Buyat suspects released, put under city arrest

Buyat suspects released, put under city arrest

Muninggar Sri Saraswati and Sari P. Setiogi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Police suddenly released the five suspects in the Buyat case on
Saturday after PT Newmont Minahasa Raya (NMR) embarked on a media
campaign to secure their freedom.

The director of the National Police's special crimes division,
Brig. Gen. Suharto, said the five Newmont officers -- American
Bill Long, Australian Phil Turner and three Indonesians, David
Sompie, Jerry Kojansow and Putra Jayatri -- had now been placed
under city arrest and were required to report to the police
periodically.

The decision came after Newmont embarked on week-long media
campaign that culminated in the publication of an
open letter to National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bahctiar in a
number of national newspapers.

"We are writing to you to request your mercy to release our
friends from police detention. We and our families guarantee that
they will continue to cooperate with (the) investigation as they
have demonstrated to date," said the letter signed by, among
other people, representatives of NMR's trade union.

The police have accused Newmont of contaminating Buyat bay in
Minahasa, North Sulawesi, where the mining company disposed of
its tailings, and named six senior Newmont officers as suspects,
including NMR President Director Richard B. Ness, an American.

The five were detained immediately after they were named
suspects almost four weeks ago, while Ness was released for
health reasons.

Up to Saturday, Newmont's lawyers had been trying in vain to
secure their release, with police investigators insisting that
they would remain in detention pending the acceptance of their
case files by the North Sulawesi prosecutor's office.

The prosecutor's office rejected the files last week and asked
investigators to complete them as soon as possible.

Suharto said on Saturday that the decision to release the five
was based on the fact that the files had now been completed.

"The other reason was requests from their families, the North
Sulawesi governor and the head of the mining and energy
department's legal affairs section," Suharto told reporters after
a meeting with the suspects' lawyers.

One of the lawyers, Palmer Situmorang, welcomed the release of
the detainees.

"Under city arrest, they must report to the police in North
Sulawesi," Palmer said.

Investigations into the alleged contamination of Buyat bay
have yielded different conclusions. Laboratory tests sponsored by
Newmont and the Office of the State Minister of the Environment
concluded that the bay was not contaminated. Meanwhile,
laboratory tests by police investigators and the School of
Mathematics and Natural Sciences at the University of Indonesia
suggested that the bay was contaminated by mercury and arsenic.

A joint team including government officials, police
investigators and environmental activists, has yet to release the
results of their investigation.

Meanwhile, Hinca Panjaitan, a member of the Press Council,
criticized media outlets that published Newmont's ads without
inserting the word "advertorial" above them.

"It's completely misleading and unethical, particularly when
the case is still under investigation. One of the ads is said to
be an open letter. Media outlets should have put it in the
letters section instead of on a separate full page," he said.

Hinca also said that advertorials should not quote other
sources, particularly illegitimate ones, in an effort to sway
public opinion.