to be further examination of this matter," he said.

The minister said verbal and written answers given by the company's management had proven insufficient to explain the irregularities.

The minister did not elaborate on the alleged irregularities in the report but remarked that they included inconsistencies in reports on the company's environmental management and environmental work plan.

He further remarked that there was a lack of a sufficient tailing disposal system.

"It is these things which must be clarified. That's why we judge it necessary to repeat an environmental audit," Sonny said.

Environmental groups have long blasted the alleged environmental degradation caused by the company's operations in Irian Jaya.

Questions have also openly been raised about the validity of the environmental audit results of American auditor Montgomery Watson, which lauded Freeport's environmental protection as exemplary.

Two commissions at the House of Representatives earlier this month also recommended a review of the contract of work held by PT Freeport.

Commission I for foreign and political affairs and Commission II for home and legal affairs argued that the government received too small a share of the revenue from the company's operation and that the deal violated investment regulations and the 1945 Constitution.

After visiting Freeport's operations in Grasberg, Irian Jaya, several legislators also alleged that the company had contributed to socioeconomic injustice, rampant human rights abuse and political tension despite claims by the company that it had allocated 1 percent of its profit to fund development programs in the surrounding community.

PT Freeport Indonesia is 81.28 percent owned by U.S. mining company Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold with the Indonesia government and PT Indocopper Investama Corporation each holding 9.36 percent in the company.

Indocopper is 50.48 percent owned by Nusamba Mineral Industries, which is linked to former president Soeharto. Freeport McMoran holds a 49 percent stake in Indocopper and the investing public holds 0.52 percent.

Sonny said the number of complaints from the public on the impact of Freeport's operations had prompt the audit review, and that a preliminary review had already indicated that many issues need to be clarified.

Sonny further remarked that environmental considerations in the future should be a primary condition when issuing licenses for companies to operate.

"We can say that development will proceed at about 6 percent, but if that achievement is calculated with the damage we encounter from environmental degradation then that number would definitely drop," he said.

"Maybe to about 3 percent."

"That's why I always say that there's no use borrowing money from abroad to help us develop, if the results we eventually achieve will only be used to remedy the environmental damage we reap," he remarked.(27)