Amungme chief says treat my people right
JAKARTA (JP): An Irianese tribal leader called yesterday for better treatment of indigenous people around PT Freeport Indonesia's gold and copper mine.
Tom Beanal, chief of the Amungme tribe, said that Irianese locals wanted to be treated "like human beings" so that there wouldn't be anymore conflict.
"Actually, we don't want to fight. We only want them to treat us as individuals... as human beings, said the former legislator while launching his book titled Amungme: Magaboarat Negel Jombei- Peibei (Amungme: The Culture of the Owners of the Cloud-covered Mountain Top). The book is written in Bahasa Indonesia and English.
PT Freeport is 81 percent owned by the New Orleans-based mining giant Freeport McMoran Copper and Gold Inc. The Indonesian government and a local private company, PT Nusamba, own 9 percent each.
Beanal has accused PT Freeport Indonesia of causing local environmental and cultural destruction. He lost the first part of a legal battle against Freeport when a U.S. district court rejected his US$6 billion lawsuit last April.
The court dismissed the case on the grounds that no definitive international environment law could apply to a private corporation.
PT Freeport claims to have provided basic facilities to local tribes. It is also committed to setting aside 1 percent of its net profit to the tribes.
Beanal told The Jakarta Post that he had not lost hope and would continue to sue Freeport in the U.S. for human rights violations against the Amungme people.
But Beanal said that winning or losing in court was not the central issue.
"What we want mostly is recognition from Freeport of our existence as a tribe and a culture," he said.
Last February, the directorate general of taxation announced that Freeport had been the biggest taxpayer in Indonesia in 1995, rising from No. 53 in 1994.
Freeport chief executive officer Jim Bob Moffet said earlier this year that his company had been thrusting a spear of economic development into the heartland of Irian, about 3,000 kilometers east of Jakarta.
In a discussion on the book, Beanal explained his tribe's philosophy on land.
"We consider that land is an integral part of our life. Destroying nature amounts to destroying ourselves," he said.
Freeport's concession of the world's largest known gold and copper reserves is in the north-central part of the Amungme's land.
"We do not object to the extraction of natural resources. But please respect our culture," said Beanal, who had supported the mine when it opened in 1972.
The discussion, held by the Indonesian Environmental Forum, also featured anthropologist Iwan Tjitradjaja.
He said the government often ignored warnings that indigenous people should not be marginalized by development.
"Too many interest groups, including the government, are bringing change and ignoring the impact of development on the tribes out there," said the University of Indonesia lecturer.
Another speaker, researcher Oktavianus Motte, said the Amungme tribe was threatened because they could not adapt to the new values introduced by foreigners.
"Now, their youths do not understand their ancestors' rites and values. And Freeport is just not concerned by it." (35)